OpenDNS
Encyclopedia
OpenDNS is a DNS
(Domain Name System) resolution service. OpenDNS extends DNS adding features such as misspelling correction, phishing
protection, and optional content filtering
. It provides an ad-supported service
"showing relevant ads when we[show] search results" and a paid advertisement-free service.
OpenDNS provides the following recursive nameserver addresses for public use, mapped to the nearest operational server location by anycast
routing:
OpenDNS also provides the following recursive nameserver addresses as part of their FamilyShield parental controls which block pornography, proxy servers, phishing sites and some malware:
IPv6
addresses (experimental)
resolution as an alternative to using Internet service provider
s' DNS servers. By placing company servers in strategic locations and employing a large cache of the domain names, OpenDNS can process queries more quickly. DNS query results are sometimes cached by the local operating system or applications, so this speed increase may not be noticeable with every request but only with requests that are not stored in a local cache. OpenDNS has adopted and supports DNSCurve
.
Other features include a phishing
filter, domain blocking and typo correction (for example, typing "example.og" instead of "example.org"). OpenDNS maintains a list of malicious sites and blocks access to them when a user tries to access them through their service. OpenDNS also run a service called PhishTank
for users to submit and review suspected phishing sites.
The name OpenDNS refers to the DNS concept of being open, where queries from any source are accepted. It is not related to open source software; the service is based on closed-source software.
OpenDNS earns a portion of its revenue by resolving a domain name to an OpenDNS server when the name is not otherwise defined in DNS. This has the effect that if a user types a non-existent name in a URL in a web browser, the user sees an OpenDNS search page. Advertisers pay OpenDNS to have advertisements for their sites on this page. This behavior is similar to VeriSign
's previous Site Finder
or the redirects many ISP's place on their own DNS servers, but it is a service provided only at users' request. OpenDNS says that the advertising revenue pays for the free customized DNS service.
On May 13, 2007, OpenDNS launched a domain-blocking service to block or filter web sites visited based upon categories, allowing control over the type of sites that may be accessed. The filters can be overridden through individually managed blacklists and whitelists. In 2008 OpenDNS changed from a closed list of blocked domains to a community-driven list allowing subscribers to suggest sites for blocking; if enough subscribers (the number has not been disclosed) concur with the categorization of the site it is added to the appropriate category for blocking. there were over 50 categories. The basic OpenDNS service does not require users to register, but using the block/filter feature requires registering and logging in.
On December 3, 2007, OpenDNS began offering the free DNS-O-Matic service to provide a method of sending dynamic DNS
(DDNS) updates to several DDNS providers using DynDNS
's update API.
On October 21, 2009, OpenDNS launched OpenDNS premium services, for small businesses and enterprises with advanced needs. For a charge, the service offers ad-free result pages, increased reporting and block features, and other services. Pricing for the Enterprise version starts at $2000 per year. The deluxe version, more customisable than the free-of-charge basic version and free of advertisements, costs $9.95 per year for families and $5.00 per user per year for businesses, schools and organizations.
OpenDNS said that it handled over 20 billion DNS requests daily, with over 26 billion delivered on 21 April, 2010.
In 2007, David Ulevitch explained that in response to Dell installing "Browser Address Error Redirector" software on their PCs, OpenDNS started resolving requests to Google
.com. Some of the traffic is handled by OpenDNS typo-correcting service which corrects mistyped addresses and redirects keyword addresses to OpenDNS's search page, while the rest is transparently passed through to the intended recipient.
Also, a user's search request from the address bar of a browser that is configured to use the Google search engine (with a certain parameter configured) may be covertly redirected to a server owned by OpenDNS without the user's consent (but within the OpenDNS Terms of Service). Users can disable this behavior by logging in to their OpenDNS account and unchecking "OpenDNS proxy" option. Additionally, Mozilla users can fix this problem by installing an extension or by simply changing or removing the navclient sourceid from their keyword search URLs.
This redirection breaks some non-web applications which rely on getting an NXDOMAIN for non-existent domains, such as e-mail spam filtering, or VPN access where the private network's nameservers are consulted only when the public ones fail to resolve.
Domain name system
The Domain Name System is a hierarchical distributed naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participating entities...
(Domain Name System) resolution service. OpenDNS extends DNS adding features such as misspelling correction, phishing
Phishing
Phishing is a way of attempting to acquire information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, online payment processors or IT...
protection, and optional content filtering
Content filtering
Content filtering is the technique whereby content is blocked or allowed based on analysis of its content, rather than its source or other criteria. It is most widely used on the internet to filter email and web access.- Content filtering of email :...
