It is expensive, and often confusing, to filter your computers, tablets, and game systems for inappropriate material, especially when you have lots of devices in the home. Your children are at risk on any device that has a browser, not just the family PC. So, how can you filter all these items in your home without breaking the budget or going crazy????
Easy! You use a free service that filters the web at your ROUTER!
This easy solution is OpenDNS. OpenDNS is an Internet infrastructure company that processes more than 60 BILLION web site requests every day. In the commercial world they provide (for a fee) filtering and other security services.
For home users, though, they have made their filtering available…for free! While they do have some consumer-level “for pay” products with extra bells and whistles, their OpenDNS HOME service is completely free and entirely adequate to the task of filtering!
OpenDNS HOME provides outstanding and detailed filtering of the World Wide Web in your home because it filters at the point that the Internet enters the home: Your gateway/router! That way all devices that use your network, either via WiFi or Ethernet cable, are safely filtered. So, if Little Johnny’s” pal brings over an iPad, or his brand new X-BOX ONE and wants to hook into your network, you can rest easy, knowing that they will be filtered.
OpenDNS HOME filters over 50 categories, and you can even make your own “white list” and “black list”. Some of the crucial categories to filter are:
- Pornography
- Nudity
- Proxy/Anonymizer (Defeats a way to get past filters and such)
- P2P/File Sharing (Keeps kids from stealing movies/tv shows)
- Typo Squatting (porn sites based on misspellings of children’s web site addresses)
- Academic Fraud (Keeps them off the “download a term paper” sites
When you set up OpenDNS, just carefully and thoughtfully go through the list of categories. You can safely ignore “German Youth Protection”….unless you live in Germany!
Now, OpenDNS does not filter streaming videos such as YouTube and Netflix, but you can restrict those sites. OpenDNS only filters the Web that you access via your browser such as Chrome, Firefox, and Internet explorer.
To learn more just check out my 2-part article here:
Filtering Your Home Network via OpenDNS: What Parents Need To Know-Part I
Filtering Your Home Network via OpenDNS: What Parents Need To Know-Part II
These two articles will explain more about how OpenDNS works and how to get started. They will also have special information that AT&T U-verse and Verizon customers will need to know about.
So, as summer begins and kids spend more time around the house, lock down that home network, for FREE!
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