Editor’s Note: Kids are more connected than ever these days and OpenDNS is the preferred choice to keep them safe online. But we wanted to take a deeper look at how kids today are balancing time online and off. To get some insight, we talked to Jonathan Rhodes, IT Consultant for the Cole YMCA.

OpenDNS: Kids are more connected then ever these days. How do you help kids balance active choices with the time they spend online?
JR: It’s been my experience that kids will choose to be active if the option is there. At the YMCA, I often see kids playing basketball after putting their backpacks down in the stands. Classrooms are getting more and more technologically sound and because they are surrounded by technology all day they seem to appreciate the opportunity to set it aside to run around and play with their friends.

OpenDNS: What trends do you see in kids using the Internet while away from home?
JR: You might be surprised to hear this but one thing that really impresses me about the kids I observe on our network is that they make really responsible choices. Our local high school provides some of its students with laptops to take home and I see many of them using our free Wi-Fi to finish up homework assignments or do research before hitting the basketball courts or the pool. The schools trust the kids to use technology responsibly, and since we go one step further and protect our networks with OpenDNS, it’s easy for them to focus on schoolwork.

OpenDNS: What can facilities like yours do to help parents understand the importance of Web security for their homes?
JR: While the children are in the YMCA their browsing is protected from malicious sites and adult content. This is as much for the protection of our network and guests’ equipment as it is for the parents’ peace of mind. We let parents know how we filter content so it’s easy for them to replicate the same OpenDNS filtering settings at home, but we also want them to teach them about Phishing and malware.

OpenDNS: Why do you love working at the YMCA?
JR: I came to the YMCA for the first time at age 25 and this place has had such a positive impact on my life. Everything about the YMCA is geared toward health and wellbeing. Whether I’m installing network computing equipment and making choices on the best security and content management programs to support it or I’m coming for a strength training workout, I just love being here.

OpenDNS: What are your favorite offline activities?
JR: I enjoy strength training at the YMCA, as well as spending time with my family, and reading tech news. Okay, that’s online, but I can’t help myself!

Editor’s note: It never ceases to amaze us how just how busy OpenDNS users can be. Between work, family, games, development and staying current with technology, most of you we hear from can’t manage to stay still! We checked in with OpenDNS fan and blogger Rick Beckman to see how he manages.

OpenDNS: You have a five-year-old at home and another baby on the way. Does using a service like OpenDNS open the door for discussions about safe Internet browsing?
RB: Absolutely. As soon as our five-year-old starts reading I will show her the basics of the Internet. My biggest objective is keeping her safe online.  And not just from adult content but also from malware or anything else that may catch a kid off guard. I absolutely love that OpenDNS makes that job much easier!

OpenDNS: A new puppy, a five year old, and a new baby on the way! How are you going to find time for work, let alone sleep?
RB: Yes, and also numerous websites and a side job documenting a popular WordPress theme. And eating, which I’m told is mandatory. It’s all about finding a balance that makes the family happy, and while I’d love to say I have it all figured out, every day is a learning experience. I try and be strategic, though. For example, while the kiddo is getting ready for school in the morning, I have some time to catch up on email.

OpenDNS: You’ve found time to do some cool things with WordPress, an open source blog platform. Why are you such a fan of the service?
RB: Aside from building a cool WordPress plugin, I also maintain installations for family and friends, including my dad, sister and folk musician Adrienne Young. I am overjoyed that blogging has given a voice to so many people, and it’s a great feeling to host, tweak and sometimes even fix the blogs that give them that outlet.

OpenDNS: We hear you’re a gamer, too. What’s the coolest thing happening with video games right now?
RB: Video gaming has transcended being the pastime of gamers and has become something everyone is enjoying everywhere: Social media platforms, smart phones, tablets and casual gaming on Nintendo OS systems. From FarmVille to Angry Birds, Mafia Wars to Wii Sports, it seems as though gamers are becoming as ubiquitous as moviegoers. It is great to see all of these new ways of playing games bringing people together cooperatively. The world needs more of that.

