Useful 2 Some - The Technology Blog

For the past few months instead of using my ISPs DNS servers I have been using an alternative DNS service called OpenDNS. OpenDNS is a free web based service that aims to improve the reliability, performance and functionality of the plain DNS service your ISP already provides.

To use OpenDNS you do not have to download and install any software it is just the simple case of inserting a couple of IP addresses into your router or to the network settings on your computer.

I went for the option of changing my routers DNS addresses as this would affect the whole network and not just one computer. To change the DNS settings on my Linksys WRT54GS, I logged into the router and on the main page there are two options and I inserted the OpenDNS IP addresses; shown below:



After I changed the addresses the OpenDNS service is as transparent as my ISPs servers. The principal advantages of OpenDNS come from the large distributed caches of domain names the service stores to improve speed, along with more intelligent systems for interpreting URLs in order to weed out typo errors and fend off phishing attacks. In addition to intelligence and performance improvements, OpenDNS also offers selective domain blocking, URL shortcuts and statistics.

The developers of OpenDNS claim it will increase your speed for name resolution, I did not notice a speed increase in my service and nor are average PC users going to notice anything, unless your ISP service is really unreliable.

People with dynamic IP addresses:
You will have to register for a free account and download a small program called OpenDNS Updater to keep your IP address updated.