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story category OpenDNS Offers Website Filtering
Using the power of OpenDNS customers
(old news - 06:38PM Wednesday Feb 20 2008)
tags: business · alternatives · content · networking
Tipped by LiamJunket See Profile
OpenDNS offers alternative DNS servers for those whose ISP forgot how to run their own. The service has grown increasingly popular over the last few years, and the San Francisco-based company usually grabs a handful of new customers every time a major ISP has a DNS outage. The company today announced they're going to start offering a "People-Powered Security" service aimed at filtering website content.

The service is powered by the same technology behind the company's Phishtank.com website, but is intended to be a free, optional alternative to commercial filtering software (OpenDNS makes their money through advertising). OpenDNS suggests their solution adapts more quickly than those commercial offerings, though we suppose you've got to trust in the wisdom of the mob. The company's press release has more detail:
Click for full size
Community members submit domains into the system and tag them with a category such as "gambling," "hate," "video sharing" or "social networking." Other community members vote on the accuracy of the submitter's tag. There is a trust metric built into the system so the more a community member votes and the more accurate their votes are the more weight they carry. Once a tagged domain crosses a predetermined threshold, it will be added into that category in the OpenDNS system.
There's also a bit more detail at this website, where OpenDNS customers can search for tagged domains and vote as to whether you agree with site classifications.

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Forums » OpenDNS Offers Website Filtering
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LiamJunket
Premium
join:2002-03-03
Ocean City, NJ
·Comcast

2 edits

How good will it be ? Depends on OpenDNS admins

Just to clarify. It is VOLUNTARY to use it. It isn't being forced on anyone. But the community involvement can be abused and OpenDNS will have to play goalkeeper to prevent craziness. Will they be able to devote enough time to do it?

Just to give you an idea, 1 wacko listed www.snapfish.com as a "HATE Site". And everyone knows all they do is store uploaded photos for users.



And here are the CURRENT categories that people have created for filtering - again use is voluntary. Here is 1 example of a category that could be chosen. The labels highlighted are in that category.



News story here about their new service:
»news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080220/ap_···iltering

--
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permalink · 2008-02-20 18:46:46 · Print · Reply to this
SilverSurfer

join:2007-08-19

Just Like Wiki

This flavor filtering is akin to Wiki...any crackpot can edit the content to reflect whatever agenda he wants to push - Sometimes it's caught by the 5 omnipotent ones who do the final edits, and sometimes, things fall through the cracks. OpenDNS is a good service, but the filtering service will have to be regarded as faith based. And we all know how that particular philosophy works.
permalink · 2008-02-20 18:50:42 · Reply to this

newview
Ex .. Ex .. Exactly
Premium
join:2001-10-01
Parsonsburg, MD

Catagory Nomination

I REALLY hope they have a "spamvertized" catagory.

I'd love to be able to input all those pill & penis sites.
permalink · 2008-02-20 19:02:38 · Reply to this

LiamJunket
Premium
join:2002-03-03
Ocean City, NJ
·Comcast

4 edits

Re: Catagory Nomination

said by newview See Profile :

I REALLY hope they have a "spamvertized" catagory.

I'd love to be able to input all those pill & penis sites.
They have a generic category called "ADWARE" that can be used to categorize such sites. See here:
»www.opendns.com/community/domain···ory_id=1

They already have over 1400 sites submitted in that category and waiting for votes to determine inclusion. So if you choose to use OpenDNS and select the "ADWARE" filter, it should refuse calls to resolve the DNS for sites that eventually get voted on. And that may be a weakness with this service. Who is going to look thru 1400 entries and take the time to vote on them?

Besides the phishing category, I may actually try that one.
--
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permalink · 2008-02-20 19:05:20 · Print · Reply to this

newview
Ex .. Ex .. Exactly
Premium
join:2001-10-01
Parsonsburg, MD

Re: Catagory Nomination

said by LiamJunket See Profile :

They have a generic category called "ADWARE" that can be used to categorize such sites.
No, that category doesn't quite have the desired level of hatred that I'd like to convey.
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permalink · 2008-02-20 19:59:50 · Print · Reply to this

MrMoody
Liberal Capitalist

join:2002-09-03
Smithfield, NC
·Skype
·magicjack.com

Re: Catagory Nomination

Agree, an "Adware" site would be a site that installs or distributes programs with intrusive ads in them.