OpenDNS: Okay last question. What did you name the new puppy?
RB: Mulder, of course

One of the many reasons more than 30 million people around the world choose OpenDNS is a feature called automatic typo correction.  It works by automatically redirecting common typos in top-level domains (.com, .net, .edu, etc.) to the right place, so if you type www.google.cmo, and that domain doesn’t exist, we just automatically take you to www.google.com.

Although this feature helps with a tremendous amount of typing mistakes and enables people to stay on-course online, an increasingly popular phenomenon called typosquatting means there are still typos we can’t fix, some of which are much more precarious than a dead end.  Typosquatting is what happens when someone registers a domain that’s nearly identical to that of a popular brand: Twtter.com and Twitter.com, for example. It banks on the idea that a fast-fingered typist may not notice that she’s arrived at the unintended site due to an omitted “i”. And since the typo exists in a real, registered domain, we don’t interfere.

Twtter.com is a particularly tricky example. In the case of this site, the typo — an omitted “i” — might not even be apparent at first glance.  The people who run this site are clearly trying to capture typo traffic destined for Twitter.com.  And regardless of the fact that the site has a URL redirect (the domain in the address bar changes after the site has been resolved), the blatant use of Twitter’s well-known design themes prove the site is aiming to fool people into thinking it’s the real website of Twitter.

Typosquatting is not new, but this sort of high-polish, branded version seems to be on the rise.  In the case of Twtter.com, the Twitter.com imposter, the site’s entire function is to get your contact information. A very appealing offer is presented to answer two survey questions and get what is, by all accounts, an awesome prize: an iPad2. It’s unclear what will happen with your personal information once it’s in the wrong hands — it could range anywhere from being used to send SMSs to your cell phone that you get charged for or simply selling your email address.

As with any online threat, protecting yourself and those people using the networks you manage starts with education.  Here are three tips for outsmarting typosquatting:

1. Use OpenDNS:  It’s the only service that will automatically correct common typos in TLDs, and help ensure you end up at the website you want.  OpenDNS solves a large portion of the problem, and also automatically blocks phishing websites.

2. Watch the address bar:  Legit websites rarely do redirections like Twtter.com does.  Keep an eye on what the site is doing and note suspicious redirects.  Also simply note the URL of the website you’re visiting after you’ve been taken there. Is the site the one you wanted? Did you make a typo?

3. Don’t share your personal information:  If a website offers you a chance to win a prize, simply for providing personal information or taking a survey, be skeptical.  You should never share your personal information online unless you’re on an extremely trusted website.

For businesses, schools and households alike, online safety is of the utmost importance. And it’s all about education.  Know what to look for and you can outsmart much of the bad stuff.  And use OpenDNS and tell others to do the same.

We’d love to hear your thoughts:  We’re considering an opt-in service that would let people avoid these kinds of unintended redirections.  Even in cases like that of Twtter.com, where technically it’s a real, registered website.  What do you think?  Would you use such a service?

Editor’s note: OpenDNS users frequently tell us that they were introduced to the industry-leading security service through younger friends and family members. And usually they’re talking about high-school and college students! To learn more we reached out to Brandon Halsey, 20, of Crown Point, Indiana, who has set-up OpenDNS on machines for dozens of friends and family members and was considered the resident IT pro for his family by the time he was in middle school.

OpenDNS: How did you discover OpenDNS?
BH: When I was a freshman in high school I was messing around with a 2003 R2 Windows server to try and understand how it worked. I did some Internet research for a free recursive DNS server and came across OpenDNS. Even though you had just launched at that time, everything I read pointed to how OpenDNS was a faster and more reliable choice for DNS. I gave it a shot and immediately saw a difference from what my ISP offered. I’ve used it ever since.

