It is surprisingly simple to setup Internet filtering on your home network, if you know where to look and what to do. Filtering allows you to say what can and can’t be viewed on your Internet connection. We are going to focus on using OpenDNS to make your network more family-friendly.

1. Signup for OpenDNS

It is free and safe, and you can signup here: https://store.opendns.com/get/basic. If you are unsure about the service or would like to read more, you can visit their homepage or search the Internet for OpenDNS and see what others are saying.

Once you have created your account, go to settings and add your network; this is a very straightforward process. Once your you network is setup, you can select your desired level of filtering (each of which is fully customizable).

You can also easily add individual domains if you want access blocked (e.g. facebook.com) from all computers. Keep the page open

2. Setup your network to use OpenDNS

If you are using a wireless network, log in to the administrative interface (if you are not sure how to do this, search the Internet for your wifi routers model and the words “wifi administration”, e.g. “linksys wifi administration”). On my linksys, I opened up a browser and went to 192.168.1.1 (if you haven’t changed it, the default login is “admin” with the password “admin”). Set the Static DNS address to OpenDNS’s DNS address:

Save your changes. It may take a few moments for the changes to take affect. You can test it by going to a blocked url or by typing a nonsense address and seeing if OpenDNS’s errors screen comes up.

Questions?

If you liked this article, you may also like:

• Fix Windows 7 Flash Crashing
• Top 5 Ways to Secure Windows