Use OpenDNS to Protect Yourself

In a recent poll Paypal, the IRS and Facebook have been ranked the most phished sites. Clearly, scammers are out to get us and our valuable personal data and financial information. One way to protect your self is to use a service that screens out phishing sites. OpenDNS is one option and the good news is it is free!

OpenDNS features phishing site filtering, warning you if a site you're going to is a scammer's site trying to get your information. Add to that, OpenDNS can also help speed up your browsing speed or filter out adult sites with parental controls.

Its easy to set-up. Here's how to do it in Windows 7:

1. On your taskbar, right-click network icon (the one that looks like a computer monitor) and click Open Network and Sharing Center:

2. In Network and Sharing Center, click on Change Adapter Settings on the left pane:

3. In the Network Connections window, right-click on the Local Area Connection and click Properties:

4. In the Local Area Network Properties window, choose Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and click Properties:

5. In the IPv4 window, check the option Use The Following DNS Server Address and type in 208.67.222.222 as your Preferred DNS Server and 208.67.220.220 as your Alternate DNS Server, then click the OK button to save the changes:

After doing the steps above, you're all set. Your computer will ask OpenDNS where it should go every time you type in a website address on your browser. Be careful out there!