It’s a jam packed show this week. We discuss alternative DNS services including OpenDNS and Google’s DNS service with special guest George Starcher. We talk about the advantages and disadvantages of using an alternative DNS service and compare the new Google DNS service with OpenDNS. We also conduct a follow-up interview with Paul Kent of Macworld Expo and talk about the exciting new changes coming to Macworld
Links of note
OpenDNS
George’s OpenDNS Tutorials on the Typical Mac User Podcast
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (18.5MB)
Good show and thanks for recommending OpenDNS. Has anyone used the OpenDNS Deluxe version for HOME use? Am I correct that for home-use it does not really much?
I personally don’t see the need for the paid version for home use at this point. Maybe if they add more features.
Great show. I previously knew nothing about OpenDNS. I’m going to set it up for myself and a few friends. Sounds perfect for families trying to protect their kids online.
Thanks for reading my email on the show and trying to answer my question. I’ve since made peace with Evernote. I couldn’t find any other app that matched my criteria. I realized that my real problem was with the non-Mac-ish UI. Other than that, it works and it’s free, so I’m over it.
Thanks again.
I have used opendns for years. I mainly use it as a non software router based parental control solution and it is fantastic. Just brilliant. I still can’t believe that it’s free and has remained free. I would gladly pay for it.. its that good.
grrrr itunes and opendns not working well together even when i’ve white listed all the apple itunes domains like in the knowledge base. Contacted them and they told me to clear my cache – thanks opendns support, way to go and read my question!
Good show! I’ve been using OpenDNS for years, my ISP DNS servers suck. But, I will disagree with George. SOHO routers are not really good at storing the DNS info to hand out to clients. Steve Gibson (GRC.com) has also commented on this fact. While it’s fine to add OpenDNS to the router, I would also do it on each client computer and not depend on the router to do that task.
This has not been a problem on a real router, but SOHO routers lack the intelligence and the processing power to accomplish this task.
Very cool post. I signed up for opendns a while ago but didn’t really look into it and then just abandoned it. So now I know why I need it and have added the dns numbers to my router and will review the screencasts. Very interesting. Love the idea of blocking bad content right at the dns resolution level.