My name is Massimo, I live in Italy but my heart resides in the Philippines since 1997.
I.ph free blogging service is about to shut down, they tought of locking blogs for new posts so I can't even properly inform you with a new post. I reserved the musante.i.ph domain to DotPH until when (if) that service will be activated my new blog will be here:
My son is growing up very fast (he’s 11) of course he is beginning using Internet. I think the better way for children to use the ‘net is together with their parents anyway, better safe than sorry, I decided to activate a content filtering service.
Open DNS offers an excellent free content filtering service. Enabling it it’s only matter of subscribing, enabling content filtering options and replacing in your network configuration Open DNS servers in place of those provided by your ISP.
Handling the dynamic IP
Open DNS works its content filtering on IP address basis. In most Internet connection IP addresses are dynamically assigned by ISP and may change every time you connect. This means that Open DNS must be kept updated on your current IP address in order to apply your content filtering preferences. This operation can be automatically executed by a small program installed in the client computer.
Ddclient
Ddclient is a small Perl program designed to update dynamic DNS services. Let’s now see how I installed and configured it.
First I installed ddclient by a simple apt-get command.
sudo apt-get install ddclient
the installation asks many parameters needed to connect to a DNS service. I didn’t care much about it because Open DNS provides the configuration file needed to properly update their servers. After installation completed I edited ddclient configurations files:
I replaced current configuration with the Open DNS one
sudo gedit /etc/ddclient.conf
…
##
## OpenDNS.com account-configuration
##
use=web, web=whatismyip.orgserver=updates.opendns.com
protocol=dyndns2
login=opendns_username
password=opendns_password
opendns_network_label…
I also configured ddclient in order to run it as a demon
sudo vim /etc/default/ddclient
# Configuration for ddclient scripts
# generated from debconf on sab set 5 18:37:22 CEST 2009
#
# /etc/default/ddclient
# Set to “true” if ddclient should be run every time a new ppp connection is
# established. This might be useful, if you are using dial-on-demand
run_ipup=”false“
# Set to “true” if ddclient should run in daemon mode
run_daemon=”true“
# Set the time interval between the updates of the dynamic DNS name in seconds.
# This option only takes effect if the ddclient runs in daemon mode.
daemon_interval=”300″
ddclient so configured starts as usually with
sudo /etc/init.d/ddclient start
Conclusion
Of course DNS level block is not 100% safe but you have at least to learn what a DNS server is and how to change it before you manage to find a workaround.
Open DNS offers an excellent free service. I started using it as DNS server about one year ago because my ISP DNS servers go down every now and then. I never experienced problems since then. I think Open DNS is a good step for securing your network not only for parental control.
Links
I have set My Router to use Open Dns I had the same Problem with my ISP. I don’t use it to Filter Content Only for the Connection Problem I would Reccomend it to Everyone.I am not Sure How my Computer is Configured because I recently Removed Ubuntu as It was a Little Hard on My System and Installed Linux Mint which I am Very Happy with as Almost everything is Included that I need Flash Player and Java Support.
Posted by Chris at September 18, 2009, 10:45 pmMy four-year-old granddaughter is here for a visit and she already knows how to connect to the Internet. Parents need to be careful.
Posted by Maxi Malone at September 19, 2009, 10:47 pmThanks everybody for commenting! Glad this post is insteresting you.
Posted by musante at September 19, 2009, 11:09 pmon parental control Pg-13 is usually satisfies most parents, but it is even possible to allow access only to PG rated material if desired. download parental control
Posted by Hulipopo at October 8, 2009, 6:29 pmThanks Hulipopo but I prefer a server side solution, like OpenDNS, because it works also with mobile WIFI devices like PSP and Nintendo DS.
Posted by musante at October 8, 2009, 10:52 pm
Hello! Just blogging hopping.
I like your post
Have a nice day! Cheers!
-Red@ i redebel
Posted by iredebel at September 16, 2009, 2:43 pm