Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: jr2 on September 10, 2007, 03:15:49 am
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EDIT: REstored... sorry for snapping.
www.opendns.com
Give it a try. Then, post what you think. I found it with StumbleUpon, and Huggybaby already was using it ( he beat me). It does speed up the connections; try it and let me know your opinion.. if you've already tried it and/or are currently using it, also let me know what you think about it. Big grin
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OpenDNS is safer
OpenDNS protects you from phishing — bad websites trying to steal your personal information. When you try to go to a phishing site, we let you know. We also let you optionally block adult sites as a category, or individual websites of any type. These services help you better protect those on your network from websites they shouldn't be visiting.
Learn more.
OpenDNS is faster
You use DNS every time you use the Internet. The speed of your DNS service determines how quickly websites load for you. That's why you want your DNS service to be blazing. OpenDNS is so fast because we run some of the largest DNS caches around and do it on our own high-performance network.
Learn more.
OpenDNS is smarter
The address bar is how you navigate the Internet. We make your address bar more intelligent. With OpenDNS, you can create shortcuts that let you type something easy-to-remember into your address bar and leap straight where you want to go. And we'll correct your common spelling mistakes, on the fly. That means when you are typing fast and type yahoo.cmo instead of yahoo.com, you still get there.
Learn more.
OpenDNS is more reliable
Little is more frustrating than intermittent Internet outages. When your DNS service isn't working, you can't access the Internet. When you start using OpenDNS, your days of dealing with DNS-related downtime will be over. We know reliability is important, and we stand behind ours.
Learn more.
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i dont need no stinkin opendns. + i think its spyware :p
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:wtf: It's a DNS server. You don't download anything.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name_system
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yeah so its still HAX!
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:wtf: It's a DNS server. You don't download anything.
One of the quickest ways I can think of to gather information on surfing habits I can think of would be to persuade people to abandon their own DNS servers and simply use yours. You'd only need to log DNS requests and you'd instantly have a record of where anyone was going. And unlike tracking cookies there would be bugger all the user could do about it except changing back to their original server.
Now I'm not saying that this is what they are doing but you shouldn't assume that there aren't nefarious purposes for getting people to switch DNS servers.
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:wtf: It's a DNS server. You don't download anything.
One of the quickest ways I can think of to gather information on surfing habits I can think of would be to persuade people to abandon their own DNS servers and simply use yours.
-What would you do with them?? I suppose you could track their e-mail and spam them.... I guess.
You'd only need to log DNS requests and you'd instantly have a record of where anyone was going.
They aleady do that. If they get a subpoena, you are logged.
Now I'm not saying that this is what they are doing but you shouldn't assume that there aren't nefarious purposes for getting people to switch DNS servers.
Good point.
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-What would you do with them?? I suppose you could track their e-mail and spam them.... I guess.
The drawback of using tracking cookies is that in general you
a) Have to convince someone to go to a website that uses them.
b) Can only track information on other websites that use the same cookie.
Using DNS would basically allow you to target ads at someone based on all the websites that they visited. That wouldn't work for an enterprise using this site but for a single user it could be pretty effective.
That said it's only one minor reason for setting up a nefarious DNS server. About a couple of minutes after I posted that I thought of a pretty effective phishing-esque scam I could do by setting up a dodgy DNS server which could net me millions were I so inclined.
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That said it's only one minor reason for setting up a nefarious DNS server. About a couple of minutes after I posted that I thought of a pretty effective phishing-esque scam I could do by setting up a dodgy DNS server which could net me millions were I so inclined.
But how would the individual be tracked? You would have their ISP's assigned IP, but not much else.
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In this broadband age that doesn't really change that much for a lot of people.
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What would you do with the IP address? You know that this IP address accessed these sites, but what then? You have no way of sending advertisements to an IP address. Am I missing something?
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I can think of a few ways you could use a known IP address for a Google Adsense style directed marketing system once you had enough people using your servers. However I've let myself get a little side tracked from my original use of this system.
The main money maker I can think of from this is not direct marketing but market research. Companies spend a fortune on this sort of stuff. How much do you think they would pay to know how many people visit their competitors websites? What time of day they go there? If their adverts are working (by checking DNS entries against the time the ad played on TV). Big networks using the DNS servers would skew the numbers somewhat but no system of polling is perfect and this one does give the companies involved a huge amount of data to look through. 300 billion resolves along with the date and IP address is a lot of information. And that's all just so someone can figure out more ways to stick their hand in your pocket. :D
Anyway that's one of the less paranoid ideas where I'm assuming that this is simply a way for a business to make money. A criminal enterprise could make a hell of a lot more money much faster with a system like this.
