Protecting the Family

Making the Home Network Safer

Who can forget the iconic sound of a 56k modem as it completed its handshake protocol;  the virtual on-ramp to the digital superhighway known as the internet. It’s amazing to think how much the internet has changed our lives over the past two-plus decades.  But for all the wonderful advancements the internet provides us daily, it also has a dark and dangerous side.  Just under the surface of any search engine through the keystroke pitter-patter of search terms, a vast ocean of pornographic sites set their fishing lines; ready to snag its innocent, curious, naïve, addicted, or defiled victims.

As the father of four young boys racing full speed into or towards their teen years, I’ve struggled with how to protect my kids from this virtual cancer of depravity.  And if I’m being honest, how to protect myself from lure and temptation of an empty pleasure which only leaves me hurting in my shame and guilt; deceptively stealing away from me the joy and sufficiency of God’s grace.  Well, after many days, weeks, and months of trying different solutions, I’ve discovered a way to easily protect my family and my home from this evil and it’s something I feel is worth sharing so read on!

Why is This so Difficult?

Being an engineer and sales manager in high tech hardware and software solutions, I’m no neophyte when it comes to using technology.  Which is what makes this challenge exceptionally frustrating.  Blacklisting sites through my router is a solid solution but I’m pretty sure the oceans would dry up before I manage to block everything out.  Besides, I’d have spend a lot of time keeping things updated which makes this approach pretty cumbersome.  There are of course programs and apps you can buy to lock things down, but those all require varying degrees of configuration and will work, but my concern is that I’m pretty sure my little techies would figure out a way to bypass any program controls we put in place.

OpenDNS Family Shield to the Rescue

So the solution I found after all my labor is OpenDNS Family Shield and so far I’ve been very happy with it.  Basically, it works by enabling your router to check the IP address of any web page that you’re accessing from your network against a “blacklist” of adult content maintained by OpenDNS.  If the website you are trying to access is found on the “blacklist”, the user is forwarded to an OpenDNS page that informs the user that access to the requested site is prohibited.  Otherwise, the requested website is served to the user as normal.  Best of all the basic service is FREE which is always awesome.  All you need to do is configure your router to use the OpenDNS nameservers which they provide easy instructions for.  Yeah, nothing to install or maintain – brilliant!

 https://www.opendns.com/home-internet-security/

Better But Not Perfect

Now, this blocks adult websites, but it’s not a perfect solution.  It’s still possible to image search undesirable material using sites like google, bing, and etc. but as a first step at least I know that I’ve protected my home network, all my little users, and anyone else from accessing websites that serve adult material.  I'll keep researching and if I find any additional solutions, I'll be sure and let you know.