A couple of days ago a Facebook friend posted “it’s is just as important what you have inside your heart as what you keep out of your heart”.  That is so true.

That is just the case with the internet.  There are so many good things online but keeping the bad stuff out can sometimes be a problem in both the home and office environment.

One tool that I started using (both home and at GoVaughn.com Insurance) in February of 2008 is OpenDNS.com. This cloud based computing services enables you to block certain websites by category or site name from being viewed on any of your network computers.

A while back one of our computers was hit with a bit of malware from Facebook (Koobface). With OpenDNS.com they block those known sites.  Several antivirus vendors recommend OpenDNS.com  to block sites.

I signed up for a account and haven’t looked back.

Here are some important points about OpenDNS.com that you should know:

• You can block sites by category (Social Networking, gambling, porn, hate/discrimination, adware and just plain tasteless sites).
• You can block specific sites that you encounter problems with or just don’t want others visiting (shopping sites).
• OpenDNS.org will block access to sites that are virus ridden.
• You can specify exceptions to the categories.
• You can get reports of sites that were blocked, but you can’t get specific info on who tried to access them.
• The ads only appear when there is a DNS error. They will suggest some similar sites to visit instead (often the site the user was trying to access but misspelled the URL). These suggested sites paid for placement there. That’s where they get their revenue.  OpenDNS.org does have a paid service now that is sans the advertisement.
• It works best if your network has a static IP but can be set up with some extra software if you don’t.
• If you don’t know what you are doing, you should consult with your network guru to make sure that you don’t mess up your internal network by adjusting DNS settings on your servers and PC’s.

This site is easy to use and maintain.  I have told several non-computer people about the service, and they are using with no problems.

Even if you don’t plan on using the filtering service (I highly recommend that you do) you can use OpenDNS.com to make your internet browsing faster. They claim that sites open faster using OpenDNS.com that your ISP’s DNS.  DNS stands for domain name server.  That is the server that turns a URL (words) into an IP address (numbers).

On my network you are not going to be able to go anywhere you shouldn’t be therefore, we are fulfilling the mission of keeping the bad stuff out.

For explicit information, please visit www.opendns.com.

How do you feel about keeping the BAD internet out of your life?

Was OpenDNS.com able to help?