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OK, OK...
(http://i8.tinypic.com/6gcz6tl.png)
Computer World (http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9019951)
The New York Times (http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2006/11/01/a-faster-web-for-free/)
PC World (http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2006/11/01/a-faster-web-for-free/)
Unless these guys were all suckered in...
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Now I'm not saying that this is what they are doing but you shouldn't assume that there aren't nefarious purposes for getting people to switch DNS servers.
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OK, OK...
(http://i8.tinypic.com/6gcz6tl.png)
Computer World (http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9019951)
The New York Times (http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2006/11/01/a-faster-web-for-free/)
PC World (http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2006/11/01/a-faster-web-for-free/)
Unless these guys were all suckered in...
pc world is crap
never heard of computerworld
and dont live in NY
and my 2meg connection usualy operates at around 2.1 meg and you can set Vista to block tracking cookies.
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I don't care if their "legit" or not. It just looks like a great way for the MPAA, RIAA, and whatever other xxAAs there are out there to track people using torrents and/or rapid****.
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OK, let's set one thing straight right now:
YOUR ISP WILL NOT PROTECT YOUR DNS RECORDS FROM THE COURTS IF THEY HAVE A WARRANT OR W/E THEY NEED. They will turn your a** in. k? Your ISP uses DNS, just like everything else. ;)
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Yeah but ISPs have stood firm on not turning that information over just cause RIAA threatens to take them to court. Will these guys?
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Ya, ok, read it and tell me. Then give me the name of your ISP and I'll post their privacy policy.
Privacy Policy
This privacy statement ("Privacy Policy") covers all websites (such as, www.OpenDNS.com) owned and operated by OpenDNS, LLC ("OpenDNS", "we", "us", "our") and all associated services provided by OpenDNS. This Privacy Policy covers OpenDNS's treatment of personal information that it gathers when you access or use any of OpenDNS's websites or services. This policy also covers personal information that OpenDNS's business partners share with OpenDNS.
Please read the following to learn more about our privacy policy. By visiting our websites, submitting information or using any of our services, you are accepting the practices outlined in this Privacy Policy.
OpenDNS knows that you care about how your personal information is used and shared, and we take your privacy seriously. This is how we want to be treated to!
Information We Collect
DNS Services Customers
OpenDNS runs a Domain Name System (DNS) service. DNS translates the name (e.g., www.example.com) you type into the corresponding numerical address (e.g., 192.0.34.166) and gets you to the place you want to go. OpenDNS's DNS service collects non-personally-identifying information such as the date and time of each DNS request and the domain name requested.
In addition, OpenDNS also collects potentially personally-identifying information like the Internet Protocol (IP) addresses from which DNS requests are made. For its DNS services, OpenDNS temporarily stores logs to monitor and improve our quality of service, and to collect high-level aggregate statistics. For customers without an account, OpenDNS removes the IP address from its logs within 2 business days. For customers with an account, such data may be stored for as long as the account is open (although, customers with an account may also choose to have DNS data purged automatically, at any time, from within their account).
For customers using OpenDNS "Shortcuts" feature, DNS requests for certain domains may be directed through an HTTP proxy. The data from the HTTP proxy is kept for approximately 12 hours for technical reasons. Encrypted connections are never proxied.
OpenDNS may aggregate personally-identifying information about the behavior of visitors to its websites and customers of its DNS services. For example, OpenDNS may monitor which domains are most requested by its customers, or how many phishing attempts were blocked by its services. OpenDNS may displays this information publicly or provide it to others in a non-personally identifiable aggregated form (e.g. statistical form).
Collection in General
Information We Automatically Collect
We may receive and store certain types of non-personally identifiable information whenever you interact with us, including, without limitation, the sort information that web browsers and servers typically make available, such as the browser type, language preference, referring site, and the date and time of each visitor request. OpenDNS's purpose in collecting such information is to better understand how OpenDNS's visitors use its website. From time to time, OpenDNS may release non-personally-identifying information in the aggregate, e.g., by publishing a report on trends in the usage of its website. OpenDNS also collects potentially personally-identifying information like the Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of website visitors.
Information You Provide To Us
We may receive and store any information you enter on our website or provide to us in any other way. For example, in order to use certain services or functions of our websites, you may be required to register with a username and email address on the OpenDNS website. OpenDNS collects such information only insofar as is it deems reasonably necessary or appropriate to fulfill the purpose of the user's interaction with OpenDNS.
You can always refuse to supply personally-identifying information, with the caveat that it may prevent you from engaging in certain activities.
