The Cibertek Blog

For years I have been trying to figure out the best way to filter or block web sites so that my kids can’t either accidentally or purposefully browse to. Like a lot of families with Internet access with a single or multiple computers at home, I worry about what my teenage daughter can get exposed to while casually browsing the web or searching for something for a school project on Google. So for the past few months I have been using a free service called “OpenDNS” on my home network and I can finally feel that my family is safer now than ever before.

Like most modern families, my kids use the Internet on a regular basis on their own computers so I wanted to find a better way to filter out Porn and other offensive sites. Most of the time, they use the home network for homework, projects, or to read their school email. They most definitely use search engines and sometimes just browse to web sites they heard about or have a link to from an email. Intentionally going to a Porn site is one thing but it’s just too dam easy to accidentally open a link to something frankly a child should never be exposed to. As a result, a few years ago, Content Filtering, became somewhat of an obsession for me. I felt if I wouldn’t let my kids roam the streets at night downtown by themselves; why allow them to roam the Internet without protection? Of course, I knew how filter content on an enterprise level; with expensive, networked filtering appliances. But I couldn’t afford to spend thousands of dollars for a system like that for my house.

So over the past few years I researched and tested all kinds of filters, blockers, and proxies from several vendors promising to the job. Some cost money either up front or monthly but none of them worked well or required a lot of work to maintain “Black lists” and “Approved lists”. The worst part is almost all of them slowed down or even made some legitimate sites unreachable. For a while, I settled on the Parental Control feature that comes with Vista. But the problem was it blocked everything by default based on the age range of the user logged on. It wasn’t very particle but it was the best free system I could find. I was eventually forced to look for something else when it became almost unusable because of some Vista bug (Still could never find out what the real culprit was). That’s when I found OpenDNS on a Google search.

I knew of OpenDNS but only as a way to dynamically route web servers but I had no idea about their filtering services.  After reading everything I could about them, I started using the service last September.  The best part of this service is its absolutely FREE!  Here are some key features:

1.       It’s easy to setup, doesn’t need a client to download. Took me about 5 minutes to configure my network.

2.       Works on every computer on your network that you want filtering enabled.

3.       Helps you keep your family safe online by blocking categories of sites.

4.       Stops Phishing sites.

5.       Actually speeds up your Internet connection.

That last one is hard to explain but believe me, I have noticed a marked improvement in search speed and page loads.  Another nifty feature is if you reach a site that is blocked, it will tell you, somewhat, why.  If you need to get to the site, you can login to the online control panel and add the site manually and 3 minutes later, the site is open.

There are millions of people using the service and thousands of companies that have public and private access to the Internet that are using it as well.  Like I said before, its free.  I have no idea if that will last but I hope it never does but even if they did, I would pay for it.  If your family browses the Internet, in my view, it’s an absolute must.

To get started, click http://www.opendns.org

David Burt posted a good review and setup here.