Technology, Theology, and Anything In Between

I’ve been looking for a free way to block adult sites without using expensive hardware or software that messes with the computer. For example, I’ve looked at Fortigate and other solutions, but determined that they were too expensive for a one person company. Also, software programs that integrate with web browers don’t interest me, as I don’t like too much software that “hooks” into other programs. I find that this causes my system to be unstable.

So OpenDNS is offering free adult blocking. All you have to do is switch your DNS servers to theirs, and then create an account with them, and then ask for the specific items to be blocked (they break things down into categories, such as adult, tasteless, etc.). Most large companies use some kind of filtering scheme like this, and its nice for the small business to be able to take care of filtering like this.

One interesting thing I found was that MySpace was not blocked, but the pictures of people were. This doesn’t really bother me, since I got rid of my account and started blogging here, but for some, that may be a problem. Maybe one of the site settings can be turned off to let them through.

I’m very happy that they are offering this service, as I it will help when my children begin to use the Internet, and I won’t have to worry as much about monitoring their use every second. I’m going to try to stay up to date on what OpenDNS is doing — they seem like they are really innovating in the DNS arena.