Cookies
A cookie is a string of information that a website stores on a visitor's computer, and that the visitor's browser provides to the website each time the visitor returns. OpenDNS uses cookies to help OpenDNS identify and track visitors, their usage of OpenDNS website, and their website access preferences. OpenDNS visitors who do not wish to have cookies placed on their computers should set their browsers to refuse cookies before using OpenDNS's websites, with the drawback that certain features of OpenDNS's websites may not function properly without the aid of cookies.
Deleting an OpenDNS account.
All statistics and logs collected on behalf of an account holder are purged upon deletion of an OpenDNS account, although OpenDNS may retain such information for longer periods of time as part of its back-up emergency system.
Disclosure of Personally-Identifying Information
We neither rent nor sell your personal information to anyone. We share your personal information only with your consent or to our business partners and affiliates as described below:
Personnel/Agents
OpenDNS discloses potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information only to those of its employees, agents and contractors that (i) need to know that information in order to process it on OpenDNS's behalf or to provide services available at or through OpenDNS's websites and services, and (ii) that have agreed not to disclose it to others. Some of those employees, agents and contractors may be located outside of your home country; by using OpenDNS's websites, you consent to the transfer of such information to them.
Affiliated Businesses
We are affiliated with a variety of businesses and work closely with them in order to provide our services to users. We will only share personal information with affiliates to the extent that is necessary for such affiliates to provide the services. For example, when a website visitor searches on OpenDNS, the IP address and query are shared with OpenDNS's advertising partners. We require our affiliates to provide the same level of privacy protection that we do and they do not have the right to share or use personal information for any purpose other than for an authorized transaction. Some of our affiliates may be located outside of your home country; by using OpenDNS's websites, you consent to the transfer of such information to them.
Business Transfers
If OpenDNS or substantially all of its assets were transferred or acquired (for example, in the case of a merger or acquisition) customer information would likely be one of the assets that is transferred or acquired by a third party.
Other Disclosures
OpenDNS may disclose potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information when OpenDNS believe in good faith that release is required by law, court order, or when OpenDNS believes in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect the property or rights of OpenDNS, third parties or the public at large.
Third Parties
This policy does not apply to the practices of third parties that OpenDNS does not own or control, or to individuals that OpenDNS does not employ or manage. OpenDNS websites may permit you to link to other websites on the Internet, and other websites may contain links to the OpenDNS websites. These other websites are not under OpenDNS control. The privacy and security practices of websites linked to or from the OpenDNS website are not covered by this Privacy Policy, and OpenDNS is not responsible for the privacy or security practices or the content of such websites.
Communications
If you are a registered member of an OpenDNS website and have supplied your email address, OpenDNS may occasionally send you an email to tell you about new features, solicit your feedback, or just keep you up to date with what's going on with OpenDNS and our products. We primarily use our corporate blog and website to communicate this type of information, so we expect to keep this type of email to a minimum. If you are a registered member of an OpenDNS website and do not wish to receive such emails, please follow the instructions included in each email sent. If you send us a request (for example via a support email or via one of our feedback mechanisms), we reserve the right to publish it in order to help us clarify or respond to your request or to help us support other users.
Conditions of Use
If you decide to visit the OpenDNS website, your visit and any possible dispute over privacy is subject to this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use, including limitations on damages, arbitration of disputes, and application of California state law.
Privacy Policy Changes
OpenDNS may change its Privacy Policy from time to time, and in OpenDNS's sole discretion. OpenDNS encourages visitors to frequently check this page for any changes to its Privacy Policy. If changes are made, notice will be given in the OpenDNS blog at http://blog.opendns.com/. Your continued use of our sites and services after any change in this Privacy Policy will constitute your acceptance of such change.
Questions
OpenDNS's full contact information, including location, may be found on our Contact page at http://www.opendns.com/contact/.
Creative Commons
Creative Commons License This work (the Privacy Policy) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License.
Effective Date of This Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy is effective as of July 22, 2007.
My ISP's Privacy notice:
TIME WARNER CABLE AND AFFILIATED ISPs SUBSCRIBER PRIVACY NOTICE
We at your local Time Warner Cable-affiliated cable operator ("Operator," "we" or "us") are providing this Notice to inform you of our practices regarding personally identifiable information that may be collected in the course of providing services to you over our cable system, including video programming services and ISP Services ("cable-based services"). This notice is also being provided on behalf of Time Warner Cable's affiliated ISPs whose services are being provided over our cable systems (America Online and Road Runner and any other affiliated ISP Service which we may offer in the future (collectively, "Affiliated ISPs")). This Notice is being provided in accordance with the Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984 (the "Cable Act"). In addition to the Cable Act, this Notice also makes reference to the Electronic Communications Policy Act of 1986, as amended ("ECPA"), and the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act of 1998 ("Copyright Act"), which are also applicable if you are a subscriber to an ISP service provided by Operator over its cable system (an "ISP Service").
