OpenDNS

When you connect to a Web site on the Internet, your computer uses the Domain Name System (DNS) to convert URLs like "www.macfixit.com" to the IP address for the server where that Web site resides.

This system is a hierarchical network of computers throughout the world that distributes a database of domains and subdomains, allowing the system to resolve the components of the URL ("com," "macfixit," and "www") to a specific IP address out of millions of publicly available ones. This system is used for Web browsing, but also for … Read more

OpenDNS, Google, and a few others have built a new technology into their Internet operations that's designed to speed up the delivery of data around the globe.

The technology augments the Domain Name System that provides the numeric Internet Protocol (IP) address needed to get data to an Internet domain such as news.com. Those that developed it include OpenDNS, Google, and VeriSign. Called edns-client-subnet in technical circles, or more ambitiously the "Global Internet Speedup," it uses geographic information associated with IP addresses to help computers fetching data get it from the closest--and therefore fastest--server.

"Anybody … Read more

D-Link announced today the integration of OpenDNS technology into its select routers, which will enable you to block unsafe and inappropriate Web content, such as adult and phishing Web sites.

The company says that with OpenDNS technology, D-Link routers offer consumers the ability to mange content filtering and security services from anywhere over the Internet.

The new feature is called OpenDNS parental controls. It divides Web sites into more than 50 categories, allowing parents to choose their desired filtering level from "high" to "minimal." This can also be further customized to include certain categories of sites … Read more

Comcast subscribers from Boston to Washington, D.C., found themselves without Internet access Sunday night after a major outage affected parts of the East Coast.

Reports first seemed to surface on Twitter last night from Comcast customers tweeting that their Internet service had gone down. Comcast's own customer service Twitter feed, known as Comcastcares, confirmed the outage, initially pointing to an issue in Boston but soon revealing that the problem was more widespread.

Comcast spokesman Charlie Douglas told CNET through e-mail that last night Comcast engineers identified a server issue that affected Internet service for customers primarily in the … Read more

Facebook is taking a lot of heat — again — about failing to protect the privacy of its users. (See Caroline McCarthy's The Social blog for a recap of the service's most-recent security gaffes.)

No matter what safety precautions Facebook and other social networks and Web sites take, eventually somebody's private data will become public, whether due to human error or a successful hack attack. Either way, your Web activities and the personal information you post to an online profile may be viewed by strangers, regardless of the account's security settings.

There are ways to minimize the risk … Read more

Previously, I wrote about using a second router to provide additional protection to high-value computers--specifically, to protect computers used by adults from those used by children on a shared Local Area Network (LAN).

That article was mostly conceptual, this one covers the nitty-gritty technical details.

First, the good news. Adding a second router has no effect on the first router and no effect on the untrusted (kids) computers. Each is blissfully ignorant of the following changes.

In describing the steps, the existing/first router will be referred to as the kids router since the untrusted kids computers connect to it. … Read more

In response to the recent DNS problems on the Internet I had earlier suggested changing some network configuration parameters to use the free OpenDNS service.

As I did this myself for a number of machines that I maintain, the question arose of verifying the change. That is, how can someone, particularly a non-technical computer user, ensure that their computer is configured to use OpenDNS?

This is, it turns out, remarkably easy.

Go to www.opendns.com. At the top of the home page, just under the tabs, there will be a message whose content depends on whether the computer is … Read more

In my recent posting, What you need to know about the latest DNS flaw, I suggested using OpenDNS as a defense against the current DNS flaw. OpenDNS provides excellent step by step instructions for modifying the network settings on your computer to use their DNS services.

The only omission in their instructions is the need to make this change for every type of network connection. On a laptop computer, for example, you would need to modify both the network connection for wired Ethernet and also the Wi-Fi network connection. If you use dial-up, that too, needs to be modified.

Chose … Read more

If you've been hearing or reading about the latest DNS (Domain Name System) flaw, you may be confused about how to defend yourself. Think of this as a cheatsheet, it's what you need to know in the fewest words possible.

The flaw is mostly with software on a server computer run by your Internet Service Provider (ISP).* Some ISPs have patched the vulnerable DNS software on their computers, some have not. A recent list is available here. That said, Windows users also need to be sure they are up to date on patches as Microsoft released a recent DNS patch … Read more