I too would suggest a "Spammer" category be added, then we can finally death-penalty the sites of spammers.
--
The public is a poor business manager.
permalink · 2008-02-21 11:16:17 · Reply to this

DataDoc
My avatar looks like me. If I was 2D.
Premium
join:2000-05-14
Greenville, NC
·Suddenlink

It's only going to take one organized campaign

to screw this up. Some political/ecco/religious/conspiracy (take your pick) group gets organized, they all vote the same way and nail a site they disagree with.
--
There are many strange legends in the Amazon. Even I, Lucas, have heard the legend of a man-fish.
permalink · 2008-02-20 19:12:14 · Reply to this

LiamJunket
Premium
join:2002-03-03
Ocean City, NJ
·Comcast

1 edit

Re: It's only going to take one organized campaign

said by DataDoc See Profile :

to screw this up. Some political/ecco/religious/conspiracy (take your pick) group gets organized, they all vote the same way and nail a site they disagree with.
Like the Ron Paul crowd blocking the John McCain site?
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permalink · 2008-02-20 19:16:52 · Print · Reply to this

texans20
Weapons of Masturbation
Premium
join:2002-09-28
Texas!
clubs:

Re: It's only going to take one organized campaign

said by LiamJunket See Profile :

said by DataDoc See Profile :

to screw this up. Some political/ecco/religious/conspiracy (take your pick) group gets organized, they all vote the same way and nail a site they disagree with.
Like the Ron Paul crowd blocking the John McCain site?
I'm thinking those crazy Scientologists blocking sites that are critical of Scientology as "hate" sites.
--
"I sincerely believe the banking institutions having the issuing power of money are more dangerous to liberty than standing armies." Thomas Jefferson
permalink · 2008-02-20 20:37:32 · Print · Reply to this

Doctor Four
My other vehicle is a TARDIS
Premium
join:2000-09-05
Dallas, TX
·AT&T U-Verse
·RoadRunner Cable
·AT&T Yahoo

Re: It's only going to take one organized campaign

If the $cientologists did that sort of thing, the first site
on their hit list would be Operation Clambake (xenu.net).
--
"The trouble with computers, of course, is that they are very sophisticated idiots." - Doctor Who (from Robot)
permalink · 2008-02-20 21:07:48 · Reply to this
davidu

join:2006-12-28
San Francisco, CA
said by DataDoc See Profile :

to screw this up. Some political/ecco/religious/conspiracy (take your pick) group gets organized, they all vote the same way and nail a site they disagree with.
That's not true -- We've prevented abuse with PhishTank and we're going to prevent it here too. Not all the keys to the castle are being handed out to random users.

There is a web of trust built in, and we have moderators. We just have to finish writing up some documentation and FAQ stuff on the site.

Just listing a domain in a category won't make it be blocked. This service will be MORE comprehensive than the one where there is a college kid hung-over in the basement of a security company classifying sites. This requires more than one person to screw up (or intentionally mess with) the database.

I love the discussion though.
permalink · 2008-02-20 20:20:40 · Print · Reply to this

LiamJunket
Premium
join:2002-03-03
Ocean City, NJ
·Comcast

2 edits

Re: It's only going to take one organized campaign

said by davidu See Profile :

There is a web of trust built in, and we have moderators. We just have to finish writing up some documentation and FAQ stuff on the site.

Just listing a domain in a category won't make it be blocked. This service will be MORE comprehensive than the one where there is a college kid hung-over in the basement of a security company classifying sites. This requires more than one person to screw up (or intentionally mess with) the database.

I love the discussion though.
Since you apparently work for OpenDNS, maybe you could answer this question?

When using a browser based ad blocker like adblock plus on Firefox or IE7Pro on Internet Explorer, which gets control of the blocking 1st - the browser based ad blocker or the OpenDNS category blocking service?

The answer could be meaningful since your "Adware" category blocking would return an error msg say when blocking doubleclick.net, if I read the notes on your web site correctly. If OpenDNS gets control 1st and sends an error msg, that could mess up the correct rendering of a web page with the ads stripped out.
--
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permalink · 2008-02-20 20:39:27 · Print · Reply to this
vanDSLuser
Unimaxx for your biz
Premium
join:2004-07-28
West Vancouver, BC

Re: It's only going to take one organized campaign

Well, he *founded* OpenDNS - I sure as all hope he knows what he's talking about
permalink · 2008-02-20 22:22:37 · Reply to this
davidu

join:2006-12-28
San Francisco, CA
said by LiamJunket See Profile :

Since you apparently work for OpenDNS, maybe you could answer this question?
I can try.

said by LiamJunket See Profile :

When using a browser based ad blocker like adblock plus on Firefox or IE7Pro on Internet Explorer, which gets control of the blocking 1st - the browser based ad blocker or the OpenDNS category blocking service?
I think we do... but go ahead and try blocking doubleclick.net and see what happens...

said by LiamJunket See Profile :

The answer could be meaningful since your "Adware" category blocking would return an error msg say when blocking doubleclick.net, if I read the notes on your web site correctly. If OpenDNS gets control 1st and sends an error msg, that could mess up the correct rendering of a web page with the ads stripped out.
We do a good job not messing up. At least, we try. Give it a whirl and tell me what you think.
permalink · 2008-02-21 10:48:18 · Print · Reply to this

