I sincerely hope that Cisco keeps the OpenDNS Home free offering around, as it's by far the best filtering service for families I've used. Sign up, block inappropriate categories through the service, and point your router to the DNS IPs and you're done. (Oh, and grab the IP autoupdater.) Keeping the kids (and adults) safe is my favorite aspect of OpenDNS.
From the "we just got acquired" FAQ:
> The free service will continue to operate. It’s part of who we are, and Cisco loves who we are. We wouldn’t have entered into this agreement if we believed our free service would be in jeopardy. On contrary, Cisco’s commitment back to you is to maintain OpenDNS’s DNS services exactly as it is today. In their words: “This level of service for all users is a priority.”
Curious, what are the worries you're keeping kids safe from? I've got two daughters, now 7 and 8, and since they were born they've had unmonitored, unfiltered[1] IP connectivity. My parents did the same (well, with BBSes at first). The only thing I've ever wanted to filter out is the "kids" stuff since it's often so bad (e.g., Netflix for kids has lots of dumb shit, or those Flash games my kids like so much are ... low quality.) What am I missing?
(If auto updates are on, that pretty much eliminates exploits installing malware. (Assuming no one's gonna waste a 0day to install some spam/ad junk.))
1: The only filtering is client side, an ad blocker so they don't grow up accustomed to adverts. And just for general sanity - the web's rather obnoxious otherwise.
Cisco has a poor track record in the consumer space. While I commend them on making that statement, Cisco's MO is not free and consumer focused products. While I sincerely hope that this doesn't end up the end result I am going to likely move to other resolvers as I don't want to be part of Cisco's IP going forward...
It was fun while it lasted, but personally I don't trust the path forward.
1. Don't link paywall articles like that, it's really annoying.
2. Is it sad that while OpenDNS has been a handy stopgap for me while I get other options in place, my first thought is "well, there goes OpenDNS..."
I spent quite a bit of my earlier tech days as a Cisco admin, so I have grown to hate them with a fiery passion only reserved for entities that buck/subvert standards and license companies to death because they have market dominance.
> 2. Is it sad that while OpenDNS has been a handy stopgap for me while I get other options in place, my first thought is "well, there goes OpenDNS..."
I'm quite happy with dnsmadeeasy. It's a paid service, but cheap enough to compete with the time cost of me setting up DNS on my own servers.
Slowly, I've been more and more adept of paying for the services I do use. Also, more and more, there are good SaaS offerings at the price point that doesn't make me think too much about the expense (up to 50USD/year).
I don't like the fact that mainstream publications (NYT, WSJ, Grauniad) show up on HN this often, especially the paywalled ones, but at this point just have your browser forge referrals for WSJ and always tell it you're coming from Google.
There's refcontrol[1] for Firefox. There are other options for Chrome[2].
Wonderful, another product for Cisco to buy and ruin (see Linksys). OpenDNS was good because it offered an alternative choice to Google's DNS and allowed you to do basic parental control filtering at the DNS level (which is surprisingly effective).
Congrats to David Ulevitch for building a great company and taking it to a successful conclusion! Well done. I could tell he was on a good trajectory when he hired away one of my more capable colleagues at a previous employer. :)
They'd be dumb to shut down the consumer DNS product. It's a goldmine of useful security data they can funnel back into their other products. Also, DNS doesn't cost much to run.
OpenDNS is a great service. It has been my DNS server for at least 6 months now. I've turned off Tumblr, Facebook, Techcrunch, WSJ, NYTimes, & many others - but not Hacker News. Still, it has greatly minimized my web distractions.
Congrats to davidu and team, you folks made an awesome product and I'm excited to see how Cisco can integrate it in their products as well as what they plan on doing with it in the future.
The way they handled security when that guy made shellcode for IOS was pretty reprehensible. Apart from flat out refusing to believe it at first, I believe they tried to get him fired as well as using legal tactics.
And in licensing model, be sure to include adding checks to lock out fair competiton ("genuine" checks). There's probably some other shitty things they've done that I'm not recalling ATM.
But otherwise? Well I probably am partial to what I first learned. But I recently tried Fortinet, and the configuration is so braindead stupid, I felt bad for all the times I got annoyed with Cisco.
And there goes the "Open" part of OpenDNS. With Cisco's strong ties to the NSA and with its general attitude of supporting censorship in many countries around the world, I'd stay away from using OpenDNS' servers from now on.
