OpenDNS friend or enemy?
This post was published 3 years 3 months 17 days ago and its content may not be valid anymore.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.
I’m using it. Faster load times is reason enough for me to use this rather than relying on Comcasts DNS. Concerning the page ads that users see when an incorrect URL is entered, I would rather see the OpenDNS page instead of one of those cheesy placeholder pages littered with travel and pharmaceutical links.
People make such a huge deal about the wrong URL page when they shouldn’t. I personally rely mainly on bookmarks, and the most errors I make when typing in a URL is transposing letters in the top-level domain (typing .cmo, .rog, etc), and OpenDNS automagically corrects it for you!
This is amazing! My loading times are off the chart!
Dan,
Thanks for taking a look at OpenDNS. Let me respond to a few of your comments and questions.
OpenDNS respects TTL (time to live) completely. Our cache is unusually large, but it does _not_ cache anything longer than the domain owner sets.
I posted yesterday about our phishing process. Should answer your questions:
http://blog.opendns.com/2006/07/24/opendns-phishing-sites/
W/R/T privacy… read our privacy policy at http://www.opendns.com/privacy . I’m not sure why you trust a “top tier provider” more than OpenDNS. Do you know the folks at the provider? http://www.opendns.com/who gives you our background and history; decide for yourself.
You choose OpenDNS… if you find a reason to leave, there is nothing to stop you. If you just want speedy reliable DNS, without the typo correction and phishing protection, go to http://www.opendns.com/prefs and make your choices.
We’re very clear about how we make money… it’s in our FAQ, too. We are creating a vibrant business by making the Internet work better.
Glad your commenters have found OpenDNS to be a worthwhile choice. I hope you will, too.
Cheers,
John Roberts
OpenDNS
Now that’s costumer service! :)
thanks for the tip!