OpenDNS friend or enemy?
OpenDNS is a new start up that is designed to prevent network outages by providing an alternate redirect web traffic through its own DNS nameservers, where an unusually large cache and an aggregated list of sites deemed guilty of phishing will make our web surfing faster and safer.
Although this service is free a number of serious concerns about the service have already been raised. The first concern is that the revenue model is advertising on search pages offered when a misspelling or otherwise unrecognizable URL is entered by users (remember site finder anyone?). When a wrong URL is entered it will display and error page with relevant results, but also with ads on it (as illustrated above).
Other privacy concerns have been raised since the DNS servers are held by one central company, and with their ability to incorrectly label a site as a phishing site. Also with a site serving up cached data, there is the possible for domains to incorrectly resolve.
As said before the service is free, and substantially faster then your ISP’s DNS servers. All you need to do is put the following name server addresses in your TCP/IP settings: 208.67.222.222, 208.67.220.220. Thats it. However for privacy I use the name sever 4.2.2.1 and 4.2.2.2. They are easy to remember, and maintained by a top tier provider.
