What is OpenDNS and How to Use it?

OpenDNS is the alternate DNS to your ISP provided DNS server. DNS is basically used to translate hostname to IP address. So why should one need if OpenDNS is just a DNS server like DNS provided by ISP? Because OpenDNS offers lot more features along with basic host to IP address mapping. It also makes browsing faster by quick domain to IP mapping. And this service is free or cost and you do not need to download any kind of software to use it. In this detailed article, we will discuss about various features of OpenDNS and how to install it in your system.

OpenDNS

OpenDNS is popular DNS service which claims to have around 50 million users worldwide. It has 23 global data centers located at different part of the world. Your DNS request will be answered by the OpenDNS datacenter located nearest to you. OpenDNS offers faster DNS responses than any other DNS server. So, your web browsing will be faster by few milliseconds.

Improved security with OpenDNS

Most important feature of the OpenDNS is web security. If you are looking for web filtering or network security for home of business, you should try OpenDNS. It offers a web filtering so you can block few specific websites. So, if you want to block Porn sites or any other website, you can easily do if you are using OpenDNS. It also reminds you if you are about to visit a spam website or website serving malware. It also protects you from phishing and other kind of web malware.

How to COnfigure OpenDNS in your system?

If you want to try OpenDNS service, you will have to change the DNS server address in your system. For this For this open Network connection properties and then “Internet Protocol Version” properties. Here default check will be on “Obtain DNS server address automatically.” So, select “Use the following DNS server addresses.” and then enter Preferred DNS server and Alternate DNS server.

Enter these IP addresses:
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

After changing these settings, your DNS queries will start serving via OpenDNS.

If you are using wireless router, you can configure it to use OpenDNS. For this, open your router’s address. usually it will be 192.168.1.1. Type it in address box and then login to access administrator settings. Under basic setup, you will see router’s DNS settings. Here, you can configure it to use 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220. See the screenshot below. It is for my D-Link router.

So, try OpenDNS and share your experience in comments below. I will discuss the security and privacy settings of OpenDNS in next post.