OpenDNS now offers an encrypted DNS service

In this age of governmental oversight of everything done or said (the old saying about George Orwell being 10 years off is never truer) and your right to basic liberties removed at each turn one company is going out of its way to provide a full and open internet as Tim Berners-Lee first envisioned such a long time ago.

Until now it was possible to connect to a server securely to conduct your business without the risk of electronic eavesdropping, but even the most security conscious of us still had to announce to the world where we wished to connect to because DNS queries (the “glue” that holds the internet together and turns (for example) the IP address 72.233.104.125 into hackaday.com – a great site that anyone with an electronics or tinkering mind ought to visit.

Now a hot new piece of software which is available for a number of platforms (linux, windows and mac) and completely open source redresses that balance and offers free secure DNS searches with a world class – and used worldwide – DNS server.

Please allow me to welcome the OpenDNS “DNSCrypt” – a fast and secure DNS service which builds on the strength of OpenDNS itself – a world leader in DNS systems and routinely used by schools, colleges, homes and businesses.

I use DNSCrypt on my linux ubuntu system at home and I would like to tell you a little about my experiences with it.

I am lucky enough to be one of the earliest adopters of this system as I have been a beta tester from the outset. I have in that time had chats to the OpenDNS team to report issues (I only had one which was minor and fixed immediately – the linux `man` page for DNSCrypt was missing) and have monitored it closely.

I already use OpenDNS at home and am a happy customer (in the loosest sense of the word as OpenDNS is free) so I knew what to expect when I ran their DNSCrypt package and was fully prepared to give negative feedback if I found that the software slowed down my DNS requests but I was more than pleasantly surprised to note that the service was indistinguishable from that which I was used to.

Installation was a breeze under ubuntu:
Grab the software from OpenDNS
Install the software
In a terminal run
sudo /usr/local/sbin/dnscrypt-proxy --resolver-address=208.67.220.220 --daemon
Then as root edit your /etc/resolv.conf file and before the first “nameserver” line, add:
nameserver 127.0.0.1
options edns0
Simple, straightforward and takes immediate effect.

I added the first line to my startup options which meant that it was effective as soon as my computer was active.

I am a happy user now and know that no matter how much pressure my government puts on my ISP to blocklist sites I get the freedom to choose where I go on the internet. It is a big world out there and I don’t need my nanny to look after me.

I am off now to visit OpenDNS on facebook because I can go wherever I please now.