. It provides an ad-supported service
Online advertising
Online advertising is a form of promotion that uses the Internet and World Wide Web to deliver marketing messages to attract customers. Examples of online advertising include contextual ads on search engine results pages, banner ads, blogs, Rich Media Ads, Social network advertising, interstitial...
"showing relevant ads when we
OpenDNS provides the following recursive nameserver addresses for public use, mapped to the nearest operational server location by anycast
Anycast
Anycast is a network addressing and routing methodology in which datagrams from a single sender are routed to the topologically nearest node in a group of potential receivers all identified by the same destination address.-Addressing methodologies:...
routing:
OpenDNS also provides the following recursive nameserver addresses as part of their FamilyShield parental controls which block pornography, proxy servers, phishing sites and some malware:
- 208.67.222.123
- 208.67.220.123
IPv6
IPv6
Internet Protocol version 6 is a version of the Internet Protocol . It is designed to succeed the Internet Protocol version 4...
addresses (experimental)
- 2620:0:ccc::2
- 2620:0:ccd::2
Services
OpenDNS offers DNSDomain name system
The Domain Name System is a hierarchical distributed naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participating entities...
resolution as an alternative to using Internet service provider
Internet service provider
An Internet service provider is a company that provides access to the Internet. Access ISPs directly connect customers to the Internet using copper wires, wireless or fiber-optic connections. Hosting ISPs lease server space for smaller businesses and host other people servers...
s' DNS servers. By placing company servers in strategic locations and employing a large cache of the domain names, OpenDNS can process queries more quickly. DNS query results are sometimes cached by the local operating system or applications, so this speed increase may not be noticeable with every request but only with requests that are not stored in a local cache. OpenDNS has adopted and supports DNSCurve
DNSCurve
DNSCurve is a proposed new secure protocol for the Domain Name System , designed by Daniel J. Bernstein. The basic idea is to define a secure new transport layer protocol to replace TCP, called CurveCP, using elliptic curve cryptography on top of UDP then doing DNS queries inside CurveCP...
.
Other features include a phishing
Phishing
Phishing is a way of attempting to acquire information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, online payment processors or IT...
filter, domain blocking and typo correction (for example, typing "example.og" instead of "example.org"). OpenDNS maintains a list of malicious sites and blocks access to them when a user tries to access them through their service. OpenDNS also run a service called PhishTank
PhishTank
PhishTank is an anti-phishing site.PhishTank was launched in October 2006 by entrepreneur David Ulevitch as an offshoot of OpenDNS. The company offers a community-based phish verification system where users submit suspected phishes and other users "vote" if it is a phish or not.PhishTank is used...
for users to submit and review suspected phishing sites.
The name OpenDNS refers to the DNS concept of being open, where queries from any source are accepted. It is not related to open source software; the service is based on closed-source software.
OpenDNS earns a portion of its revenue by resolving a domain name to an OpenDNS server when the name is not otherwise defined in DNS. This has the effect that if a user types a non-existent name in a URL in a web browser, the user sees an OpenDNS search page. Advertisers pay OpenDNS to have advertisements for their sites on this page. This behavior is similar to VeriSign
VeriSign
Verisign, Inc. is an American company based in Dulles, Virginia that operates a diverse array of network infrastructure, including two of the Internet's thirteen root nameservers, the authoritative registry for the .com, .net, and .name generic top-level domains and the .cc and .tv country-code...
's previous Site Finder
Site Finder
Site Finder was a wildcard DNS record for all .com and .net unregistered domain names, run by .com and .net top-level domain operator VeriSign between 15 September 2003 and 4 October 2003.-Site Finder:...
or the redirects many ISP's place on their own DNS servers, but it is a service provided only at users' request. OpenDNS says that the advertising revenue pays for the free customized DNS service.
On May 13, 2007, OpenDNS launched a domain-blocking service to block or filter web sites visited based upon categories, allowing control over the type of sites that may be accessed. The filters can be overridden through individually managed blacklists and whitelists. In 2008 OpenDNS changed from a closed list of blocked domains to a community-driven list allowing subscribers to suggest sites for blocking; if enough subscribers (the number has not been disclosed) concur with the categorization of the site it is added to the appropriate category for blocking. there were over 50 categories. The basic OpenDNS service does not require users to register, but using the block/filter feature requires registering and logging in.
