Configuring OpenDNS
Posted on December 4th, 2008
Okay, so I promised a quick howto on OpenDNS, but some of you out there might still be asking yourselves “wtf is OpenDNS anyway??”. The answer is simple. OpenDNS is a global network of DNS Servers that anyone can connect to and use. Sounds like a really basic concept I know, but the beauty of OpenDNS is not just this simple concept, it’s in the extra features it offers, along with the notion that their network is EXTREMELY stable and dependable, which is more than can be said for many ISP’s DNS servers, as I’m sure many of you out there have seen within your own experiences.
So, how do you set it up on your network? it’s actually quite simple. OpenDNS uses two IPs as their broadcast IPs: 208.67.220.220 and 208.67.220.222. So all you need to do, is set these IPs on whatever is serving your DNS queries, in the case of a Server using bind, you only need to add the following line to the options{} section of your named.conf:
forwarders { 208.67.222.222; 208.67.220.220; };
Then you’re all set.
If you’re on a home network however, setting it up is as simple as changing the DNS server IPs on your router.
So what extra features does OpenDNS give you? Well if you register an account with them, you can get all manner of analytics, content control/filtering, custom 404 pages…lots of stuff.
I’ve been using OpenDNS since about 2004, and I’ve never regretted making the switch…even the workstation I’m writing this on uses OpenDNS as it’s primary DNS servers, as do my development servers here at SevenL.