This Notice pertains to personally identifiable information about you that you have furnished to Operator, or that Operator has collected, in connection with the provision of cable-based services to you. The provisions of this Notice also apply as indicated herein to personally identifiable information that you have furnished to Affiliated ISPs or that they have collected in connection with their provision of ISP Service. Personally identifiable information does not include aggregate data that does not identify you.
The Cable Act's subscriber privacy provisions apply to cable operators, as defined in the privacy provisions of the Cable Act ("Cable Operators"), providing cable and other services over their systems. Our Affiliated ISPs intend to conduct their privacy practices as set forth in this Notice, which provides subscribers to their ISP Services (i.e., their ISP services as provided by Operator over its cable system) with information required by the privacy provisions of the Cable Act, whether or not these Affiliated ISPs qualify as Cable Operators. Our Affiliated ISPs may provide subscribers with other information concerning their general privacy practices through additional policies and notices, which will continue to apply unless inconsistent with this Notice. When using our Affiliated ISPs, you may wish to review these additional policies and notices.
The provisions of this Notice do not apply to non-affiliated, third party ISPs (e.g., EarthLink) whose ISP Services are provided on Operator's cable systems. These non-affiliated ISPs may have their own privacy policies, which you may want to review. You should also be aware that most of the content and applications provided through your ISP Service are provided by third parties, and that by accessing the online content of these third parties you may cause or enable the transmission by the system to them of personally identifiable information. The policies described in this Notice do not apply to such third parties. These third parties may have their own privacy policies, which you may also want to review.
Seven areas are covered by this Notice:
1. The nature of personally identifiable information collected about you and the way such information is used;
2. The nature, frequency, and purpose of any disclosure that may be made of such information;
3. Disclosure of information to governmental entities and through legal process;
4. The period of time such information will be maintained;
5. Your online communications on your ISP Service;
6. The times and place you may have access to the information collected; and
7. Your rights under the Cable Act.
1. Collection and Use of Personally Identifiable Information
In order that Operator can provide service to you and operate efficiently, Operator collects the following types of information about you that may constitute personally identifiable information: your name, home, email and work address, telephone numbers, social security number, and credit and credit card information. Depending on the services Operator provides to you, our records also may include information on billing, payment, damage and security deposits, maintenance and repairs, how many television sets you have connected to cable or that are cable ready, the location of these television sets in your home, the number and location of PCs in your home and your PC configuration, the service options you have chosen, and the number of converters, cable modems or other cable equipment installed in your home. We may remotely check your PC to the extent necessary to determine whether it is susceptible to unauthorized access or the dissemination of computer viruses. We may also keep records of research concerning subscriber satisfaction with our services, which are obtained from subscriber interviews and questionnaires. Additionally, Operator may have a record of whether you rent or own your home in the event that landlord permission is required prior to installing our cable facilities. We also maintain subscriber correspondence (via e-mail or otherwise) and, if you are an ISP Service subscriber, we may keep records of violations and alleged violations of your ISP Service Subscription Agreement with Operator (your "Subscription Agreement") and other rules governing your use of the ISP Service. Finally, Operator may sometimes obtain from third parties publicly available information about our subscribers.
The information described in the preceding paragraph is used for purposes such as the following: to make sure you are being billed properly for the services you receive; to send you pertinent information about Operator's services; to maintain or improve the quality of Operator's services; to answer questions from subscribers (i.e., for troubleshooting); to ensure compliance with relevant law and contractual provisions; to market cable or other services or products that you may be interested in; and for tax and accounting purposes.
Operator's system, in delivering and routing the ISP Services, and the systems of Operator's Affiliated ISPs, may automatically log information concerning Internet addresses you contact, and the duration of your visits to such addresses. Operator does not use or disclose any personally identifiable information that may be derived from these logs for marketing, advertising or similar purposes. Operator, as described above, as well as your ISP, in providing the ISP Service to you, also has access to personally identifiable information about you or your ISP account, including the name and address associated with a given IP address or, possibly, one or more e-mail accounts. You have consented, in your Subscription Agreement, to the collection of personally identifiable information as described in this paragraph.
Under the Cable Act, a Cable Operator may also collect personally identifiable information over a cable system without subscribers' consent if it is necessary to provide services to subscribers, or to prevent unauthorized access to services or subscriber data.