On December 3, 2007, OpenDNS began offering the free DNS-O-Matic service to provide a method of sending dynamic DNS
Dynamic DNS
Dynamic DNS or DDNS is a term used for the updating in real time of Internet Domain Name System name servers to keep up to date the active DNS configuration of their configured hostnames, addresses and other information....
(DDNS) updates to several DDNS providers using DynDNS
DynDNS
Dyn is an infrastructure as a service company that provides Internet DNS and email delivery services for commercial and private users. It originally provided a free dynamic DNS service, which allowed users to have a subdomain that points to a computer with regularly changing IP addresses, such as...
's update API.
On October 21, 2009, OpenDNS launched OpenDNS premium services, for small businesses and enterprises with advanced needs. For a charge, the service offers ad-free result pages, increased reporting and block features, and other services. Pricing for the Enterprise version starts at $2000 per year. The deluxe version, more customisable than the free-of-charge basic version and free of advertisements, costs $9.95 per year for families and $5.00 per user per year for businesses, schools and organizations.
OpenDNS said that it handled over 20 billion DNS requests daily, with over 26 billion delivered on 21 April, 2010.
History
- In July 2006, OpenDNS was launched by computer scientistComputer scientistA computer scientist is a scientist who has acquired knowledge of computer science, the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their application in computer systems....
and entrepreneurEntrepreneurAn entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
David UlevitchDavid UlevitchDavid A. Ulevitch is founder and current CEO of OpenDNS and founder of EveryDNS.Ulevitch, the youngest child of Susan and Richard Ulevitch, was born and raised in Del Mar, California. Ulevitch's technology career started at an early age when he began working for ElectriCiti, a small regional ISP...
. It received venture capitalVenture capitalVenture capital is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund makes money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as...
funding from Minor VenturesMinor VenturesMinor Ventures is a venture capital firm that backs early-stage tech and media companies. The company was founded in 2005 by CNET co-founder Halsey Minor and run by Ron Palmeri from its founding until August 2010...
, which is led by CNETCNETCNET is a tech media website that publishes news articles, blogs, and podcasts on technology and consumer electronics. Originally founded in 1994 by Halsey Minor and Shelby Bonnie, it was the flagship brand of CNET Networks and became a brand of CBS Interactive through CNET Networks' acquisition...
founder Halsey MinorHalsey MinorHalsey McLean Minor is a technology entrepreneur who founded CNET in 1993 . Minor ran CNET for 8 years during which time it became one of the Internet's first companies to achieve profitability. From 1999 to 2001, CNET was a member of the NASDAQ-100 index...
.
- On July 10, 2006, the service was covered by diggDiggDigg is a social news website. Prior to Digg v4, its cornerstone function consisted of letting people vote stories up or down, called digging and burying, respectively. Digg's popularity prompted the creation of copycat social networking sites with story submission and voting systems...
, SlashdotSlashdotSlashdot is a technology-related news website owned by Geeknet, Inc. The site, which bills itself as "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters", features user-submitted and ‑evaluated current affairs news stories about science- and technology-related topics. Each story has a comments section...
, and Wired NewsWired NewsWired News is an online technology news website, formerly known as HotWired, that split off from Wired magazine when the magazine was purchased by Condé Nast Publishing in the 1990s. Wired News was owned by Lycos not long after the split, until Condé Nast purchased Wired News on July 11, 2006...
, which resulted in an increase of DNSDomain name systemThe Domain Name System is a hierarchical distributed naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participating entities...
requests from just over one million requests on July 9 to 30 million on July 11.
- Before 2007 OpenDNS was using the DNS Update API from DynDNSDynDNSDyn is an infrastructure as a service company that provides Internet DNS and email delivery services for commercial and private users. It originally provided a free dynamic DNS service, which allowed users to have a subdomain that points to a computer with regularly changing IP addresses, such as...
to handle updates from users with dynamic IPs.
- On October 2, 2006, OpenDNS launched PhishTankPhishTankPhishTank is an anti-phishing site.PhishTank was launched in October 2006 by entrepreneur David Ulevitch as an offshoot of OpenDNS. The company offers a community-based phish verification system where users submit suspected phishes and other users "vote" if it is a phish or not.PhishTank is used...
, an online collaborative anti-phishing database.
- On June 11, 2007, OpenDNS started advanced web filteringContent-control softwareContent-control software, also known as censorware or web filtering software, is a term for software designed and optimized for controlling what content is permitted to a reader, especially when it is used to restrict material delivered over the Web...
to optionally block adult content for their free accounts.
