After AT&T broadband suffered a widespread outage the other night, it was quite by accident I stumbled across a free service called OpenDNS. If I had known about it sooner, I’d never have lost my internet connection, as the outage was a result of errors on AT&T’s DNS servers.
Using OpenDNS is as simple as changing the DNS settings on your router or computer, which normally takes less than a minute. They claim that internet pages will load faster and your overall web experience will improve. It does seem that my pages load slightly faster, but I haven’t noticed a dramatic increase. I have noticed that my connection is more stable.
Although signing up isn’t required, it does give you access to powerful content filters. We have since implemented it at work and are blocking sex and phishing sites. Statistics on usage show which sites are accessed most frequently and gives the administrator easy-to-use tools for further controlling internet access. This could also be an invaluable service for a parent wishing to prevent their child from visiting sites like MySpace.
Get started by visiting their website or simply changing your DNS numbers to 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220.
8 Comments
Is it okay if I don’t understand this? I’ll let Tom read it and translate.
This is interesting. Does it matter which version of Windows you have? XP or Vista?
@ MBMQ: You crack me up!
@ freefrompt: Nope, your system doesn’t matter. If you have broadband, then your computer or your router already has DNS numbers manually or automatically assigned by your ISP. It’s just a matter of changing those numbers to point to OpenDNS.
Gotcha! Thanks Brian!!!
I don’t know what you’re talking about.
@ freefrompt: You’re welcome!
@ Wendy: That’s okay. Most people aren’t as geeky as I am.
Wow Bri, I didn’t know you could speak Greek, let alone type a whole post in it. LOL.
@ Alyson: It’s not Greek… it’s Geek.