Our Affiliated ISPs also may collect the following types of information that may constitute personally identifiable information:
--registration and account information, including your name, address, telephone number, screen names and email address(es), means of subscription, billing and payment (including credit card) information, and complaint and service history;
--account usage information, including information about how often and how long you use the relevant ISP Service, areas of the ISP Service visited and features of the ISP Service selected or used, and purchases that you have made through the ISP Service;
--technical information, including information about your computer system, its software and modem, and your geographical location;
--other subscriber information, including preference and other information you provide when you use or personalize your use of your ISP Service, information provided by our Affiliated ISPs' business partners, information you publish on the ISP Service, and information from other sources (for example, publicly available supplementary data).
The information collected by our Affiliated ISPs in connection with your use of their ISP Services may be used in connection with the provision and maintenance of the relevant ISP Service and to fulfill transactions that you request, to personalize or improve your online experience, or as otherwise necessary in the course of their businesses (for example, in audits, billing matters, or research). Our Affiliated ISPs may also use this information to provide advertising and other offers for goods and services to you, subject to the marketing preferences you may select when using their ISP Services. If you are a subscriber to one or more of our Affiliated ISPs, you have consented in your Subscription Agreement(s) to the collection of such information for the uses described above.
2. Disclosure of Personally Identifiable Information
Personally identifiable information that Operator maintains related to its subscribers will be disclosed by Operator without the prior written or electronic consent of subscribers only if: (1) it is necessary to render, or conduct a legitimate business related to, the services that are provided to you; (2) such disclosure is required by law or legal process as described below; or (3) for mailing lists as described below.
The types of persons to whom information about you may be disclosed by Operator in the course of providing cable service to you include the employees of Operator and its related legal entities, agents, repair and installation subcontractors, sales representatives, accountants, billing and collection services and credit reporting agencies, consumer and market research firms, and authorized representatives of governmental bodies. Also upon reasonable request, personally identifiable information is disclosed to persons or entities with an equity interest in legal entities related to Operator when they have a legal right to inspect our books and records.
In addition, if you are an ISP Service subscriber, information, including personally identifiable information, may be shared between Operator and your ISP in providing the ISP Service. The types of persons to whom information about you may be disclosed in the course of providing an ISP Service to you may include, in addition to those persons listed above, your ISP and its employees or other entities who provide content and/or services to the ISP Service or to you via the ISP Service.
Information for billing purposes is generally provided by Operator on a monthly basis. Information for other purposes is provided by Operator as it is needed.
Unless you object, the Cable Act also permits Cable Operators to disclose personally identifiable information to others, such as advertisers and direct mail or telemarketers, for non-cable related purposes. Under the Cable Act, any disclosures for purposes other than as described in the first three paragraphs of this Section 2 and in Section 3 of this Notice is limited to the following "mailing list information": your name, address and the particular services to which you subscribe (e.g., HBO or other premium channels or tiers of service). In addition, Operator may add to its mailing list publicly available information about subscribers that is obtained from third parties. Mailing list information cannot include the extent of your viewing or use of a particular service, including the extent of your use of any ISP Service, or the nature of any transaction you make over the cable system. Operator may disclose such mailing list information from time to time. If you wish to have us remove you from our mailing list, please notify us in writing at the main office of your local Operator.
In addition to any disclosures permitted in the first paragraph of this Section 2, our Affiliated ISPs may also disclose, pursuant to the consent you granted in your Subscription Agreement, the personally identifiable information described in Section 1 in connection with the provision of services to you, in order to fulfill transactions that you request, to personalize your online experience, to comply with criminal or civil legal process (including as described in Section 3 of this Notice), and as otherwise necessary in the ordinary course of their businesses. For example, our Affiliated ISPs may disclose your personally identifiable information routinely to their employees, agents and contractors to maintain, market, provide, and audit your ISP Service; to outside auditors to check their records; to attorneys and accountants as necessary to render services to such ISPs; and to merchants from whom you make purchases. The frequency of such disclosures varies according to business needs. The names and addresses of subscribers to our Affiliated ISPs may also be disclosed to selected companies in order to provide you direct mail product and service offers, subject to the marketing preferences you may select when using your ISP Service. In disclosing name and address information for such purposes, our Affiliated ISPs may combine these lists with publicly available information (such as census and household information), or segment them (i.e., create separate sub-lists) based on such publicly available information or on other information (such as when the subscriber began using the ISP service, or the subscriber's computer type).
