Jun
17
Enhance Your Network Connection With OpenDNS
Filed Under Ubuntu
I blogged about openDNS last year, but recently I was reminded about how nice this service is. OpenDNS can do a number of things for your network connection, either residential or commercial. If you’d like to hear more about OpenDNS please visit the OpenDNS site.
Using OpenDNS on Ubuntu 8.04
There are two ways to activate OpenDNS on Ubuntu 8.04. Graphically or via the CLI. I’ll outline both.
Using the graphical method you’ll need to navigate to “System > Admin > Network”, and select the “DNS” tab. You will need to unlock access to make changes by selecting the “Unlock” button. Once it has been unlocked you can “Add” additional DNS Servers. Add the following two addresses to your list:
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220
To do the same via the command line simply add the following line to the end of the file /etc/dhcp3/dhclient.conf:
prepend domain-name-servers 208.67.222.222,208.67.220.220;
For information on configuring OpenDNS on your router or DNS Server see the getting started with OpenDNS page.
You can also verify that you’re using OpenDNS by visiting this URL:
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What about updating the records about your account? I couldn’t get either the official inadyn or their win33 version under wine to work with OpenDNS. I need this in order to have network statistics and many other nice features.
I had inadyn work with dnsomatic/opendns under Ubuntu 7.10.
Instructions in French here, but the config file should be easy to understand:
http://www.commentcamarche.net/faq/sujet-8812-installer-un-client-dyndns
OpenDNS is great.
Been using OpenDNS for a long time, and really love it. I especially like the fact that you can block access to some web sites without the need to setup any software on the computer: with young kids in our house, that’s one extra level of protection to make sure they don’t end up surfing in dark corners of the internet.
Hi there,
I used OpenDNS but found out it doesn’t deal with rsync well. I did also put up a bug and later came to know it was due to OpenDNS issue.
I think is better to install your own dns cache
$sudo apt-get install bind
and put nameserver 127.0.0.1
in /etc/resolv.conf
that is all
test it with digg foo.com @127.0.0.1
It’s also probably not a great idea if you’re in Australasia as there aren’t any servers in this continent (by the looks of the ping times).
This means that you’re ISP’s or some other closer DNS server is likely to be significantly faster, possibly to the tune of 200ms
>possibly to the tune of 200ms
Looks like their ping is not that bad in most parts of the world:
http://just-ping.com/index.php?vh=208.67.222.222&s=ping!
And ping time is only part of the equation.
Lots of ISP DNS servers are poorly configured, have a small cache (and therefore perform lots of parent/autoritative DNS requests) or plain suck.
OpenDNS seems to give better results than most ISP.
Your mileage may vary.
sebsauvage:
I tried this with the inadyn package from ubuntu repositories and getting the following result. Both with the command line parameters and from /etc/inadyn.conf it is the same:
:~$ inadyn –username myusername –password mypass –alias all.dnsomatic.com –dyndns_server_name updates.dnsomatic.com –dyndns_server_url /nic/update?
INADYN: Started ‘INADYN version 1.96′ - dynamic DNS updater.
I:INADYN: IP address for alias ‘all.dnsomatic.com’ needs update to ‘85.99.163.14′
W:INADYN: Error validating DYNDNS svr answer. Check usr,pass,hostname!
I also tried with the win32 file through wine which doesn’t work either. That version has a –secure parameter. I made a lot of research and tried everything I could find on the internet including their forums but none of them worked! I always get this error.
@sinan:
Don’t use the command-line: Create the config file /etc/inadyn.conf
then run: sudo /usr/sbin/inadyn
and check syslog: grep INADYN /var/log/syslog
Is you login/password registered on dnsomatic.com ?
(It’s the same login as OpenDNS).
@sebsauvage:
I didn’t knnow that I had to enable the account on dnsomatic.com. Now it is working. Thanks a lot.
@sinan: You’re welcome.