A glance at OpenDNS
Posted on August 3, 2006
3 Comments
The OpenDNS product is an interesting one. By pointing to their DNS server(s), the theory is that they will protect users from phishing and speed up their web browsing. For free. As a fan of “free”, I thought I should have a look.
OpenDNS makes the Internet experience safer, faster and smarter for you and everyone using your network.
[...]
Benefits of OpenDNS service
- Safer
- Faster
- Smarter
- No software to install
- Free
Check out their “What We Do” page for more info and pretty pictures.
Configuration was dead simple, even with my weird multi-router network. And I have to say that things definitely seem a bit faster. Granted, I’ve been underwhelmed with Comcast’s DNS configuration in the past… I’m not sure I truly need the anti-phishing protection, but I can tolerate it. One of the reasons they claim they’re smarter is the autofixing of minor typos. For instance, if you type craigslist.rg (forgot the o in .org) it’ll get fixed on the fly. Considering my impressive dyslexic skills, I can learn to enjoy that little feature.
Which brings us to the revenue model: Ads on major typos. See the screenshot to the left. I entered a hopelessly mangled URL and got this OpenDNS page with the ads. Not the end of the world, really. But I wonder what there will be there in the future?
Interesting side note: The TechCrunch review (by one of the newer authors) panned it. Michael Arrington (the original TechCrunch guy) gave it a more positive review. The comments for both articles show an interesting mix of casual shrugs with paranoia.
Personally? I’ll probably leave it running for a while and see how things go. I like the faster web browsing.
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3 Responses to “A glance at OpenDNS”
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Chris,
Thanks for the kind words. You can turn off the anti-phishing protection if you want by clicking the preferences link on the top-right of any page on our site. Some folks just want a better and more reliable DNS and that’s okay too.
And yeah, Marshall from TechCrunch wrote a bad story, but I wouldn’t call it a review. From what Arrington told me, Marshall never even tried the service out and it was a total F’up due to time constraints and other things I could care less about. Most people who try it have been very happy with it and it’ll only get better over time.
I think the paranoid people just need to look at my background and see if it’s justified paranoia or not. The 100,000 or so DNS users at EveryDNS have trusted me for years, this will be the same.
-david
Chris, thanks for giving us a try. Especially glad to hear that switching was simple.
GIve a shout about what we can do better, too.
John Roberts
OpenDNS