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OpenDNS Makes $20k/day Filtering Phishing And Porn Sites (techcrunch.com)
46 points by nickb 568 days ago | 8 comments


6 points by fallentimes 568 days ago | link

I started using these guys about a year ago and haven't looked back. Highly recommended for the shortcuts feature alone, let alone the added security they provide.

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4 points by Tichy 568 days ago | link

Might be a good service, but the name is highly inappropriate. Censorship is the opposite of being open. Perhaps "CensorDNS" would have been more accurate.

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4 points by ckinnan 567 days ago | link

Blocking criminal phishing sites isn't censorship.

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4 points by jm4 567 days ago | link

You've got a point about the name, but the filtering is opt-in and when a site is blocked by a filter you get a message explaining why. You can use it as plain old free DNS if you're looking to avoid the ad-filled failed lookup redirects that ISPs have been pushing lately. All the extras are completely optional.

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1 point by tlrobinson 567 days ago | link

Another advantage of OpenDNS is security. It's rather coincidental this got posted on same day a massive DNS vulnerability was leaked: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=252865

I would hope that all the major ISPs have patched their DNS servers by now, but if your not sure it might be a good idea to switch to OpenDNS, at least temporarily.

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1 point by nazgulnarsil 568 days ago | link

how do they stay up to date on what they block and what they allow?

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3 points by andreyf 568 days ago | link

From the article:

OpenDNS also uses their community to drive new features and tag new malware sites. Users submit ideas and vote on them in a Digg-like interface. And when a user blacklists a site and tags it with a category, other users are asked to verify. If they do, the site is added to the general category blacklist as well.

Sounds exploitable...

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1 point by Tichy 568 days ago | link

There have been problems with that kind of approach before, for example for companies that ended up on spam blacklists without justification.

I don't like it :-(

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