We always want to keep safe our home or business internet from unwanted content. There are many internet content filtering softwares those can be used to filter internet content. Among these, OpenDNS is a Free Web Filtering Software used to keep safe home or business internet content.
OpenDNS is a DNS based internet content filtering solution. If we use OpenDNS nameservers as DNS, it handles DNS request and filter Malware, Phishing and adult content related websites and denies access.
Besides default filtering options, OpenDNS also provides ability to customize home internet content from Dashboard. Creating a free OpenDNS account, we can manage home or business content easily.
To keep home network safe using OpenDNS Home, we will do the following steps in this article.
- Create a new account in OpenDNS
- Add network to OpenDNS
- Setup OpenDNS Features
- Setup OpenDNS in Windows PC
- Test OpenDNS Setup
- Troubleshooting and
- View OpenDNS Report
Creating a New OpenDNS Account
To get full feature of OpenDNS Internet Security, we have to have a OpenDNS account. A valid and active email is required to create OpenDNS account. To create an OpenDNS Account, do the following steps.
- Visit OpenDNS [https://www.opendns.com/] from any popular web browser. OpenDNS website will appear.
- Click on CONSUMER menu item. Home Internet Security page will appear. There are two OpenDNS free services – OpenDNS Family Sheild and OpenDNS Home.
- Click SIGN UP from OpenDNS Home. A Sign-Up form will appear for registration. Fill up all the fields and then click GET A FREE ACCOUNT button.
- Your account will be created and an email confirmation link will be sent to your provided email. Confirm the email clicking the link sent to the email.
From OpenDNS home page, click LOGIN and login to dashboard providing your credentials.
OpenDNS Dashboard
Adding Network to OpenDNS
After creating an OpenDNS account, the first action will be to add our home network to OpenDNS. To add home network, do the following steps.
- From OpenDNS Dashboard, click SETTINGS menu item. Your current public IP will be listed here. Single IP can be used without OpenDNS permission. It is possible to adjust Network CIDR from here but to use large network, OpenDNS permission is required.
- Click ADD THIS NETWORK button. It will ask to provide a name of the Network.
- Put your network name [example: Home or Office] and then click Done button.
OpenDNS Add Netowrk
Setup OpenDNS Features
After adding network, we can now customize network features. OpenDNS provides Web Content Filtering, Security, Customization, Stats and Logs, and Advanced Settings options.
To Customize OpenDNS features, click SETTINGS menu item and then choose the created network where settings will be applied. Following features will appear at the left sidebar.
Web Content Filtering
There are more than 50 categories of unwanted content in OpenDNS those can be blocked with OpenDNS content filtering engine. OpenDNS has divided these categories into five levels. Among these, only one level can be applied for network.
- High: This level protects against all adult-related sites, illegal activity, social networking sites, video sharing sites, and general time-wasters. By default, there are 27 blocked categories in this group. If we want, we can add/remove more category in this group.
- Moderate: This level protects against all adult-related sites and illegal activity. By default, there are 14 blocked categories in this group. If we want, we can add/remove more categories in this group.
- Low: This level protects against pornography. There are 5 blocked categories in this group.
- None: No blocked in this level.
- Custom: We have to choose categories those we want to block.
After selecting any of these levels, click APPLY button. OpenDNS also allows to Manage individual domains by which we can block or allow any domain.
OpenDNS Web Content Filtering
Security
In the security setting, we can enable/disable Malware/Botnet Protection, Phishing Protection and Suspicious Responses.
Customization
When a website is blocked by OpenDNS, a message page is shown to the visitor. By default, OpenDNS page is shown but if we want, we can customize our own page. In Customization, we can set logo and custom text for our blocked page.
Stats and Logs
In Stats and Logs setting, we can enable/disable Stats and Logs collection to view report.
Advanced Settings
In Advanced Settings, we can enable/disable SmartCache and Dynamic IP Update feature.
Setup OpenDNS in Windows PC
After configuring OpenDNS features from Dashboard, we have to setup OpenDNS in our network. OpenDNS can be configured in multiple platforms like Windows, Linux, Android, Routers and other platforms where DNS can setup as OpenDNS is a DNS based web filtering software.
In this article, we will setup OpenDNS in Windows PC and test OpenDNS Web Filtering. For this, do the following steps from Windows PC.
- Go to Control Panel and open Network and Sharing Centre. Available Network Adapter will appear.
- Click on your active Network Adapter and then click Properties button. Properties window will appear.
- Go to Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/Ipv4) items and then put the OpenDNS Nameserver’s IPs (208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220) as Preferred DNS Server and Alternative DNS Server.
- Click OK to apply these settings.
OpenDNS Setup in Windows PC
Testing OpenDNS Setup
After configuring OpenDNS in Windows PC, we can easily test OpenDNS configuration. To test OpenDNS Setup, visit the URL: https://welcome.opendns.com from any Web Browser. If we get the following message, our setup is successful.
OpenDNS Testing Setup
If we don’t get the above message, there is some issues in our Operating System and we need to troubleshoot this.
OpenDNS Troubleshooting
If we setup OpenDNS carefully, it should work perfectly. However, if we don’t get the above successful message, can do the following troubleshoot.
- Visit the URL http://www.internetbadguys.com/ because sometimes the test error page may be cached by the browser.
- Restart PC so that the configuration applied properly.
- From CMD, run the command: ipconfig /flushdns
If the above troubleshooting does not work, contact your ISP because they may redirect DNS request to their own DNS Server. So, OpenDNS does not work.
View OpenDNS Blocking Report
OpenDNS shows the activity log in Dashboard. So, we can easily monitor our network activity from our Dashboard. To view activity report, login to Dashboard and click Stats menu item. There are multiple reports that we can see and can make further decision.
OpenDNS Activity Report
If you face any confusion to follow the above procedures, watch the following video on free web content filtering using OpenDNS Home Security.
How to configure OpenDNS Home to filter home web content has been discussed in this article. I hope you will now be able to configure OpenDNS for your Home network. However, if you face any confusion, feel free to discuss in comment or contact me from Contact page. I will try my best to stay with you.