It's been a while since I've posted anything. My passion for Twitter occupied a lot of my time lately, but Twitter's 140 character limit can only convey so much information. And there are times you need to have a discussion and not just a tweet.
For years, I tried several Internet content filters on my computers to protect my family from the more dangerous things you can find online. But software installed on a computer can be easily defeated by the more determined hacker. And if someone brought their own computer to the house, you never knew if they had filtering software installed (most likely not) to prevent them from accessing questionable stuff on your Internet connection.
A couple of years ago, I heard about OpenDNS. This is a free service that originally was designed to provide faster site resolution by using OpenDNS servers for name resolution instead of your ISP's servers. When I first began using it, Internet speeds were significantly better than my ISP. That has changed as more people have started using the service, but speeds are still comparable to your ISP. That is not the primary reason I recommend OpenDNS today.
Along the way, OpenDNS added content filtering to their service, still for free. You can configure your (any operating system) computer to use OpenDNS servers to take advantage of this. Even better, if you have a router (wireless or not), you can configure your router to use OpenDNS to protect ALL computers on your home network. This is huge. Once you have configured the router for OpenDNS and changed the default login information for your router, you have secured your network from pornography and the many other threats on the Internet.
OpenDNS has been the final security measure for budget conscious geeks like me. Between OpenDNS, free anti-virus apps like AVG and free anti-malware apps like Spybot Search & Destroy, you can finally protect your Windows computer from the most common security problems associated with the internet.
To take advantage of OpenDNS content filtering, you must create a free account. Rather than provide detailed information on the service, I am providing links to the site as well as other information sources.
OpenDNS.com
Windows Secrets
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