OpenDNS: Whoa, back up. You discovered OpenDNS when you were a freshman in high school! Just when did you get into computers?
BH: I was in 5^th grade when we got our first machine that ran Windows XP. I’ve always been curious, so I started tinkering around to see what I could learn about computers. I usually just play around with a computer or server until it breaks and then teach myself how to fix it. By the time I was in middle school I could completely reinstall Windows and fix most common problems. I got my CompTIA A+ and Network+ certifications when I was a junior in high school and just this year I got my “Microsoft Technology Specialist: Configuring Window 7” certification.

OpenDNS: That’s impressive! I know you’ve been helping teach older generations in your family about Internet security. Do you see that as a bigger trend?
BH: Definitely. Kids today start using the Internet for learning games when they’re not even in preschool, so it would make sense that they’d grow up to be more tech-savvy than their parents and grandparents who are less experienced with what is still a fairly new technology. I’ve set up OpenDNS on dozens of computers for my friends and family members who didn’t even know they had a choice in DNS (or what it was) and they’ve all thanked me for a faster Internet and protection from Internet threats. I see the trend continuing firsthand: Since I’ve left for college my little brother Nathan has taken over my role as resident IT guy at home.

OpenDNS: Any alarming stuff out there that you’re surprised to find most parents and grandparents aren’t even aware of?
BH: I would have to say that the biggest threat to my parents’ and grandparents’ generations is phishing. Though I am constantly telling them not to click links in phishing-style emails or log in to websites without double-checking the URL, the best way I help them combat phishing is to set up OpenDNS. I can count several occasions where I’ve gotten phone calls from family members asking why a seemingly upstanding website was blocked by OpenDNS and I’d have to explain to them what phishing is and how they were protected.

OpenDNS: When you’re not saving the planet from phishing attacks one friend or family member at a time, what do you do for fun?
BH: When I’m not busy fixing computers or studying, I am usually messing around with the rack server I recently acquired. I like to use it for experiments to see what I can learn without disturbing my current network setup. Lately I’ve been messing around with things like Group Policy and Active Directory that can save network administrators loads of time and money. I’m not all computers all the time, though. I recently discovered hiking and it’s been a wonderful stress-reliever for when school gets too hectic.

Want to answer five questions for OpenDNS? Let us know by emailing success [at] OpenDNS [dot] com.

For the past several months Christian Kreibich and Nicholas Weaver over at the International Computer Science Institute in Berkeley, California, have been tracking a laundry list of ISPs to confirm what they thought to be true: that the ISPs are intercepting customers’ search queries and surreptitiously redirecting them to advertiser or affiliate links. What’s being alleged is that when the ISP customer types something into his or her own browser address bar, instead of making a DNS request or sending the traffic to the browser-configured search provider, the ISP decides which page the customer is taken to and just sends them there. Last week New Scientist magazine broke the story about the findings and caused a stir across the Internet, which has also prompted Congress to take a look, potentially calling some of these ISPs and bad actors in front of the new Congressional Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law.

Keyword redirection is something new we’ve not seen before, and it’s particularly pernicious, but the practice of ISPs somehow trying to shake more nickels out of their customers is certainly not new. It’s happened before here and here. There are some technical similarities to what we do and what these ISPs are doing, though our methods and motives could not be more different. One of the most important differences relates to choice — everyone chooses to use OpenDNS but most people, if they are lucky enough to have access to broadband at all, only have one choice of ISP.

Our goal at OpenDNS is to help protect people from exactly this kind of security and privacy violation, be it from a malicious hacker or even your ISP. In fact, one of the great ironies in this saga is that while we have never done the things the ISPs are being accused of, we did pioneer some of the techniques that ISPs are using to accomplish this redirection. That doesn’t make us very happy.

Everything we do at OpenDNS has been with our users’ best interests in mind. We’ve always operated an opt-in service with the sole aim of making you thrilled about using it. Using OpenDNS provides you a healthy level of insulation and privacy between you and your ISP. In the case of the newly-found keyword redirection, switching to OpenDNS empowers you to regain control over your address bar. With OpenDNS enabled, the ISP-controlled keyword redirection stops happening and your address bar searches go back to taking you where you want them to.

