OpenDNS is a great complement to existing network set-ups. Hearing that others think the same is even better.

Simple DNS Plus is a Windows DNS server for hosting and managing your own domains, among other tasks. In response to customer requests, Jesper G. Hoy at JH Software created instructions for Simple DNS Plus customers interested in using OpenDNS for their external requests.

Thanks to Jesper for permission to share these instructions on our site, as part of our forwarding instructions.

The famous quote about defining pornography is “I know it when I see it,” from a 1964 Supreme Court case. I’m glad we’re working with St. Bernard Software to get human-reviewed categorization of adult sites for our adult site blocking service.

At home, I’m the network administrator. While testing adult site blocking, I learned that you need to be careful what you block. My wife alerted (ahem) me to my overzealous blocking. For the interested, TMZ.com is classified as both lingerie/bikini and adult themes. I cannot disagree… but it’s still a fun celebrity gossip site. It’s no longer blocked on my network, though other categories are.

That kind of control is useful, and it’s why we offer 6 categories, so you can make the right choices for your network.

Avoid making my domestic misstep. Check a site to find out whether it would be blocked, and why.

Thanks to Seg for helping us put together instructions for setting the Nintendo Wii to use OpenDNS.

Whether you’ve had DNS issues with your Wii in the past and need something more reliable, or you just want to speed up performance and safeguard against future outages, switching to OpenDNS will do the trick.

Note: if your console is connected to the Internet via WiFi router, we’d recommend changing the settings on your router instead of the Wii itself.

Like the rest of the world, we noted with interest the announcement of the iPhone at yesterday’s Macworld keynote.

By “noted with interest” I really mean “we all are crushed it’s not available yet.”

As soon as the device is available in the wild, we’ll write instructions about how to switch the DNS settings to OpenDNS nameservers. In fact, I’ve selflessly (?) volunteered to purchase the device for the sole (ahem) purpose of writing these instructions.

Would this count as a “business” expense?!?

We launched Forums today for you to provide a venue to discuss the world of OpenDNS. This isn’t a weak attempt to get rid of support but is a new way for our users to communicate with us and each other. We are focused on delivering the best experience possible we know that in order to do that we have to hear from you.

OpenDNS will continue to respond to its users in all the current ways: email, IM, blogs and comments, phone, and (occasionally!) in person. But every time one of us answers a question for an individual customer, we’ve wanted to share that tip, lesson, or workaround with a broader audience. Forums let us do that…and Forums will be a great place for OpenDNS users to share with each other, too.

Our short-term goals are to learn more about specific situations we already know need more attention, like instructions for setting DNS on a Samsung Blackjack phone or learning whether or not WildBue satellite broadband customers can use OpenDNS or not (reports vary).

Of course, we’ll also answer questions there so that others can benefit from the answers. Longer term, we expect to find out where our users want us to go.

A free OpenDNS account is required to post, to limit noise. Your OpenDNS account is also useful for preferences, statistics, and dynamic DNS support.

Please join in at http://forums.opendns.com/ and let us know what you think.