LiamJunket
Premium
join:2002-03-03
Ocean City, NJ
·Comcast

Re: It's only going to take one organized campaign

said by davidu See Profile :

said by LiamJunket See Profile :

The answer could be meaningful since your "Adware" category blocking would return an error msg say when blocking doubleclick.net, if I read the notes on your web site correctly. If OpenDNS gets control 1st and sends an error msg, that could mess up the correct rendering of a web page with the ads stripped out.
We do a good job not messing up. At least, we try. Give it a whirl and tell me what you think.
I'll try it out as soon as the doubleclick domains get out of the "Undecided" category.
--
My BLOG .. .. Internet News .. .. My Web Page
permalink · 2008-02-21 11:33:17 · Print · Reply to this
davidu

join:2006-12-28
San Francisco, CA

Re: It's only going to take one organized campaign

You can always block domains individually of course in your account (and whitelist them too).
permalink · 2008-02-21 13:17:27 · Reply to this

LiamJunket
Premium
join:2002-03-03
Ocean City, NJ
·Comcast

Re: It's only going to take one organized campaign

said by davidu See Profile :

You can always block domains individually of course in your account (and whitelist them too).
I gave it a try and it looks like adblock plus gets 1st crack and then opendns domain blocking after that. See the following 4 clips to show the results:

Neither adblocking technology turned on:


Only OpenDNS domain blocking on:


Only Adblock Plus add-on turned on:


Both OpenDNS domain blocking and Adblock Plus add-on turned on:



So it looks like Firefox Adblock Plus add-on will get control 1st and if that doesn't catch it, then OpenDNS domain blocking will catch any that are missed.
--
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permalink · 2008-02-21 17:20:30 · Print · Reply to this

gaforces
United We Stand, Divided We Fall

join:2002-04-07
Santa Cruz, CA
·Cruzio Internet

 Its going to be hard to stop groups taking over like at Digg and more recently /.
The religious groups will have a field day/decade filtering sites they object to.
--
~ Don't you ever give up, Don't ever give in. Were going to make it ~ Damian Marley
permalink · 2008-02-20 21:09:21 · Reply to this

La Luna
Surviving Ashraful
Premium
join:2001-07-12
Warwick, NY
clubs:
·Vonage
·Optimum Online

Re: It's only going to take one organized campaign

said by gaforces See Profile :

Its going to be hard to stop groups taking over like at Digg and more recently /.
The religious groups will have a field day/decade filtering sites they object to.
As could, in theory, the anti religious groups.
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permalink · 2008-02-20 23:03:29 · Print · Reply to this

major marco
Res Firma Mitescere Nescit
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join:2003-02-13
Stepford, CA
clubs:

Re: It's only going to take one organized campaign

said by La Luna See Profile :

said by gaforces See Profile :

Its going to be hard to stop groups taking over like at Digg and more recently /.
The religious groups will have a field day/decade filtering sites they object to.
As could, in theory, the anti religious groups.
Theoretically, yes, but non-religious groups tend not to be as vocal, obnoxious or as organized as the religious cultheads are. You don't see non-religious groups petitioning the FCC to ban titties flashed at half-time shows, crying about Harry Potter books or pushing for ISPs to install "porn" and evolution filters so their precious lil dahlinks aren't exposed to reality.
--
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permalink · 2008-02-21 10:18:35 · Print · Reply to this

adam henry

@comcast.net

Re: It's only going to take one organized campaign

nice try eintein but the most intolerant groups by far are the homosexual militants and left wing socialist idiots way more so than jesus freak conservatives.
permalink · 2008-02-21 18:37:19 · Reply to this

major marco
Res Firma Mitescere Nescit
Premium
join:2003-02-13
Stepford, CA
clubs:

Re: It's only going to take one organized campaign

said by adam henry :

nice try eintein but the most intolerant groups by far are the homosexual militants and left wing socialist idiots way more so than jesus freak conservatives.
LMAO. Whatta maroon. You must be able to correctly spell words first before you sarcastically belittle someone else.
permalink · 2008-02-21 22:00:14 · Reply to this
BosstonesOwn

join:2002-12-15
Everett, MA
clubs:
·Comcast
·Comcast Formerly ..

 Dude great service and this is a good idea providing the mods you folks use can keep up. I'd gladly help moderate on a system like this , I will be helping out as much as possible here

BTW I click through ads and if Im going to buy something from a store I use the link through the opendns pages to get to the site hope it brings you guys a little more money to keep this running.
--
"It's always funny until someone gets hurt......and then it's absolutely friggin' hysterical!"
permalink · 2008-02-21 11:42:24 · Print · Reply to this

exocet_cm
Support Your FOP - Crescent Lodge No2
Premium
join:2003-03-23
New Orleans, LA
clubs:

Firewall + OpenDNS

Hows bout an open source (or paid) firewall's content filter + OpenDNS?

