When OpenDNS invited the public in on July 10, 2006, there was not yet a mechanism for controlling your DNS preferences. It only took one week for us to get started, with the introduction of account-less preferences (for single, static IP addresses only) with a quiet link at the end of a post. That feature did the job, but it wasn’t a platform for advancement.

So, on November 7, 2006, we introduced OpenDNS Accounts, which took the preference management capabilities and added:

• more fine-grained control for larger networks
• clearer verification mechanisms, including self-service for single IP addresses
• secure (SSL) registration
• support for dynamic IP addresses
• network statistics
• control over branding for larger networks
• and cranberries (my almost-funny joke for American Thanksgiving)

Accounts are the real foundation for the control we give our users.

For the past few months, we’ve supported both Accounts and account-less preferences, as long as there was no conflict. Given our growth, supporting both systems has become more challenging. Since preferences are feature-frozen, and Accounts are offering more and more features (hint: more coming soon!), the choice is clear: it’s time to retire account-less preferences.

This change affects very few users…but we’d like to make sure they know about this coming change.

The irony? If we had a way of reaching the affected users, we would have emailed them privately. But note the account-less part of account-less preferences.

Therefore, we are giving six weeks’ notice, and we will post at least two more reminders along the way.

To sum up:

1. No account required to use OpenDNS with default preferences, including phishing protection and typo correction. No change.
2. With a free, secure OpenDNS account, you may manage your preferences, get statistics about your network, post in the Forums, and more. No change.
3. On Monday, April 9, 2007, all account-less preferences will be erased. This is important for a few thousand OpenDNS customers.

If you are using account-less preferences, please get a free account now and add your network(s), whether single IP address or much, much larger.

Update: February 27, 2007 For those coming from account-less preferences, there are some differences in the Accounts system. Once you create an account, there are three more steps.

1. Add a network. You can enter a single IP, or a range of IP addresses as a CIDR block.
2. Verify your network. For a single IP network (a /32), you will be sent an email with a special link. To verify your management of that IP, click the link while visible to the webserver as coming from that IP address. For individual computers, this is probably not a problem. For a server, it may require an additional step or two. If you have problems, please tell us via the contact form within the My Account section.
   For a larger network (two IP addresses on up), OpenDNS staff will review the network. You will be notified via email when the network is verified, or if there are additional questions.
3. Manage your network preferences. Once the network is verified, you will see a wrench icon () next to your network address. Click the wrench icon, and you’ll be taken to a screen where you can manage your preferences for that network. This will be mostly familiar, though with some additional preferences.

The San Francisco CBS affiliate, KPIX, aired a segment yesterday about OpenDNS and how it makes the Internet faster. We were even the teaser before the commercial! John Roberts and our much-appreciated local customer, Sean Cullen, were interviewed for the piece. Sean is a busy film editor and it’s not easy for him to get away mid-day, which he did for the filming.

The segment was great because it not only explained what a fantastic service OpenDNS is, but also explained what the Domain Name System is - not easy!

Thanks to producer Julia Madden and reporter Jeanette Pavini (who you may remember from the PhishTank segment last year) for helping spread the word.

If you saw the segment, what’d you think?

We added two usability improvements to OpenDNS CacheCheck today.

1. When you refresh the cache for a domain, CacheCheck now automatically refreshes the records for that domain’s zone. For example, if you refresh www.opendns.com, CacheCheck also refreshes opendns.com.

2. This new bookmarklet makes it easier to check a domain. It grabs the hostname of the website you’re viewing and adds it to the CacheCheck form, replacing the need to add the domain manually. Just drag this link to your bookmarks toolbar: OpenDNS CacheCheck.

Screenshot of the CacheCheck bookmarklet:

This year’s Super Bowl commercials were largely uninspired and forgettable, but there was one notable exception. Sprint’s Connectile Dysfunction ad took us by surprise with its clever wordplay and dead-on parody of the drug industry. Hilarious. If only we had thought of that!

Sadly, we did think of it, but Sprint beat us to the punch. Here’s a mockup we were working on last week, days before the Super Bowl:

It looks different than Sprint’s campaign, but the basic spoof (”keep your Internet/mobile connection up with OpenDNS/Sprint”) is exactly the same.

Oh well. We won’t be launching our version of the joke — there’s no way our 3-person marketing team can compete with Sprint — but at least we can look back and say we had a Good Idea.