Okay so most people might not feel that way. DNS (Domain Name Servers) is often the root of a lot of problems in the world of IT.
If you do not know what DNS is, that is okay just know that it is like a phone book for the internet and without it nothing works right. In fact, DNS is so problematic that the geek culture I live in has written a Haiku about it. It’s not DNS. There’s no way it’s DNS. It was DNS.
So why is DNS fun you may ask?
The answer here is a product called Open DNS and it is now a part of the Cisco umbrella. Open DNS is a solution that puts you in control of the phone book and lets you edit the content. This minor change to DNS is huge when it comes to security.
A few years ago, as I realized that my kids would soon be on the scary world wide web, I started investigating ways to stave off the scariness. That tool that I deployed at my house is Open DNS.
There are many ways to setup Open DNS, but the easiest way is to change your home router to point to a new IP address for DNS then create a free online account and set your restrictions for what sites are going to be blocked.
I personally went off the deep end and blocked things like YouTube initially and instantly regretted it. So instead of allowing things like YouTube I created a kid VLAN (Virtual Local Area Networks) at my house with its own Wi-Fi and routed all traffic on that network to Open DNS. This allows me to filter the internet for my kids' tablets, phone, and computers while not impacting anyone else in the home. Now that my kids are getting older, I am slowly rolling back permissions to things. All I have to do is log into open DNS and within a couple of clicks the changes are made. After the Open DNS product became popular, Cisco bought the company and merged it with their own product called Umbrella.
Open DNS is not just for kids though, you can also set it up to restrict access to known malicious websites that can damage your computer or files.
Umbrella DNS is DNS on the next level. This tool changes the DNS servers for work on computers. This allows an employee to work from anywhere knowing that they are using DNS that is being filtered. This simple tool could prevent a single click of a link in an email from resolving the link. If the link does not load, then the virus in that link does not load and the computer and network are safe.
If you are interested in Open DNS for your house here is the link to sign up for free.
Home Free by OpenDNS
If you are interested in Umbrella DNS for your business, please contact NuWave.
