There are so many internet content filters out there that it is hard to decide which one to use.
Programs like:
- Net Nanny
- McAfee Safe Eyes
- McAfee Family Protection
- PureSight PC
- CYBERsitter
- CyberPatrol
- etc….
These programs all have two (2) things in common. They are all software based, and they cost money.
Well, there is an alternative that is free.
It’s called OpenDNS.
You are probably wondering, what is DNS?
If you have a computer, and are on high speed internet (ADSL or Cable), then you’re most likely familiar with the term IP Address. Every computer, regardless of where it is in the world (as long as it has a connection to a network, beit the internet or a Local Area Network) has an IP Address. The role of an IP Address is to allow communication between that computer and other devices.
DNS provides the ability to assign an alias (if you will) to a certain IP address. For example, the IP Address for www.intel.com is 192.198.164.158. It would really be a pain if every site we wanted to visit required us to enter the IP Address of that site into the browser. This is where DNS comes in.
DNS stands for Domain Name System. It resolves the names we type into an internet browser (such as Internet Explorer or Firefox) into IP Addresses. So when we type http://www.intel.com in the address bar of firefox, the DNS Server resolves that domain name to the IP Addresss 192.198.164.158, and sends us there.
Getting back to OpenDNS. OpenDNS is an internet filter that resides on the internet before it gets to your computer.
With traditonal parental filters, the software resides on the clients machine(s) and filters the content locally. This takes up precious system resources that could be used for other applicatons.
With OpenDNS, the filtering is done in cyberspace before it gets to your network. This way, you don’t need to buy multiple licenses of parental software for all your computers. All that is required is one free account with OpenDNS, some changes made to the address of the DNS Server, and voila, you are protected.
For more information, please go to OpenDNS.