Several years ago my ISP’s DNS servers were down and I went looking for a replacement and came across OpenDNS.  I found web sites responded faster and I was very happy with the service.  Unfortunately I barely scratched the surface of what OpenDNS can do.

A friend was looking for a way to filter or block adult content on their home network: there is software available but I thought of OpenDNS and knew you could do it for free, as with all their functionality.

During my testing of the Windows Home Server beta I found the software couldn’t find my home server by name: I then found I couldn’t connect to any PC on my home network by name.  It had to be an OpenDNS issue but I couldn’t figure out how to resolve it so I went back to my ISP’s DNS servers.  I hated it: they were using their own not found page and response was slow.

Perusing the web I found a mention that OpenDNS had a fix for this and it must have been a got topic as it appears close to the top of their support articles.  Basically you add an exception for your private IP range: most home networks are using 192.168.1.* or 192.168.2.*.  Once I had these settings in place OpenDNS and I were united again.  If you’re not using OpenDNS click the button above to see what it’s all about.