OpenDNS – Secure, free, public DNS server

Posted on June 2, 2008 at 5:11 am

Looking for a free DNS server to speed up your Internet browsing? If you check your own IP address configuration, you will find out the IP address of your current DNS server. A DNS server is used to resolve a website address (URL) to an IP address, the only format that a computer could understand.

If your computer takes too long to open a website, one possible reason could be an unreliable DNS server. If the DNS server that you use is unavailable, you will not be able to access any website. Thankfully, you can always opt to use an alternative, much more reliable DNS server. A good example of a secure, reliable and free DNS server that you can use is OpenDNS .

OpenDNS is a free DNS server that you can use for your computer, your home network or your organization. It provides a reliable name resolving service and adds extra security to your computer. To enjoy this powerful DNS service, you just need to change your current DNS settings to one or two OpenDNS IP Address – 208.67.222.222 or/and 208.67.220.220 . You can enjoy the whole, power packed services with no extra software or hardware, without even paying a dime.

setup-opendns-on-home-computer

OpenDNS Features

Ultra reliable network – OpenDNS servers are distributed strategically all over the world to provide the most reliable and fast services to its subscribers. OpenDNS bravely claims zero downtime to those who use their DNS service!
Large and intelligent DNS caches speeds up your DNS queries and round trips. That means your computer will be able to search and open a website much faster.
Content Filtering – you can optionally block 30 categories of websites ranging from anonymous proxies, dating sites, social networking websites, etc. from the DNS level. Most useful for system administrators.

opendns-category-website-blocker

Domain Whitelisting – if you choose to block a category from the above, there may be one or two websites that you want to allow. This is where you should do it.
Phishtank Phishing Protection – OpenDNS automatically blocks you and your families from scam websites that tries to cheat you for private account usernames and passwords.
Adult Site Blocking – useful for parents to protect children and teachers to protect students from the dark site of the Net. OpenDNS has teamed up with St. Bernard Software to block about 4 million adult sites.
Domain Blocking – list out any domain or subdomain (e.g. block mail.yahoo.com instead of yahoo.com) to block depending on your needs. It is all up to you.

opendns-category-website-blocker1

OpenDNS Guide shows a proper error / suggestion page in case users failed to open/search for a website. You can customize these pages with your own/organization logo too!

opendns-custom-error-pages

Typo correction – e.g. If you mistyped google.com as google.cmo, OpenDNS intelligently takes you to the right Google search page.
Shortcuts – this feature can save a lot of typing time. Instead of typing online-tech-tips.com, you can opt to type only ott as a quick shortcut!

create-a-website-shortcut

Statistics – you can choose to track your web traffic with this tool. Alternatively, use this tool to proactively filter domains that you want to block or allow.
Free Technical Support – you get to use this free DNS service with no strings attached plus free technical support by email, IM, or phone. How cool is that?

You can start using OpenDNS straight away for free but some of the features like statistics and adult site blocking can only be activated with a free email registration. To enjoy a much safer, faster, secure and reliable Internet browsing, I definitely recommend that you use OpenDNS free DNS server today!

This is a guest post by Syahid A. from TechMalaya

Tags: dns, opendns, free dns server, free dns service, dns server

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Comments

25 Responses to “OpenDNS – Secure, free, public DNS server”

abhsihek said on : June 2nd, 2008 at 10:50 am

Good post buddy…i have been using open dns for so long…but i got know so much through this post only..thanks

Madhur Kapoor said on : June 2nd, 2008 at 1:11 pm

I used OpenDNS when my ISP was BSNL . It is very reliable

kyanh said on : June 2nd, 2008 at 9:33 pm

I very like and often use OpenDNS. But it makes some computers disconnect from internet — these computers use dynamic ip . So i switch back to use ISP dns.

Anyway I still use opendns for my static ip computers.

Syahid A. said on : June 2nd, 2008 at 10:21 pm

kyanh: I suggest that you use the DynDNS Updater software.

kyanh said on : June 2nd, 2008 at 10:30 pm

For what should I use that software?

Let me explain the problem: I set openDNS as primary DNS in my router/ADSL modem. Then any clients in my network would use OpenDNS when she requests for dynamic IP. Ok, she did. But then she could only connect to other computer in LAN:

$ ping 192.168.1.1 # ok
$ ping google.com # failed
$ ping 203.68.220.220 # failed again

I amnot an master in network manager. But i think i ddidn’t miss anything when setting up my modem; when I replaced openDNS by my ISP’s DNS, everything just worked

So what ’s wrong with OpenDNS?

Syahid A. said on : June 3rd, 2008 at 8:19 am

kyan: wow, your problem looks a bit advanced to me. i am just using OpenDNS for a single PC + updated because my router does not allow me to change its DNS settings. I recommend that you contact those OpenDNS experts directly. They offer free technical support too!

kyanh said on : June 3rd, 2008 at 8:25 am

Thank you

Abhi said on : June 5th, 2008 at 12:09 pm

Kyanh: So, when u try to ping the openDNS ip.. it fails. hmm…

> when u set up ur router for opendns.. (and u cannot ping their servers thereafter)… at that time, can u ping your ISPs’ servers?
The reason I ask that is that DNS server entry modification has got nothing to do with IP connectivity… which, of course, is a prerequisite to configuring DNS in the first place.

> Can you repeat this scenario multiple times? or was this a one-off incident.

Frankly, if u try it again and it works, i’d say the problem you encountered earlier was transient issue… maybe ur dsl router didnt negociate a WAN IP via pppoe… and after you un-did the changes and saved… pppoe came back up.

hasan said on : June 8th, 2008 at 1:01 pm

203.68.220.220
try:-
208.67.220.220
208.67.222.222

Abhi said on : June 8th, 2008 at 3:49 pm

Hasan: ) Good catch.