FYI, opennic is far more than just an alternative resolver to OpenDNS. OpenNIC is running an alternative set of roots, with TLDs that aren't agreed to by the regular DNS-managing bodies (like ICANN). That may be fine with you (opinion on ICANN's handling of new TLD's is a subject for another time), but be aware that you're seeing a different DNS with opennic than you would be with OpenDNS or google's 8.8.8.8
[+] [-] ljoshua|10 years ago|reply
From the "we just got acquired" FAQ:
> The free service will continue to operate. It’s part of who we are, and Cisco loves who we are. We wouldn’t have entered into this agreement if we believed our free service would be in jeopardy. On contrary, Cisco’s commitment back to you is to maintain OpenDNS’s DNS services exactly as it is today. In their words: “This level of service for all users is a priority.”
[+] [-] nateabele|10 years ago|reply
And were those words in a press release, or a contract?
> If we believed our free service would be in jeopardy. [emphasis added]
Oh look, good intentions. I'm sure everything will be fine then. </sarc>
Question: if it's based on bad experience, repeated ad nauseam, is it still called cynicism?
[+] [-] MichaelGG|10 years ago|reply
(If auto updates are on, that pretty much eliminates exploits installing malware. (Assuming no one's gonna waste a 0day to install some spam/ad junk.))
1: The only filtering is client side, an ad blocker so they don't grow up accustomed to adverts. And just for general sanity - the web's rather obnoxious otherwise.
[+] [-] windexh8er|10 years ago|reply
It was fun while it lasted, but personally I don't trust the path forward.
[+] [-] arca_vorago|10 years ago|reply
2. Is it sad that while OpenDNS has been a handy stopgap for me while I get other options in place, my first thought is "well, there goes OpenDNS..."
I spent quite a bit of my earlier tech days as a Cisco admin, so I have grown to hate them with a fiery passion only reserved for entities that buck/subvert standards and license companies to death because they have market dominance.
[+] [-] allenbrunson|10 years ago|reply
the management of this site has said many times that they are fine with paywalled submissions.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9796231
[+] [-] sergiosgc|10 years ago|reply
I'm quite happy with dnsmadeeasy. It's a paid service, but cheap enough to compete with the time cost of me setting up DNS on my own servers.
Slowly, I've been more and more adept of paying for the services I do use. Also, more and more, there are good SaaS offerings at the price point that doesn't make me think too much about the expense (up to 50USD/year).
[+] [-] barlescabbage|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jedisct1|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] huhtenberg|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] al_|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] omh|10 years ago|reply
http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&url=http://www.w...
[+] [-] blfr|10 years ago|reply
There's refcontrol[1] for Firefox. There are other options for Chrome[2].
[1] https://addons.mozilla.org/En-us/firefox/addon/refcontrol/
[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9531941
[+] [-] Someone1234|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 0xdeadbeefbabe|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] omh|10 years ago|reply
But do they have any other freemium services like the personal/family tiers of OpenDNS? I can't think of any.
[+] [-] m-app|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] declan|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jackgavigan|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rahimnathwani|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] philip1209|10 years ago|reply
(I started OpenLate)
[+] [-] xxdesmus|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] intrasight|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nullrouted|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] stephengillie|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wityak|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] MichaelGG|10 years ago|reply
And in licensing model, be sure to include adding checks to lock out fair competiton ("genuine" checks). There's probably some other shitty things they've done that I'm not recalling ATM.
But otherwise? Well I probably am partial to what I first learned. But I recently tried Fortinet, and the configuration is so braindead stupid, I felt bad for all the times I got annoyed with Cisco.
[+] [-] worklogin|10 years ago|reply
Support is also a bear. I can't think of a time Cisco has significantly improved an acquisition in the near term.
[+] [-] tzakrajs|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] danielweber|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|10 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] nifoc|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jdorfman|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mitkok|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] danielweber|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] higherpurpose|10 years ago|reply
I think https://www.opennicproject.org is a nice alternative.
I'd probably be very vigilant about their future contributions to Libsodium as well.
[+] [-] lcswi|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] g-clef|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] drzaiusapelord|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jedisct1|10 years ago|reply
Being paid to work on opensource projects is a dream of many, but it rarely happens :(
[+] [-] snowpanda|10 years ago|reply