3. Disclosure of Information to Government Entities and Other Legal Process
Federal law requires Operator to disclose personally identifiable information to a governmental entity or other third party pursuant to a court order. If the court order is sought by a governmental entity, the Cable Act requires that you be afforded the opportunity to contest in court any claims made in support of the court order sought. At such a proceeding, the Cable Act requires the governmental entity to offer clear and convincing evidence that the subject of the information is reasonably suspected of engaging in criminal activity and that the information sought would be material evidence in the case. In addition, pursuant to an administrative subpoena, state welfare agencies may obtain the names and addresses of individuals as they appear in the subscriber records of cable companies with respect to those who owe, or are owed, welfare support. Such information may be obtained without a court order and does not require that a subscriber be given notice of and the opportunity to contest the disclosure.
If you are a subscriber to an ISP Service, ECPA requires your ISP and us to reveal information to the government in certain additional circumstances. ECPA addresses both the content of communications on the ISP Service, as well as subscriber record information. ECPA requires your ISP and us to disclose to governmental authorities the content of communications in response to a criminal warrant or court order without any notice to you and without your consent.
In addition, under ECPA the government may require Operator or your ISP to disclose subscriber record information (but not the content of communications) pursuant to a warrant, court order or subpoena without any notice to you and without your consent.
If you subscribe to an ISP Service, a private party may use a subpoena under the Copyright Act to obtain information about you to maintain a copyright infringement suit against the poster of online material, without any notice to you. Additionally, our Affiliated ISPs may release information about you to comply with valid legal process such as a subpoena or court order, or as required by law.
In your Subscription Agreement, you have agreed that Operator and our Affiliated ISPs may also disclose any information in its possession to protect its rights, property and/or operations, or where circumstances suggest that individual or public safety is in peril.
4. Time Period That We Retain Personally Identifiable Information
Operator and its Affiliated ISPs maintain personally identifiable information about subscribers for as long as it is necessary for business purposes. This period of time lasts as long as you are a subscriber and up to fifteen additional years so that we and our Affiliated ISPs can comply with tax and accounting requirements. When information is no longer necessary for these purposes, we destroy the information unless there is a legitimate outstanding request or order to inspect the information.
5. Your Online Communications on an ISP Service
In addition to the situations described in Section 3, ECPA provides for other exceptional circumstances under which Operator and/or your ISP may be compelled to disclose information about you or your communications, or are permitted to disclose such information. For example, such information may be disclosed to law enforcement if it appears to be evidence of child pornography, or was inadvertently obtained and appears to pertain to a crime. Such disclosure is also permitted to an addressee or intended recipient (or his or her agent), or to a person involved in forwarding such information to its destination; when it is necessarily incident to providing service or to protect our rights or property; to others with your consent or the consent of an addressee or intended recipient (or his or her agent) of communications sent by you; or as otherwise provided for by law. In your Subscription Agreement, you have agreed that Operator and our Affiliated ISPs may disclose any information in their possession to protect their rights, property and/or operations, or where circumstances suggest that individual or public safety is in peril.
6. Access to Records
Under the Cable Act, you have the right to inspect the records of a Cable Operator that contain personally identifiable information about you and correct any errors in such information. If you wish to inspect these records, please notify Operator in writing and an appointment at our local business office will be arranged during our regular business hours.
7. Your Rights Under the Cable Act
The Cable Act provides you with a cause of action for damages, attorneys' fees and costs in Federal District Court should you believe that any of the Cable Act's limitations on the collection, disclosure, and retention of personally identifiable information have been violated by a Cable Operator. Your Subscription Agreement contains your agreement that, to the extent permitted by law, any claims that you have under the Cable Act will be decided in arbitration and attorneys' fees and punitive damages will not be available.
NOTE: This Time Warner Cable Privacy Notice is specifically for all states with the exception of California. Click here to view the Time Warner Cable and Affiliated ISPs Subscriber Privacy Notice (for California only).
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I don't really think this is a good deal as I get pings in the order of 60 ms from OpenDNS and 4 times less (15 ms) from my usual DNS.
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I am always looking for alternative, reliable DNS servers. I used to use 4.1.1.1 and 4.1.1.2 but they aren't as reliable as they once were.
For the paranoid, I would be alot more worried about your ISP than these guys. Though I do wonder how they are making money... Probably aggregate marketing statistics.
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ahhh, they make money by redirecting all your search requests to their search engine with ads. That's certainly incentive to use their engine if they provide reliable DNS.
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I don't really think this is a good deal as I get pings in the order of 60 ms from OpenDNS and 4 times less (15 ms) from my usual DNS.
How? When you ping, it does a DNS lookup and then pings the IP address of the site you are pinging, if I am not mistaken... or am I mixing something up here?
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I don't really think this is a good deal as I get pings in the order of 60 ms from OpenDNS and 4 times less (15 ms) from my usual DNS.
