As we all know the Internet has some great information on it, but it also has some terrible websites that we should not allow our children to see. How can we stop it? One method is to use OpenDNS. As a bonus all this is free. This is an off site pre filter so it will not slow your computer like on site filters such as netnanny, parental filter and DansGuardian web content filtering.
When your computer goes to a website, the name has to be translated to an IP (This is like you looking up a persons name in a phone book to get their phone number). OpenDNS can do this faster than your ISP. (Internet service provider) For them to do this the DNS addresses in your computer have to be changed to 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220 as this is the IP of OpenDNS. This means that your website request goes to them. They will look up their huge database to find the IP of the website which is then passed back to your web browser.
OpenDNS will ask you to choose your operating system from a list so that they can tell you how to put those DNS addresses in your computer.
You can now open an account with them. Then click on their networks tab and click on add this network. The next step is to click on their settings tab to choose what level of undesirable web page blocking you want. You will be given a list and you can tick all the options. Make sure you also tick the box, apply to all my networks even though home users can only have one network.
You can also block domains. For example if your children are using a chat website where you think an adult could lure them to a liaison, then you can block access to that website etc. You should also block the domains images.google.com and images.search.yahoo.com. Although you can set these browsers to safe search, any child can reset that. Businesses can also block their staff from time wasting sites such as auctions, YouTube, web based email (i.e. hotmail etc) and chat rooms. . Make sure you also tick the box, apply to all my networks.
Your computer also has an IP given to you by your ISP. If you have broadband then you may have a static IP which you will see in your OpenDNS settings when you set up a network. Your job is now done.
If your ISP gives you a dynamic IP (this is the same as you having a different phone number every time you lift up the handset of your home phone.) as most do with dial up then your IP changes whenever you connect to your ISP. OpenDNS can only recognize you in order to use your blocking data from the IP it has stored with your account (or network) so here is where it gets a little difficult.
With a dynamic IP you have to get a program that will run on your computer to check your computer IP and when it changes, notify OpenDNS so they know who you are and can use your blocking information. In this program configuration file on your computer you must put the username and password of your OpenDNS account. In your OpenDNS account you have to tick the enable dynamic IP box. When set up this is all automatic. You can go to this page at OpenDNS to download a free program called Inadyn to do this for you. I have it working on my computer using the Ubuntu Linux operating system and I have also put it on my daughter's computer using Windows XP operating system to protect my grandchildren. It all works perfectly.
If you run into trouble then you can get more help at the OpenDNS forum where you can see questions and answers from other people and ask your own questions. I hope it all goes well for you. You may find someone in your circle of acquaintances who can install it for you.