Kyanh: It seems you were using the incorrect IP in the DNS settings of your router, which, ostensibly doesn’t host a DNS server. 203.68.220.220… thats some server running in Taiwan (must220.must.edu.tw) which is alive as I check it right now but is configured not to respond to icmp (ping) echos.
So, in that configuration, if you would have typed the IP of any website in the web browser, it would most likely have opened the page.

kyanh said on : June 8th, 2008 at 7:26 pm

Let me try it again. Please wait for the result

Thank you very much! (Abhi, Syahid et al.)

ramon said on : June 20th, 2008 at 2:35 pm

umm. even if you have the wrong DNS ip address, the ping should work for any valid ip address. DNS is for naming.

kyanh said on : June 20th, 2008 at 7:30 pm

Hello all,

I tried again. And now it worked. So all my LAN computers use OpenDNS. There are still some minor problems:

- OpenDNS is sometime down: when visiting some pages in Vietnam, I sometimes lost connection and will be redirected to OpenDNS search page. The following path seems too long:

my query (in Vietnam) => openDNS => response to Vietnam

- I tried to use script to update my Dynamic IP . This script is executed as daemon in Linux system. But the script seems doesn’t work:) I copied script somewhere in OpenDNS help page. Okay, the one of the best behavior of OpenDNS is that it allows me to update dynamic IP, and it helps me to track all local connections

If you experience this script, please show me the one

Thank you all of you!

DarkReaper said on : July 16th, 2008 at 3:17 pm

Guys…I have a prob with Using OpenDNS…see…when I change my DNS server addresses…and press ok,it says I have to Re-connect to apply the changes…but when I do Reconnect,the DNS server addresses go back to the ISP’s old ones………….HELP!!!!

Moyra J. Bligh said on : August 9th, 2008 at 8:14 pm

When it can’t find the dns for the domain it redirects you to an useless Yahoo! search page. I find this unacceptable and offensive. I do not want to be redirected anywhere if the site does not exist, too much potential for fraud. I just want the error message that a browser would normally give, I find that much more useful and informative.

Until and unless they change this insecure and offensive practice, I will *NEVER* use this service.

kyanh said on : August 10th, 2008 at 11:54 am

I think that you can change this settings

Kalme Ismael said on : January 9th, 2009 at 4:00 pm

OpenDNS was good until the Yahoo buy up. After that, OpenDNS has become (oddly? not.) haphazard at best for googlites (homepage=google, gmail, gdocs, etc.), unless you want to sign up for the “free” OpenDNS services. Blocking? Via your DNS? Please, anyone with the most limited research ability can spend 5 mins in an internet search to learn how to bypass.
OpenDNS is intentionally interfering or blocking Google access. This is “why” the Yahoo redirect for failed searches. Go ahead, use your favoured search engine and look it up yourself. Oh, unless that’s Yahoo. =\

Dan said on : May 9th, 2009 at 2:52 pm

I use OpenDNS myself, but I also use FreeNameServers.co.uk as a DNS backup service for my websites.

It’s free to use.

WatchYourSteps said on : May 14th, 2009 at 2:58 am

Be careful with that OpenDNS.

This is what happens with a regular DNS:
# nslookup
> server 4.2.2.2
Default server: 4.2.2.2
Address: 4.2.2.2#53
> http://www.google.com
Server: 4.2.2.2
Address: 4.2.2.2#53

Non-authoritative answer:
http://www.google.com canonical name = http://www.l.google.com.
Name: http://www.l.google.com
Address: 72.14.221.104
Name: http://www.l.google.com
Address: 72.14.221.99
Name: http://www.l.google.com
Address: 72.14.221.103

And this with OpenDNS
# nslookup
> server 208.67.222.222
Default server: 208.67.222.222
Address: 208.67.222.222#53
> http://www.google.com
Server: 208.67.222.222
Address: 208.67.222.222#53

Non-authoritative answer:
http://www.google.com canonical name = google.navigation.opendns.com.
Name: google.navigation.opendns.com
Address: 208.69.34.230
Name: google.navigation.opendns.com
Address: 208.69.34.231

You are not searching in Google, but in some suspicious-looking man-in-the-middle!!! I would be very careful with those “free” services.

opensat said on : July 1st, 2009 at 5:38 am

I had some DNS problems and using this post helped me to fix it. Thank you author, thank you OpenDNS

I recommend it

cyperrotte said on : November 19th, 2009 at 7:01 am

Nothing works for me. The DNS servers are not working for me or are out of date. They have worked before, but not anymore! Help?

harjeet said on : December 1st, 2009 at 12:54 am

Hi friends, I am using Windows 7 and when I connect to the web, it does not connect correctly and when I try to detect the problem, it shows DNS server not responding.

I tried all those DNS addresses like 208.67.222.222, 208.67.220.220 but they do not work. IP address is 192.168.1.3, subnet mask is 255.255.255.0, default gateway is 192.168.1.1.

When I check automatically detect DNS server, then it shows 192.168.1.1 but the result comes same…no Internet. I don’t have much knowledge regarding these issues, but i tried everything I could. Help!

Jules said on : December 12th, 2009 at 2:42 am

I now prefer to use Google Public DNS instead of OpenDNS. It’s faster in my part of the country! If you have an ISP like Verizon FIOS, your DNS is probably faster than OpenDNS and Google DNS.

Moss said on : December 20th, 2009 at 7:21 am

Servers are very slow in my country about 47 ms. My local ip provider ping is about 20 ms.

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