Free Web Filtering and Anti-Phishing for Home and Small Business

We've talked about why content filtering is important to small businesses and a few solutions.  Some of the highlights are reducing wasted network resources such as internet bandwidth, minimizing legal risk and increasing employee productivity.  If you haven't read our content filtering blog in a while, please check out the risk section again?

Since that writing, we have discovered another options for Small Businesses that provide all the benefits discussed before and cost $0, zilch, nothing, free.  They do have a couple fee based options for additional functionality that are geared towards small business and another for K-12 and larger businesses.

Before we dive into the solution, it would be helpful to understand what Domain Name System, or DNS, is.  It is explained in this earlier blog.  In short, it is a phone book for the internet.  You look up a name and DNS give you the number to call.

OpenDNS provides the capability to block or allow access to specific web site categories such as social networking, nudity, drugs, games phishing, music, shopping and more - 25 Categories with the Free Services.  It does this by NOT returning the number to call when a website you asked for matches a preconfigured category.

I personally use OpenDNS for the anti-phishing function.  Phishing is the act of persuading someone to click on a link or website that looks like a trusted website in  hopes of obtaining your personal information.  You don't always notice that www.bankafamerica.com isn't www.bankofamerica.com, get redirected to the wrong site and put in your banking userid and password.  OpenDNS prevents against this type of attack by not directing you to known phishing sites.

To recap, if you are a small business, concerned with security, wasted resources, legal risk and employees waste company time on Facebook, OpenDNS is for you.  It is free and simple to implement.

NonStop Networks, LLC

Cisco Unified Communications Solutions

http://www.nonstopnetworks.net

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Focused on solving problems for small and medium sized businesses who are frustrated that their communication systems are letting them down, worried about security and concerned with rising technology cost.  Helping businesses communicate in real-time with customers and staff - anytime, anywhere.

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