Configuring OpenDNS on your router

Nowadays, web filtering is a must! Whether it’s your home or your office, web filtering can protect you and your machine much more than you can imagine.

OpenDNS is a free DNS service that can be used to prevent access to unsafe or inappropriate websites on your network for free. To start, just click on the following link and create an account of your choice:

https://www.opendns.com/home-internet-security/

Then download the IP updater and install. The IP updating software keeps updating your dynamic IP with OpenDNS. If you are with Windows, it’s a rather straightforward installation but with Linux, the process is a little longer. BTW, if you have any issues with the Linux installation, drop me a line and I will be happy to share my knowledge.

Once you have set up your account, you can login to your router gateway and enter the IP’s provided by OpenDNS which is always 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220 respectively.

If you are with Sri Lanka Telecom and using a fiber-optic line, you would most probably be using the ZTE F660 router. But if you are not, that’s not a problem, since the settings would be somewhat similar on other routers as well.

First, you have to enter the router gateway address on the browser to get back-end access and change the DNS. In this case, it would be http://192.168.1.1 but if it’s not, just call your ISP.

Typically, your user credentials would be “user” and then again “user” but if that’s not correct, just phone your ISP and they would be happy to assist.

Click on “details setup” then Application > DNS Service > DNS as shown in the following image:

As mentioned above, the primary and secondary server IP’s provided by OpenDNS are as follows:
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220
Finally, click “Submit”

Now all users bypassing your router would be going through OpenDNS!

There are three levels of protection offered by OpenDNS. You can customize this filtering level by adding additional categories as well.

High: Protects against all adult-related sites, illegal activity, social networking sites, video sharing sites, and general time-wasters (26 categories in this group).
Moderate: Protects against all adult-related sites and illegal activity (13 categories in this group).
Low: Protects against pornography (4 categories in this group).

The “Custom” option lets you add the categories of your choice.

The “None” option skips all forms of filtering and protection, but still, all the traffic would go through the OpenDNS servers.

There is also a way to manage individual domains where you can block specific website URLs. Nice!

How to check the security settings of OpenDNS configuration?

Just click on this demo site: http://www.internetbadguys.com for testing the security setting. If all is well, you will see the following message:
“This site is blocked due to a phishing threat.”

If you don’t get this message, there’s something wrong but fret not! The support team at OpenDNS are really good. If you want to clarify anything, just send them a support ticket and they will answer promptly!