Last time I checked in I told you 83 schools had signed on to use OpenDNS since October 1. We’ve more than doubled that number in the past 12 days! So far during Take OpenDNS to School Month 186 have made the switch.

I’ve gotta give Michigan a special shout out because a good percentage of our new school customers are there. From Detroit to the U.P., Michigan students are surfing safe.

You still have eight days left to print this PDF and give it to the school network admin in your life.

Thanks to everyone helping spread the good OpenDNS word!

How do you understand big numbers?

OpenDNS does ~3 billion DNS requests daily, with around 450 billion all-time so far. Big numbers, but tough to comprehend.

Recently, we changed the stats number at the top of every page of our website from the all-time number to requests/per second. This number moves around, but recently has swung between 37,000 - 41,000 requests per second.

OK… sounds impressive, but again, what should you compare the number to?

How about the volume of transactions on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)?

Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal ran “After Crash, NYSE Got the Message(s)” on the front page of the Money & Investing section (C1 in print).

In reading the article (in case it’s not available when you click… WSJ.com requires payment at some point), we learn:

On Feb. 27, 2007, messages flowed in at a rate of 15,000 per second. The exchange quickly thereafter doubled its capacity to 38,000 messages a second. As markets fell in August when credit markets seized up, the NYSE was getting as many as 28,000 messages per second. This time, systems held up without a major hitch, but the volume of messages prompted [NYSE CEO]Mr. Thain to call for an increase in capacity to 64,000 by year’s end. [Emphasis added]

So, even at its top volume in August, the NYSE volume of messages wasn’t matching the volume of DNS requests our customers make each day. And its capacity currently falls short of ours.

Maybe I’m comparing apples and oranges, but we like to think that your DNS requests are as important (almost?!) as those buy-sell messages.

OpenDNS has plenty of headroom, and we’re adding more to support our growing customer base… and to stay ahead of the NYSE!

I’ll keep this one short.

David will be on the radio tonight. Gene Steinberg, the original Tech Night Owl himself, asked David to talk about the first PhishTank annual report.

Who: OpenDNS CEO David Ulevitch

What: Tech Night Owl LIVE with Gene Steinberg

When: 6 p.m. PST to 8 p.m. PST, Thursday, October 18, 2007

Where: www.techbroadcasting.com

How to listen: go to the Web site and turn up your volume.

If you miss the original broadcast, you can listen later.

Wow! It’s only the 11th of the month and already 83 new schools have switched to OpenDNS!

In case you missed the initial announcement, October is Take OpenDNS to School month. That means we’re asking you to spread the word about OpenDNS to your kids’ school(s), your friends’ kids’ school(s) and any other school you’re affiliated with. Of course, I’m the first to say it’s not that hard of a sell… OpenDNS and schools are perfect together. Schools have restrictive budgets. OpenDNS is free. Schools have kids. OpenDNS has Web content filtering. See what I mean?

There are still 20 days left in the month, which is plenty of time to print this PDF and make sure it gets to everyone that can benefit.

OpenDNS customers are the best.

David did such a great job last time, they’ve invited him back!

Our very own CEO David Ulevitch will be a guest on tonight’s episode of Computer America with Craig Crossman. Be sure to tune in at 8 p.m. PST/ 11 p.m. EST to listen to David talk about the Domain Name System, the state of the Internet and whatever else you want - call toll free and speak to him live: (866) 606-8255.

Check here to find your local station airing the show.