Blocking sites by keyword
I saw it was mentioned before and closed.
I really would like to reopen the discussion. Make it optional and opt-in for people to use it, but we really, really would like this functionality. New sexsites and things grow up like mushrooms. it is impossible for OpenDns to keep up with this. Google is way faster in finding things than opendns in blocking and youngsters are very keen on finding these holes in Opendns sometimes. I need a way to block unwanted things from my network here, even if this means a larger chance on false positives.
So please reconsider. Shouldn't be too hard to implement.
Cheers
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It's a good thing that you've given up on content filtering via OpenDNS since OpenDNS doesn't filter content, URL's, web pages, sites, images, text, or anything except for domains. Being a service that is based on recursive DNS the *only* thing that OpenDNS receives and can work with are domain names, therefore the only thing that it can block are domain names. Those domain names can be blocked either by category or blacklist, and one paid service can blacklist everything and allow only domains added to a whitelist (with a relatively small number of domains though (but cannot whitelist by category).
The strength and weakness of the categories is that it's a manual only system. That means that it is going to have an extremely high percentage of properly categorized domains. That also means that being a manual system, domains are going to be categorized much more slowly than with an automated system, and some domains with low traffic will never receive enough votes to be categorized unless a support ticket is used to request a final categorization. I haven't looked yet, but I seriously doubt that my own businesses' domain has received many votes, so if I ever want it to be categorized I'm sure I"d have to do so via a support ticket asking them to look at it.
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@tuckson - you've gone quiet - come back to the discussion! I miss your common sense.
@stvace77 - again, I agree - if OpenDNS have done it before, that suggests it is technically possible.
I don't have the knowledge to set up servers nor the appetite to block Google, not least because we use features such as shared calendars at home and at work. I would welcome keyword filtering and, as other contributors have said, would pay more for it.
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This issue of keyword blocking has already been talked to death. OpenDNS has no intention of doing it.
As for YouTube channel blocking, unless a YouTube channel has a separate domain name there is no way to block or allow it. OpenDNS is DNS based, and only knows about domain names. It knows nothing about URL's, webpage, websites, content, channels or anything else that is not a domain. I haven't looked too closely at YouTube addresses, but my impression was that they all use one of the standard YouTube domains, with channels or individual videos differentiated by URL, not domain. Therefore it is impossible for OpenDNS to block or allow specific YouTube channels if that's the case.
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As a software developer whenever I hear "it shouldn't be hard" I crack a wry smile. Keeping up with the IoT is a lot of work. The reason I chose this service, is the trustworthiness. I trust very few online services. IT security is like this mad rush of competing athletes. Black hat hackers vs white hat hackers and it's snowballing.
I am a mother of 3 and nothing beats open communication, allowing your children to come to you with anything without dying from a stroke or from shock and supervision. Parents need to educate themselves, so they can protect their children. That is where the ultimate responsibility lies. This modern society can be quick to abrogate responsibility and look for someone else to fix it.
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