| Feature | ||||
| Publicly available | After April 29, 2006 | Since July 8, 2003 | ||
| Cost | Currently free, some features may require a paid account in the future. |
Affordable
commercial licenses, free for personal, non-profit, and light business use. |
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| Expiration | Currently none, website indicates basic DNS service will always be free, additional features may be available only with a paid account. | None, we don't want to aggravate system administrators with software activation or renewal techniques, it will keep working forever. | ||
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Installs behind your firewall |
No, hosted service | Yes, on Windows servers | ||
|
Works regardless of Internet provider |
No, if the ISP forces their DNS then OpenDNS will not work. | Yes | ||
|
Customize blocked page |
Somewhat customizable | Yes, use any web-server software to serve your own HTML, ASP, PHP blocked page, or our samples. | ||
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Customize not found page |
Somewhat customizable | No, non-existent or misspelled domains don't resolve anywhere, as DNS was meant to be. | ||
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Turn blocking off/on, for certain users or with a password |
No, the service cannot distinguish between individual clients on the inside of your network. (all clients are seen as coming from the same IP as your Firewall or NAT device) | Yes, each client is identified by their inside IP address. Individual clients can turn blocking off/on based on whatever method you develop; login script, Active Directory integrated, or unique password. | ||
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Multiple tiers of site availability vs. blocking |
Not within the same network, configurable based on the external IP of your Firewall or NAT device. | Yes, up to 3 levels per running instance of DNS Redirector. Achieve more levels by running multiple instances of the software, even on the same server. | ||
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Ability to block everything |
No,
OpenDNS relies on revenue from advertisers, as a result many advertisement domains (which often serve spyware/ malware) cannot be blocked. |
Yes,
block everything and allow only a handful of sites that you specify. - or - Block certain categories and any other domain names you choose. |
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| Block surfing after hours, bypass for some users | No | Yes | ||
| Redundancy | Yes, using Anycast routing to direct DNS traffic to 1 of their 6 datacenters. Provides 4 IPs. | Yes, run as many DNS Redirector servers as your licensed for. | ||
|
Third party data-mining, proxy, or security concerns |
Non-existent or misspelled domains still resolve, and to a 'guide' page with advertisements, today this is the bulk of their revenue stream. Google and some other site traffic is proxy'd by their servers. Historical data is kept to produce statistical data to account holders. | DNS resolution is kept between you and your ISP. | ||
| Statistical data | Yes, lots of cool graphs and tables | Option to log all DNS query/responses and actions. | ||
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Provide network down or emergency message |
No, if the Internet connection is unavailable so is OpenDNS. | Yes | ||
| Support | via Email or online forum | via Email, phone, or screen-sharing with a license, on-site consulting is also available. | ||
| Funding/motivation | Started by David Ulevitch; received $2 million in venture capital from Minor Ventures/CNET founder Halsey Minor. Offers faster, smarter, safer DNS resolution. Makes $20K per day in advertising revenue. | Started by JP Maurer; built out of necessity for a family-focused hotel offering free WiFi. Expanded use of the software to customers of his IT consulting firm thereby eliminating support calls for the cleanup of spyware, malware, and porn. |