[geeks] opendns.com - thoughts?

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: "Sheldon T. Hall" <shel at tandem.artell.net>
>Date: 2007/07/10 Tue AM 09:32:17 CDT
>To: 'The Geeks List' <geeks at sunhelp.org>
>Subject: Re: [geeks] opendns.com - thoughts?

>Lionel Peterson writes ...
> 
>> Anyone have any exp. with opendns.com? The idea is 
>> interesting, to block certain sites at the DNS-level, but I 
>> can't quite make sense of their funding model (start with $2 
>> Million, then what?)...
>> 
>> I'm gonna give it a try, but I was curious about others exp. 
>> (if any) with them...
>> 
>> I guess there was a write-up in the NYT today about this...
>
>I don't know nuthin' 'bout no opendns.com, but I block a bunch of sites
>using regular-ole DNS.
>
>I use the plan limned out at http://pgl.yoyo.org/adservers/.  Basically, you
>have a DNS null zone file that says that the host is at 127.0.0.1 (or
>0.0.0.0), then, for any host you want to block, you point their domain name
>at your null zone file.  This means no advertisements on most webpages.
>
>In addition, I have my own list of sites I don't want my users to be able to
>visit, like known malware distributors, and I point those domain names at
>the null zone file, too.
>
>Then there's the firewall ....

Yeah, I guess the opendns.com model works until folks start reporting competitors and having them blocked... The idea that "everyone" can find "the bad sites" and if we aggregate the results in one place, then everyone can benefit sounds good, but in reality, everybody does not have the same motives. Oddly, the one thing that got my attention was what happens with typos - they correct them for you. Sounds nice, but it defers to a third-party to decide what you meant... Oh, and if you submit an invalid URL to the opendns.com servers, they throw back a search results page with the "bad" URL as the text to search for...

Anyway, I'll give it a try - all I need to do is to reboot my router to have the settings take effect...

Lionel