OpenDNS makes the Internet experience safer, faster and smarter for you and everyone using your network.

Safer - OpenDNS can identify and stop sites trying to phish (steal) your personal information or money. The OpenDNS phishing protection works with all operating systems and browsers, and complements any other security measures already in use, such as a firewall and anti-virus software.

Faster - Most DNS servers on the Internet are slow. Your computer uses DNS every time you visit a website or send an email, so you want DNS to be blazing fast. Two things make DNS really fast: a big cache and a good network. We have both.

Not to brag, but OpenDNS caches are really big.

The bigger and better the cache, the fewer steps in the process, and the faster the Internet experience. Making the OpenDNS caches really big is part of how OpenDNS makes the Internet faster.

Speed really matters. You make hundreds of DNS queries a day and every delay adds up. We built our network of OpenDNS caches at the major intersections of the Internet. This keeps us close to you, improving performance.

Smarter - We make corrections for common spelling mistakes, on the fly. That means when you are typing fast and type yahoo.cmo instead of yahoo.com you still get there. No annoying pop-ups or evil spyware installed because you made a typo. Things just work.

Other benefits - OpenDNS service is free. OpenDNS makes money by serving clearly labeled advertisements on search results pages where we cannot resolve your intent (i.e., not a known typo).

There is no software to install, so no switching cost and no lock-in. OpenDNS is easy to start using. We're confident you will prefer our service, but it's easy to return to your old settings.

OpenDNS is not an ISP or web host or registrar. We're not ICANN. OpenDNS doesn't proxy or monitor the websites you go to. Read our privacy policy.

Nothing much special, just free alternative DNS servers...

I wonder if they're really in sync with the main ones though.

N00b question: will my IP be static even if I connect through dial-up?

unlikely... dial-up IP's tend to change everytime you dial-in

He says they're not an isp, so they wont be giving you an IP address, just DNS.

He says they're not an isp, so they wont be giving you an IP address, just DNS.

bummer!

Here, try some of these DNS servers:

4.2.2.1

4.2.2.2

4.2.2.3

4.2.2.4

Edited November 3, 200619 yr by LLXX

So LLXX where did those come from?

Those are old generic DNS server IPs. They were first with AT&T and slowly spread out.

The ones offered in the original post offers Anti-Phishing and better speeds.

I use Dyndns.org

The ones offered in the original post offers Anti-Phishing and better speeds.

...and if they're blocking sites and trying to "correct" DNS queries then I'm definitely not going to use them.

Well, even your ISP blocks some sites and fair play with him serving advertisements on un-routable addresses, everyone needs to make money to run their service.

I use Dyndns.org

Are you subscribed to their Recursive DNS?

The ones offered in the original post offers Anti-Phishing and better speeds.

...and if they're blocking sites and trying to "correct" DNS queries then I'm definitely not going to use them.

You can turn off their "features" and use only the DNS portion.

Personally, I use OpenDNS.

Edited November 14, 200619 yr by jcarle

Well, even your ISP blocks some sites and fair play with him serving advertisements on un-routable addresses, everyone needs to make money to run their service.

That's why I use the 4.2.2.* servers. Those are pretty much "official" and don't block anything as far as I could tell. Best solution short of writing your own recurser to retrieve data from the root servers.

Edited November 15, 200619 yr by LLXX

What advantage do you get from using 4.2.2.x servers instead of your ISPs ones?