I fear the keyword redirection the ISPs are being accused of doing is only the beginning, as we’re seeing more and more evidence of ISPs doing things (that most would agree) they shouldn’t be doing. Even if you use OpenDNS and the ISP keyword redirection fails, it’s unclear whether ISPs are still able to sniff your traffic and create a profile about your Internet use – a blatant privacy offense. The idea of anyone, including your ISP, spying on your traffic raises serious security and privacy concerns.  We fully intend to follow this closely and continue to help you do something about it.

You can be sure we will respond by delivering even stronger solutions that protect your security, privacy and ability to use the Internet unencumbered anywhere in the world, on any device, at any time.

OpenDNS turned 5 this year and I wanted to build something really cool to commemorate the occasion.  I wanted to make something that would look amazing, was functional and would make people think about just how much we have accomplished.  As a product manager I spend a lot of time looking at data visualizations but have always had a soft spot for old sci-fi war rooms and power stations with hundreds of physical analog gauges.

Goals

• Design must have both vintage and contemporary elements. I love steampunk as much as the next guy but it just didn’t feel right for this project.
• Arduino driven.  It has been a year since my last Arduino project and it’s time to get back to my favorite little microcontroller. There are also a few other people playing with Arduinos at OpenDNS – not so many using picaxe or MSP 430s .
• Expandable – not everything has to be done at once but a little work now gets me more to play with later. I used RGB tri-color LEDs but only connected the red channel for the first iteration.
• Get others involved -  I work with brilliant software engineers.  If I provide them with instructions on how to send data to the panel over USB, they will do a much better job than I ever could. While this write up is about my work, it was awesome to work with engineers Doug Tabacco and Adam Phelps on this project.

Parts

• Pre-finished Birch Plywood – cut to 18″x24″ pieces to fit on the laser bed.
• Arduino – I had an Arduino Mega sitting around but it’s overkill for what I need.  I need lots of PWM outputs and the Mega only has 13.
• TI TLC5940 LED Drivers – I daisy chained two of these chips to drive up 32 PWM/analog outputs. Each chip is about $4 and there is a good library with plenty of examples of Arduino+TLC5940. The one odd thing is that the 594o controls the individual cathodes (negative) so all the LEDs have to be common anode.
• 5mm common anode RGB Leds – I am only controlling the red channel with fading for now but will hook up the rest of the colors later to allow color changes.
• 0-5v gauges – the Arduino+TLC5940 can drive up to 5v which makes these voltmeter panel gauges  ideal.  I originally tested on a 0-1A gauge with the shunt cut off but having 12 identical gauges already set up for 5v made the project much simpler.
• Misc – a little bit of glue, some 22AWG wire, 22AWG butt crimps, tap splices and a breadboard.

Map

Laser etching can be done in one of two ways: Raster and vector.  While raster mode allows for fill and shading, vector mode etching cannot be beat for detail and sharpness.  Vector etching provides a 0.005″ (0.13mm) lines with curves rendered at 1200 dpi.   The trick is to run the vectors with #FF0000 line color at 100% speed, 10% power whereas the black vectors would cut at 20% speed, 90% power on a 60 Watt CO2 laser.

The world map needed to vector etched but the original file (http://www.vectorworldmap.com/) had every tiny little island as a barely visible vector form. In my test etching I found that the even with a laser cutter’s precision, there was heat spread in the wood causing charring! Sorry to our friends in Alaska and Western Europe but I had to hide some of the tiny islands.

I found the locations of our data centers on the map and added mounting holes for the LEDs.  Since I am using nice 5mm RGB diffused LEDs, I wanted to show them off.  Instead of drilling a single big through hole for the LED body, I  decided to laser cut a hole for each lead (Red, Anode, Green, Blue). Each hole is 0.5mm in diameter with .75mm spacing between holes. This aligned the leads perfectly and snugly allowing me to attach wires from the back.