»johndball.blaize.net/2008/02/21/···bff-111/
permalink · 2008-02-20 19:19:25 · Reply to this

ewgny

join:2000-12-21
East Setauket, NY

Seems Pretty Good

I actually started using OpenDNS a few days ago
on my kids computers. I decided to try it to keep my kids from accidentaly surfing inapropriate material
(my kids are mainly Webkinz and Disney surfers)
It seems to work well, I blocked the anonymous proxy catagory and porn catagory.

--
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permalink · 2008-02-20 20:18:36 · Reply to this

Matt
Quitting Caffeine - Argh
Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC
·North State Commun..

Home and Biz

I use OpenDNS for my home network and as a forwarder for our business network. The speed wasn't a motivating factor as we had fast DNS already, but the phishing protection and the ability to force a cache refresh are awesome.

Kudos and keep it up!
permalink · 2008-02-20 20:33:07 · Reply to this

ArchAngel21x
MacFan Pro
Premium
join:2001-10-28
Lincoln, NE

I Use Open DNS

And so far I have been happy. I swear I noticed a small increases in websites loading when I started using their DNS servers too.
permalink · 2008-02-20 21:03:10 · Reply to this

ztmike
Mark for moderation
Premium
join:2001-08-02
Michigan City, IN

Chicago OpenDNS? HELLO!?

Where the hell is there Chicago server at? I'd use them if they built a datacenter in Chicago. Otherwise I'll stick to 4.xxx
--
»chris.pirillo.com/live/
permalink · 2008-02-20 22:10:23 · Reply to this
CWO333

join:2005-02-24
Chicago, IL

Re: Chicago OpenDNS? HELLO!?

I've used OpenDNS for a while and I'm in Chicago and it works just fine. Never had a problem with it.
permalink · 2008-02-21 07:40:05 · Reply to this
davidu

join:2006-12-28
San Francisco, CA

1 edit
said by ztmike See Profile :

Where the hell is there Chicago server at? I'd use them if they built a datacenter in Chicago. Otherwise I'll stick to 4.xxx
We just signed a lease for space at 350 East Cermak Road in Chicago last week.

We're provisioning equipment now and ordering cross-connects with our various transit and peering partners.

Some of that stuff takes time so I'd put the timeline at anywhere from 30 to 60 days. Any more than 60 and I'll start to be annoyed. Any less than 30 and I'll be super impressed with our vendors.
permalink · 2008-02-21 10:50:22 · Print · Reply to this
BosstonesOwn

join:2002-12-15
Everett, MA
clubs:
·Comcast
·Comcast Formerly ..

Re: Chicago OpenDNS? HELLO!?

I have some customers in that dc. Nice building , pretty good security and nice guys on staff , usually I get help with in 15 minutes of a server going down.
--
"It's always funny until someone gets hurt......and then it's absolutely friggin' hysterical!"
permalink · 2008-02-21 11:53:28 · Reply to this
jay_bob

join:2004-03-12
Columbia, SC
·AT&T Southeast

+1 for OpenDNS

Just wanted to say thanks for a great service. I have used it for a couple months now and love it. More effective filtering than pc-based solutions - keeps my kids off the bad sites and I can tell from the reports if they try to go there.

Also works much better than my ISP's DNS servers that have a habit of tanking on a regular basis.
permalink · 2008-02-21 19:59:39 · Reply to this

AnonProxy
Proxy of Anon
Premium
join:2001-05-12
ß

OpenDNS

=OpenPOS
permalink · 2008-02-22 00:12:39 · Reply to this

Bellundo

@teksavvy.com

Re: OpenDNS

Don't knock it 'till you try it. At least it lets Canadians with internet service browse the internet. We don't want to burden the level 3 dns servers or they may not keep them public.
permalink · 2008-03-03 17:36:36 · Reply to this

wavguy2003
370's Forever
Premium
join:2004-03-18
Saint Charles, IL
·AT&T Yahoo
·AT&T Midwest

Just started using OpenDNS

So far so good. I noticed an immediate increase in page loading after switching from AT&T's sluggish servers. I signed up for the anti-phish and content filtering as well and have porn and other such sites blocked.

The only beef I have is the stats are in UTC rather than my own time zone so it makes trying to match up usage patterns a chore.

I like what I see so far and David being around and willing to participate is a nice touch.
permalink · 2008-02-22 21:32:51 · Reply to this

Bellundo

@teksavvy.com

We as Canadians are sorry

Yes we are sorry but it isn't our fault we just want to browse web pages and most of these Canadian isp's can't even do that. We can't use our innate isp's dns servers because all of them are busted. I hope you accept our country's apology.
permalink · 2008-03-03 17:32:55 · Reply to this
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