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:
- No account required to use OpenDNS with default preferences, including phishing protection and typo correction. No change.
- With a free, secure OpenDNS account, you may manage your preferences, get statistics about your network, post in the Forums, and more. No change.
- 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.
- Add a network. You can enter a single IP, or a range of IP addresses as a CIDR block.
- 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. - 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.







