opendns

There are lots of Internet filtering products on the market that enable parents to block certain types of websites such as pornography, hate sites, or sites that promote alcohol or drug use. Most of these products run on PCs or Macs by sitting between the operating system and the browser and checking any requested sites to make sure they're not blocked. The products generally do a good job blocking requests from protected PCs, but most don't work with game consoles, Wi-Fi-equipped iPhones or iPod Touches, or any other device that isn't running the software.

Netgear is about to ship routers designed to simplify the process by allowing parents to block content on any device using the home's wired or wireless network.… Read more

To avoid a trademark problem should we call it gnetbook, pnetbook or knetbook? Cooley thinks all the ideas are pretty. Google wants to mind your power for you, but if they treat that data like they do your posts on blogger you may find your dryer deleted without notice.

Sony INT-W250 WebTV High-Speed Linkup http://www.theonion.com/

You have until the end of the day to download Windows 7 http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10160285-56.html

Google PowerMeter http://www.google.org/powermeter/howitworks.html

Google deleting blog posts without warning http://www.laweekly.com/2009-02-05/music/google-39-s-new-killer-app-why-are-music-bloggers-39-posts-disappearing-and-who-is-deleting-them/all… Read more

Previously, I wrote about using a second router to provide additional protection to high-value computers--specifically, to protect computers used by adults from those used by children on a shared Local Area Network (LAN).

That article was mostly conceptual, this one covers the nitty-gritty technical details.

First, the good news. Adding a second router has no effect on the first router and no effect on the untrusted (kids) computers. Each is blissfully ignorant of the following changes.

In describing the steps, the existing/first router will be referred to as the kids router since the untrusted kids computers connect to it. … Read more

In response to the recent DNS problems on the Internet I had earlier suggested changing some network configuration parameters to use the free OpenDNS service.

As I did this myself for a number of machines that I maintain, the question arose of verifying the change. That is, how can someone, particularly a non-technical computer user, ensure that their computer is configured to use OpenDNS?

This is, it turns out, remarkably easy.

Go to www.opendns.com. At the top of the home page, just under the tabs, there will be a message whose content depends on whether the computer is … Read more

In my recent posting, What you need to know about the latest DNS flaw, I suggested using OpenDNS as a defense against the current DNS flaw. OpenDNS provides excellent step by step instructions for modifying the network settings on your computer to use their DNS services.

The only omission in their instructions is the need to make this change for every type of network connection. On a laptop computer, for example, you would need to modify both the network connection for wired Ethernet and also the Wi-Fi network connection. If you use dial-up, that too, needs to be modified.

Chose … Read more

If you've been hearing or reading about the latest DNS (Domain Name System) flaw, you may be confused about how to defend yourself. Think of this as a cheatsheet, it's what you need to know in the fewest words possible.

The flaw is mostly with software on a server computer run by your Internet Service Provider (ISP).* Some ISPs have patched the vulnerable DNS software on their computers, some have not. A recent list is available here. That said, Windows users also need to be sure they are up to date on patches as Microsoft released a recent DNS patch … Read more

What's a fairly dull service yet manages to pull in $20,000 each day by serving up ads? No, it's not Google, but it's one of those services that make me say, "Dang! I wish I would have thought of that!"

It's OpenDNS. It's a service that speeds up browsing while protecting its users from phishing and other malware sites.

Despite the name, no, OpenDNS is not open source. It's the kind of service, however, that doesn't rely on proprietary source. OpenDNS makes money by serving up ads. More pertinently to … Read more

Our daughter was rummaging through a box of memorabilia and found an evelope of photos taken in early 2001, about the time I'd purchased a cool new macro lens. One minute she was flipping through a series of cute puppy pictures and the next minute she's face to face with a set of full-frontal nude photographs depicting...a wolf spider. In fact, the spider was so exposed, the close-up so extreme, that Amy could not bring herself to even handle the photos so as to put them back into the envelope from which they came.

So when I … Read more

My previous posting was an introduction to both DNS and OpenDNS. Here, I offer a brief review of the features and services offered by OpenDNS.

First though, let's consider what happens when DNS breaks. As noted previously, the DNS system translates computer names into IP addresses. So if it breaks, it may seem that your Internet connection is broken when in fact, it's fully functional. That is, from your ISP's perspective everything can be working fine, all the lights on your modem and router* can be normal, but still, you can't get to any Web sites … Read more