Anyone that works in corporate America knows that the internet at work is usually filtered out, blocking the bad stuff, but at home, where the kids are, there is wide open access to the internet!  Kinda backwards isn’t it?  It can be expensive, plus a huge hassle to implement a proxy filtering server at your house, just like you have at work, so that is pretty much out of the question. 

I’ll be posting several options for protecting your kids online in the future, but to kick things off, I’d like to introduce you to OpenDNS.  First, let me explain what DNS is.  Think of DNS (Domain Name Service) as the Internet’s phonebook.  Every website has an IP address, and because it is easier to remember a name than a number, we have domain names (Like everydaynerd.com).  When you type a domain name in your browser, your computer goes out to a DNS server, and says, "Hey, where is this domain I’m trying to find?"  and the DNS  responds with the IP address.  Now, your browser goes to the web site you were trying to reach! 

Now, what if your kids wanted to go look at "realbadwebsite.com" - the same thing happens.  The browser query’s a DNS server, it returns the IP address, and bingo, your kids are viewing the real bad web site.

So, where does OpenDNS come in you ask?  Once you sign up for a free account you have the option to block any of the offending categories you specify!  You are 100% in control of what is blocked, and what is not.  The categories are varied, for just about every type that one may want to block.

OpenDNS has made if very simple to get setup, just follow the setup steps on their website:  https://www.opendns.com/homenetwork/start/

Although it may appear hard to do this, it is actually very simple, and only takes less than 10 minutes to do.  A small price to pay to protect the kids in your household!

One great feature is Whitelists and Blacklists.  You can specify a certain site to allow or block, even if it falls within a category that is not.  For example, at my house, I do not block Social Networking, but want to block myspace.com, so it’s added to the blacklist. 

Some notes about using OpenDNS, especially if your kids are teens, or very computer savvy…

1. Make sure your kids don’t know the password to your router (if you didn’t set one, it’s probably the default password, and believe me, admin/admin isn’t hard to guess)
2. Create a "Kids" account on the computer that is NOT an administrator.  If given Administrative rights, the DNS server settings can be changed on the PC - even if you use a router, each PC can choose their own DNS server to circumvent OpenDNS.
3. Block Proxies.  Proxies are websites that allow you to browse through their website, and pretty much lets you go anywhere you want - because as far as DNS sees, it’s only hitting the proxy server, not the bad site the proxy is offering up.
4. This is my personal opinion… Don’t let your kids just surf without some sort of supervision!  Keep the family computer in a public location, where the screen can be seen by anyone in the room.

I hope this helps, and you enjoy this new Protect Your Kids Online feature.  I’ll be adding more as we go along!  Take care, and be safe!

Link to OpenDNS