What is DNS?
When you type an address like google.com in browser, the browser request DNS server to translate human-readable address (like google.com) to Computer readable IP address (like 209.85.153.104). IP address is the location of the webserver where website is hosted. When your computer knows its address then it request the website and open it in the browser.
DNS server always works behind the scene whenever you access a website. just imagine instead of google.com you have to remember its IP address 209.85.153.104. DNS server is the integral part of internet browsing and your ISP provides this service and setting is done in your computer or router by ISPs.
Why OpenDNS?
Since for every internet browsing DNS server is involved and if DNS server of your ISP is slow then it will increase website loading time even for high speed internet connection. OpenDNS is a free, simple and reliable solution to overcome this problem.
OpenDNS also have some great feature which makes it must for any network. Few of them are listed below.
- OpenDNS blocks any phishing site by using Phishtank database. Yahoo! Mail also uses the same database to determine online phishing scam.
- You can configure OpenDNS to block some site category like adult material, gaming or social networking (like orkut, Facebook, MySpace etc.
- OpenDNS also take care of any typo in website url for popular websites. For Example www.gogle.com (missing “o”) is automatically translated as www.google.com and loads it.
- You can also assign shortcuts for your regular visited site like “mail” for https://mail.yahoo.com/. These shortcuts are available to you anywhere if you are logged in OpenDNS account.
Go Ahead and Setup OpenDNS
Now if you are ready to use it then, all you have to do is open your Network Connections (on computer) or Router’s settings page (http://192.168.1.1/) and update the default DNS server to point to the OpenDNS nameservers that are 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220.
Setup OpenDNS on Windows:
Go to Start > Control Panel > View network status and tasks > View status > Properties
Select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4), then click the Properties button
Click the radio button and type in OpenDNS addresses in the Preferred DNS server 208.67.222.222 and Alternate DNS server 208.67.220.220
Click here for setup instruction for other Operating systems. You may require to register or login.
Conclusion
After setting of OpenDNS do not expect huge gain of speed but you can ensure the reliability and safety of your online data from phishing or scam.
Happy Browsing