Keeping your family safe online can be a hard. There are some great tools out there, but you need one that is easy to use and cost effective
A great solution is OpenDNS. I have been using OpenDNS in my home for the last 2 years. It is easy to set up and works on your whole network and best of all it is free. OpenDNS has Award-winning OpenDNS Parental Controls that divides the Internet’s content into more than 50 categories. Simply choose your desired filtering level, from “High” to “Minimal,” and check a box. Your filtering preferences take effect in just minutes. Further customize your preferences by adding additional categories like “Social Networking,” “Hate” and “Gambling,” or individual Web sites like MySpace.com that are problematic or unsafe for your household. Also since using OpenDNS my computers have been virtual free of spyware!
What is DNS?
Networked computers use IP addresses to locate and connect to each other, but IP addresses can be difficult for people to remember. For example, on the web, it’s much easier to remember the domain name www.amazon.com than it is to remember its corresponding IP address (207.171.166.48). DNS allows you to connect to another networked computer or remote service by using its user-friendly domain name rather than its numerical IP address. Conversely, Reverse DNS (rDNS) translates an IP address into a domain name.
Open DNS Features:
Keeping your family safe online has never been easier. OpenDNS gives you more than 50 filtering categories to choose from. Simply check the boxes of the categories you want to block and watch your filtering take effect within minutes.
Faster, More Reliable Internet
Rid your household of annoying, intermittent Internet outages. Switch to OpenDNS and immediately notice a faster, more reliable Internet experience. Join the millions who’ve already unbundled their DNS service from their ISP’s Internet connection.
Phishing Protection and Security
Take the guesswork out of identifying phishing Web sites with OpenDNS’s industry-leading anti-phishing service. We’ll tell you when the site you’re trying to visit is fraudulent.
OpenDNS Guide
Search results get you back on track when you mistype a URL or try to visit a site that’s down. Our smart “did you mean?” spelling suggestions help point you in the right direction, instead of showing you a hard-to-understand error page.
Shortcuts
Map short and easy-to-remember terms to your favorite Web sites with OpenDNS Shortcuts. Set up personal Shortcuts that work just for you, or Network Shortcuts that work for everyone in your household.
Customization
Add your favorite image and a custom message to the OpenDNS Guide and blocked pages to personalize the feel of OpenDNS for your household. Use different messages for different pages.
Remember I said it was easy to set up? Here are the directions in a few Quick Steps:
- Create a free account, and confirm the email address.
- Go to the Settings tab.
- Add a network using your current IP address (displayed on the page).
- Click your new networks’s IP address to access its settings.
- Click “Advanced Settings” on the left.
- Check the box to “Enable dynamic IP update.” Be sure to apply your settings at the bottom of the page.
- Learn how to keep your address updated. If you don’t keep the IP updated, your preferences will not be applied, and your statistics will not be collected — though you will still be using OpenDNS
Here is the free software to keep you IP address updated.
Take a look at the easy how to videos from Open DNS
How to videos http://www.opendns.com/support/videos
Hope this helps to keep your family safe and virus free.
Enjoy,