How? When you ping, it does a DNS lookup and then pings the IP address of the site you are pinging, if I am not mistaken... or am I mixing something up here?
I'm pinging IP addresses, so DNS is not used.
Also, I don't think the DNS lookup time is accounted even if you use a "normal" address.
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Ghostavo, "I'm pinging IP addresses, so DNS is not being used" no kidding.
So, explain your comment. :p
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Ghostavo, "I'm pinging IP addresses, so DNS is not being used" no kidding.
So, explain your comment. :p
My connection to my usual DNS is (much) faster than my connection to OpenDNS.
Do I really need to explain why it would be a bad deal to change to OpenDNS?
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But your reasoning for not liking this DNS server(s) vs your ISP's is based off of a ping result. That makes no sense. :p Do I really have to explain why?
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But your reasoning for not liking this DNS server(s) vs your ISP's is based off of a ping result. That makes no sense. :p Do I really have to explain why?
Most of the times that my computer makes a DNS query, my usual DNS will respond faster than OpenDNS. All the cache in the world won't help OpenDNS if most of the time it will act as a relay for other DNS servers.
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They make some of their money that way. I don't know if it's all.
I agree with the idea of having an alt DNS server too. It's nice to have a spare if the DNS server on my ISP goes down.
@jr2 : Privacy policies are not very informative in this case.
OpenDNS may disclose potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information when OpenDNS believe in good faith that release is required by law, court order, or when OpenDNS believes in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect the property or rights of OpenDNS, third parties or the public at large.
That means that they can choose to give your information to RIAA if they ask. When RIAA asked Verizon, Verizon basically told them to go **** themselves and backed that choice all the way to court. And this was even though RIAA had the IP Addresses of the four individuals they were after (so it wasn't exactly a fishing expedition. They had the IP addresses, they wanted to know the names of the account holders).
Now the question has to be whether these guys would back their users as far if RIAA asked them for information on who was logging on to certain sites they felt were of interest. It's quite possible that they would. It's also quite possible that they'd roll over at the first sign of trouble.
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But your reasoning for not liking this DNS server(s) vs your ISP's is based off of a ping result. That makes no sense. :p Do I really have to explain why?
Most of the times that my computer makes a DNS query, my usual DNS will respond faster than OpenDNS. All the cache in the world won't help OpenDNS if most of the time it will act as a relay for other DNS servers.
Ghostavo: Ping your DNS server using its IP. Then ping OpenDNS's DNS server IP: 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220 ... is that what you were doing?
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Why would it matter in the slightest if it wasn't?
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The speed that matters with OpenDNS is the time it takes for OpenDNS to recieve your transmition that you want to visit www.google.com, and for them to respond with "www.google.com's IP address is 208.69.32.320" or w/e
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Yeah? And?
Are you really suggesting that ping is going to connect to Ghostavo's ISP's DNS server and resolve the same address 4 times for each ping it sends to resolver1.opendns.com rather than simply resolving the first time?
And that's ignoring the fact that he'd probably have had to have done a reverse DNS lookup to get the DNS servers name since OpenDNS (rather sensibly) prefer to give out the IP Address of their server on their website. Which would be rather silly since ping accepts the IP address quite happily.
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The problem i see, is that I have a contract with my ISP that the data i put therough them, and inevitably their DNS server, doesn't see other people. There is no such gaurentee with this 3rd party. On top of that, I gave it the benefit of the doubt, and my IPS's DNS responded sooner than OpenDNS 10 times out of 10, so their services are useless to me.
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I wouldn't say it's useless.
I backed up their page in case my ISP's DNS servers went down. That way I'd have a standby.
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Yeah? And?
Are you really suggesting that ping is going to connect to Ghostavo's ISP's DNS server and resolve the same address 4 times for each ping it sends to resolver1.opendns.com rather than simply resolving the first time?
No. Don't be ridiculous. However, that average value displayed after ping might come in handy, hmm?
And that's ignoring the fact that he'd probably have had to have done a reverse DNS lookup to get the DNS servers name since OpenDNS (rather sensibly) prefer to give out the IP Address of their server on their website. Which would be rather silly since ping accepts the IP address quite happily. Hmm. Not sure what you're on about; OpenDNS gives their DNS address out on their website.
I was getting the impression that Ghostavo pinged a few of his favorite websites to test whether OpenDNS was faster than his DNS.. which ofc would not work as an accurate measurement of DNS performance. I take it that was not the case?
