OpenDNS, DNS goes open source

Recently at Imulus we started utilizing a new DNS service by the name of OpenDNS. It’s an alternative to the DNS servers provided by our internet service provider. The key to OpenDNS is that it’s a project supported by people who embrace an open source mentality. In essence, people who believe that a fast and reliable DNS server should be a public good.

Here’s the jist — when a computer connects to the internet it talks to a Domain Name Server in order to find locations of websites and then communicate with them. Therefore the speed of a domain server can drastically effect how quickly a page is loaded on a user’s system. OpenDNS provides a huge cache of sites, meaning that a connection to a site doesn’t have to make as many jumps to bring in the content. Further, OpenDNS is smart, it takes a misspelled address like www.google.cmo and turns it into www.google.com automatically. Last, OpenDNS has phishing protection for sites that attempt to spam or steal personal information.

All these factors have lead us to use OpenDNS, and we strongly suggest you give it a gander.