Gauges

The gauges are voltmeters that measure 0-5v DC. I originally planned on replacing the face of the gauges but the stock gauges looked so good I didn’t bother. The ambiguity of 0-5 only seemed to add to the overall effect. I used calipers to measure the gauges and design a mounting through hole for laser cutting into the wood.  I always test my designs by first laser cutting them into cardboard so I can find all the little flaws.  To my surprise, the first iteration was a perfect fit!

Construction

I have been playing with box joints for a little while and really like the contrast of laser charred edges against a  light birch face. I got my settings dialed in to the point that I was getting a dovetail-like fit. In fact the boxes you see here are incredibly hard to disassemble.

For this project, I will be assembling and disassembling frequently so I adjusted my settings to make for a looser fit.

The laser cutter at TechShop San Francisco has an 18″ x24″ bed.  This is a great size but scaling the world map  to fit in that space with enough room for two rows of gauges left New York and Washington DC so close together that the LEDs would be touching. I needed to scale up.

Since I have 24″ on one end I decided to make the case 23″ x 23″ x 6″.  The 23″x6″ sides/top/bottom cut easily.  I then split the back into two pieces and the front into three pieces. By keeping the front modular, I was able to permanently glue the sides, top front and bottom front but allow the middle front and back to be removed.  Why leave that extra space in the middle?  I’m not sure yet but I think there may have to be some rocker switches, buttons and dials added to the panel in the future.

Assembly and Wiring

This picture pretty much tells it all.  The clamps were probably unnecessary since the finger joints were holding just fine but one can never be too careful. The only part missing from the shot is the Arduino that sits along the bottom along with a breadboard holding two TLC5940 chips. Notice the hole in bottom left for USB cord.

Final Assembly

Hot glue used to hold wires in place. I reversed colors (oops) and the common negative/cathode is black for the LEDs.

Tiny butt crimp connectors attach the LED leads to the wires. You’ll also notice the red wire taps to attach common anode. Electrical tape is covering up the unused green and blue pins.

Arduino and breadboard are attached to the bottom of the case using foam tape.

I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out! The monitoring station now sits at the front of our office for everyone to see.

Serial Communication

The Arduino makes serial communication pretty simple. The two tricky parts are keeping the serial connection open and debugging.  I settled on the format of three digits and a character to indicate which location (LED+Gauge) was being updated.  For example, updating Amsterdam to 100% (gauge pinned at 5, LED glowing brightly)  send 100A or 050A for 50%.

At this point, uber-engineer and friend Doug Tabacco took over and wrote the control software.  The laptop does all the heavy lifting of  fetching stats and scaling/normalizing. His python script scrapes the per-site stats data, normalizes it to a % value and sends that value over serial every 0.085 seconds.

Bugs

Everything seemed to be fine but then a strange thing happened: after a few minutes of testing, Doug’s Mac’s USB port stopped responding until it was rebooted.   I was starting to freak out because the Sysadmin Appreciation Day party was only 5 days away and this was more than just a little weird glitch.

My first assumption was that there was something wrong with the Arduino.  Then after a good night’s sleep I realized I forgot to comment out one of my debug serial outputs in the Arduino code.  The Arduino was sending a line of serial output every .085 seconds (12 outputs per second)… yep, that’s how you fill a buffer and cause weird things to happen. After commenting out that output line in the Arduino code, Doug’s script worked perfectly!

Note: This is a cross post from my personal blog at www.nerdkraft.com

The OpenDNS Domain Tagging system represents the best of people-powered security: Community members from around the world work together to efficiently and accurately categorize the Internet’s content so OpenDNS users can easily allow the sites they want on their networks, and block the ones they don’t.

Join the tens of thousands of security researchers, academics, concerned parents and netizens in the OpenDNS community and get involved this month. With 2011 marking the 30th anniversary of the premiere of the movie Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, we’re inspired to bury our own Golden Tickets.

Here’s how the contest works: Vote on a domain in August and you could be lucky enough to uncover one of the 56 Golden Tickets planted in the Domain Tagging system. There’s no limit to the number of domains you vote on, so the more you vote the better your chances of finding a winner. The best part about this contest — the more domains you help categorize, the safer you’re making the Internet for millions of families, schools and businesses around the world.