- On November 5, 2008, Nand Mulchandani, former head of VMwareVMwareVMware, Inc. is a company providing virtualization software founded in 1998 and based in Palo Alto, California, USA. The company was acquired by EMC Corporation in 2004, and operates as a separate software subsidiary ....
's security group, left VMware to join OpenDNS as new CEO, replacing founder David Ulevitch, who remained as the company's chief technology officer.
- In July 2009, OpenDNS was funded by Sequoia CapitalSequoia CapitalSequoia Capital is a Californian venture capital firm located on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, California. The Wall Street Journal has called Sequoia Capital "one of the highest-caliber venture firms", and noted that it is "one of Silicon Valley's most influential venture-capital firms"...
and GreylockGreylockGreylock Partners is one of the oldest venture capital firms, founded in 1965, with committed capital of over $2 billion under management. The firm focuses on early stage companies in the consumer, enterprise software and infrastructure as well as semiconductor sectors.Today, Greylock operates out...
.
- In November, 2009 David Ulevitch resumed his post as CEO of OpenDNS.
- In June 2010, OpenDNS launched "FamilyShield", a service designed to filter out sites with pornographicPornographyPornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...
content. The service uses the DNSDomain name systemThe Domain Name System is a hierarchical distributed naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participating entities...
addresses 208.67.222.123 and 208.67.220.123.
- On September 1, 2010, the World Economic ForumWorld Economic ForumThe World Economic Forum is a Swiss non-profit foundation, based in Cologny, Geneva, best known for its annual meeting in Davos, a mountain resort in Graubünden, in the eastern Alps region of Switzerland....
announced the company as a Technology Pioneer for 2011.
- On November 8, 2011, Founder and CEO David UlevitchDavid UlevitchDavid A. Ulevitch is founder and current CEO of OpenDNS and founder of EveryDNS.Ulevitch, the youngest child of Susan and Richard Ulevitch, was born and raised in Del Mar, California. Ulevitch's technology career started at an early age when he began working for ElectriCiti, a small regional ISP...
wrote an open letter to Congress about the Stop Online Piracy ActStop Online Piracy ActThe Stop Online Piracy Act , also known as H.R.3261, is a bill that was introduced to the United States House of Representatives on October 26, 2011, by Representative Lamar Smith and a bipartisan group of 12 initial co-sponsors. The bill expands the ability of U.S...
and the Protect IP ActProtect IP ActThe PROTECT IP Act is a proposed law with the stated goal of giving the US government and copyright holders additional tools to curb access to "rogue websites dedicated to infringing or counterfeit goods", especially those registered outside the...
.
Privacy issues, conflicts and Google redirection
While the OpenDNS name resolution service is free, people have complained about how the service handles failed requests. If a domain cannot be found, the service redirects users to a search page with search results and advertising unless the user has paid for an upgraded service. Users can switch this off via the OpenDNS Control Panel, or specify another page to use for missing domains. This behavior is similar to that of many large ISPs who also redirect failed requests to their own servers containing advertising.In 2007, David Ulevitch explained that in response to Dell installing "Browser Address Error Redirector" software on their PCs, OpenDNS started resolving requests to Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
.com. Some of the traffic is handled by OpenDNS typo-correcting service which corrects mistyped addresses and redirects keyword addresses to OpenDNS's search page, while the rest is transparently passed through to the intended recipient.
Also, a user's search request from the address bar of a browser that is configured to use the Google search engine (with a certain parameter configured) may be covertly redirected to a server owned by OpenDNS without the user's consent (but within the OpenDNS Terms of Service). Users can disable this behavior by logging in to their OpenDNS account and unchecking "OpenDNS proxy" option. Additionally, Mozilla users can fix this problem by installing an extension or by simply changing or removing the navclient sourceid from their keyword search URLs.
This redirection breaks some non-web applications which rely on getting an NXDOMAIN for non-existent domains, such as e-mail spam filtering, or VPN access where the private network's nameservers are consulted only when the public ones fail to resolve.
Server locations
- Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Chicago, Illinois, USA
- Dallas, Texas, USADallas, TexasDallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
- Frankfurt, Germany
- London, England, United Kingdom
- Los Angeles, California, USALos Angeles, CaliforniaLos Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
- Miami, Florida, USAMiami, FloridaMiami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
- New York, New York, USA
- Palo Alto, California, USAPalo Alto, CaliforniaPalo Alto is a California charter city located in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, United States. The city shares its borders with East Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Stanford, Portola Valley, and Menlo Park. It is...
- Seattle, Washington, USASeattle, WashingtonSeattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
- SingaporeSingaporeSingapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
- Washington, DC, USA