Basically, (as I'm certain you know), when a computer attempts connection to a website, it must first know its IP address. The computer sends the website name to your DNS server to look up the IP. The DNS server responds, or, if it doesn't have it, it queries the next level higher DNS server; if it doesn't have it, it goes higher, etc. until the IP is found, and given to your PC. OpenDNS's point is supposed to be this:
(http://www.opendns.com/img/cache.gif)
Although this might be a problem depending on where you live:
(http://www.opendns.com/img/network_map.gif)
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OK, let's set one thing straight right now:
YOUR ISP WILL NOT PROTECT YOUR DNS RECORDS FROM THE COURTS IF THEY HAVE A WARRANT OR W/E THEY NEED. They will turn your a** in. k? Your ISP uses DNS, just like everything else. ;)
Yes, but using OpenDNS sounds like a nice way to put all the eggs in one basket.
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eh? like how?
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It's easier to request records from OpenDNS than to do so from 1023957 ISPs.
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Hmm. True. But how about 1023957 ISPs and OpenDNS? Not everyone uses it. (Although, if they are that good.... more ppl might.)
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lol
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Did all of jr2's posts have to be deleted? Now it makes everyone look dumb. :P
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No. Don't be ridiculous. However, that average value displayed after ping might come in handy, hmm?
No it would be completely worthless as a measure of DNS resolution speed since the address has to be resolved before you can start building the ICMP packets that ping uses.
Hmm. Not sure what you're on about; OpenDNS gives their DNS address out on their website.[/color]
It gives out the IP address of their servers. If you have the IP address of their server you wouldn't be using DNS when you pinged it anyway. You already have their IP address.
I was getting the impression that Ghostavo pinged a few of his favorite websites to test whether OpenDNS was faster than his DNS.. which ofc would not work as an accurate measurement of DNS performance. I take it that was not the case?
It's not any bloody measure of DNS resolution. :D I'm assuming he simply pinged the OpenDNS DNS server and his own ISP one and compared the ping times. That's still a dreadful measure of resolving times because OpenDNS is always going to respond more slowly. It makes up ground by not having to resolve the request as it knows the IP address already.
So basically I don't think either measure would be a good one. And since nslookup doesn't measure resolution times I'm not entirely certain what is the best way to measure resolution times.
Did all of jr2's posts have to be deleted? Now it makes everyone look dumb. :P
Yep. Which is why I'm sticking them right back.
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*sigh* It wouldn't have looked dumb if someone had simply deleted the entire thread. Karajorma has raised some valid points, but I don't really care for all of the attitude that comes with certain others' comments. If you have legitimate stuff to say, say it. Do not suggest that I am somehow less intelligent than you because I thought it might be worth a try, and experienced positive results.
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I'd never suggest you stop using these guys if you think you've found a good solution. All I took issue with was the perceived attitude of "Well it's just DNS, there's nothing that can go wrong if I change my DNS server".
As I've pointed out there are quite a few things that can go wrong. As long as you're aware of the potential risks and willing to take them I say go ahead and use it.
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...And I wasn't saying you were. ;)
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Sorry for resurrecting an old topic but this already has many informative posts and debates and I see no reason to repeat all that again in a new topic. If you have complaints, I'll ***** slap you. :p
So, to cut the chase I got curious about 3rd party DNS services after Google announced their own service to rival OpenDNS.
I decided to test both Google DNS and OpenDNS against my own ISP's DNS and was surprised to see that everything loads up noticeably quicker when I use OpenDNS or Google DNS. The difference is large enough that I have switched my DNS provider to OpenDNS. Google DNS is so new that I'll let it grow and improve before I consider using it instead of OpenDNS. More competition in this field is good I think.
As for privacy, I really have no concerns since OpenDNS has been operating for many years without any incidents I would care about. Only time will tell how Google DNS turns out, but for now I'll be using OpenDNS and enjoying increased browsing speed.
One of the main reasons why I switched is that my own ISP's DNS sometimes forgets that hard-light.net exists. Which is funny considering both hard-light.net and game-warden.com domains are hosted by same company, yet game-warden.com works when hard-light.net doesn't. Really annoying and OpenDNS solves the problem.
http://www.opendns.com/ (OpenDNS registration is optional, servers are listed in bottom right corner of their homepage.)
http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/
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host your own DNS server if you're so worried. that's what i do, and it's worked out for me
swooh.com
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dnsmasq FTW!
$ dig www.hard-light.net
; <<>> DiG 9.5.1-P3 <<>> www.hard-light.net
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 8143
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;www.hard-light.net. IN A
;; ANSWER SECTION:
www.hard-light.net. 85690 IN A 96.31.94.83
;; Query time: 0 msec
;; SERVER: 127.0.0.1#53(127.0.0.1)
;; WHEN: Thu Dec 17 22:53:32 2009
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 52