They did provide a switch in the user control panel to disable that feature again but this is again a company that is forcing the user to take action for something that they changed.

Open DNS has been covered before on this website and I just want to remind everyone that Open DNS can be used to get rid of search boxes from your provider. Setup of Open DNS takes a few minutes at most and should be doable for everyone.

By using the service you start using the Open DNS servers instead of the ones from the Internet Provider. DNS meaning Domain Name System which is responsible for “translating” domain names into IP addresses.

Open DNS provides additional advantages such as phishing protection (that is not slowing down your computer), parental controls, typo corrections and shortcuts. Shortcuts work like Firefox keywords, you basically assign a phrase to an url and can use the phrase to open the website.

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Those lookups are handled by dns servers and recently a serious vulnerability has been discovered that makde it possible to manipulate those queries. This could be used to send users to a different location which could open the door for serious phishing incidents. Just think about the possibility to fake eBay or Amazon and send visitors to those fake sites even if they type in the real address.

Doxpara Research, run by security researcher Dan Kaminsky, created a script that is checking if the DNS server that you are currently using is vulnerable to the attack. This is done by pressing a button on their website. I tested the script in Firefox and Internet Explorer and both lookups work fine.

One solution if the DNS server is found to be vulnerable would be to switch to the Open DNS system. David Bradley, an active reader of my website, covered the topic as well on his Significant Figures website.

Is your DNS server still vulnerable? Let me know!

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This was partially answered in the comments by John Roberts (according to the Open DNS website the VP of Product Development) who confirmed that the connection itself naturally takes longer (in milliseconds) but that the open dns servers were optimized to make up for it. This would of course only be an advantage if the servers of the ISP would not be that optimized. The open dns team soon opens a new server location in London which should speed up things for European users. (not saying that they are slow at the moment, they will just be some milliseconds faster with the server in London). You see what I mean if you traceroute a server in the United States and Europe.

But it is not speed that I would like to talk about. Speed is important but not everything. Open Dns offers two features that your normal ISP does not offer. First, it has a automatic phishing detection routine which warns if you attempt to visit a website that was marked as a phishing website. They do rely on more than one source for up to date information, a nice feature.

Second they do fix typos. Try to access a website like www.ghacks.net and you will automatically be redirected to the correct site. If the typo does not have one solution but more than one a list of possible results will be shown. Nice as well.

They also offer another feature that they are not writing about on their website, maybe because they are unaware of it. Listen up, hehe. Some countries decided to ban domains by banning the dns entries of those domains. If you use the dns of a provider in that country you will not be able to visit that website unless you use the IP address instead.

Another dns server fixes that problem. You are free and ready to visit the website and it will show itself completely. Free Speech at its finest. You might want to try their service if you are living in a country that uses this (weak) method to censor content on the web.

The open dns team published a great guide on how to setup the new dns server on your system and / or router. It normally is only a matter of seconds to enter new dns servers. After that is done you are already using the open dns servers.

If you run into troubles you should try the faq section of their site which has answers to common difficulties.

Oh, I would prefer answers from Allison Rhodes instead of John Roberts if the open dns team wants to comment on this. She just looks that much cuter than him :P (see for yourself)

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