Prizes include one grand prize of an OpenDNS hoodie, five awesome OpenDNS t-shirts and 50 OpenDNS coozies (the kind that are designed to keep your drink of choice cold).

The fine print: Each Golden Ticket can be discovered only once, by one person. Winners will be notified via email after August 31, 2011 once the contest is finished.  The Golden Ticket contest starts today and ends officially on August 31. You have to be logged into your account to vote and win.

Good luck to all!  I hope you win one!  And make sure you keep all won prizes away from that mean old Mr. Slugworth.

It’s SysAdmin Appreciation Day and we’re celebrating by crowning our 2011 SysAdmin of the Year and worthy winners in six other categories. The nominations poured in and we challenged a talented panel of OpenDNS engineers and SysAdmins to determine the winners. After an arduous deliberation process (involving multiple energy drinks and trips to the snack room) our team chose John Cannon, lone IT pro for a rapidly expanding group of BMW and Mercedes dealerships, as the 2011 SysAdmin of the Year! John was nominated for the Neat Freak category but his before and after pictures told of a patient and organized SysAdmin simultaneously managing IT for five locations while implementing a massive and challenging overhaul.

John joins an elite group of winners who raised the bar for each of the categories below:

Best Disaster Response Award
After Hurricane Ike struck, Hart Energy’s servers were trapped in an area without power and nearly impossible to access through the debris and downed power lines. Mark Chiles wins the Disaster Response Award for his heroic actions to save the servers, including blindly descending ten flights of stairs in pitch-black darkness and using his own body to save a server after nearly falling down the staircase!

Shoestring Budget Award
James Gamble and Brian Albury might work at a children’s museum but when it comes to saving money, they’re not kidding around. They receive this year’s Shoestring Budget Award for their uncompromising commitment to saving the non-profit museum hundreds of thousands of dollars each year by repurposing old machines, using open source and free software, and standardizing company practices, all while leveraging a limited budget that is funded by grants and donations.

Flying Solo Award
Eric Szymczyk is a one-man IT show at a large public relations firm in Boston. Eric spent two highly-caffeinated days moving his entire firm into new offices, including the deployment of new laptops for all employees! He singlehandedly moved the servers, racks, cables, phone system, scanners, printers and more while somehow managing to save the company thousands in the process. We’re in awe of this work, but we still think he humbly tells it best: “I have been a light bulb replacer, a surge protector switcher-on guy, a virus fixer, a heavy box delivery man, a server installer, an iPhone troubleshooter, a network architect and more… my name is Eric, I am IT, and I fly solo.”

Large-Scale Deployment Award
Ryan Pierce was the stand-out winner for the large-scale deployment award because faced the difficult challenge of implementing a system-wide upgrade across dozens of healthcare facilities throughout California. He did so with limited support resources, an executive team that didn’t see value in an IT department, and the responsibility of simultaneously handling all IT tickets for the organization! Now, he boasts the trust and support of the executive team, HIPAA compliance, and the successful completion of a $1.5M upgrade.

DevOps Award
This was an easy one. Elite SysAdmin and engineer Richard Crowley cut his teeth at OpenDNS, where he learned a massive amount about operations and systems. We couldn’t be more proud of his new tool and venture, blueprint, and Richard couldn’t be more deserving of this award. Blueprint allows users to reverse-engineer running servers, output a blueprint, and recreate the server. The tool has already helped numerous SysAdmins quickly take existing machines and add them to automation frameworks. Plus, it’s completely open source, free, and available at Github.com, where more than 800 people are following its progress. A perfect fit for the DevOps award.

Neat Freak Award
If this year’s nominations are any indication of industry standards, it appears that the freakishly neat are multiplying! From the countless nominations we received there was one clear standout. Thanks to David Korté’s painstaking network diagramming, his server racks look like a work of art.

Our amazing list of winners will receive a bounty of gifts fit for a SysAdmin. Their prize package includes caffeinated treats from ThinkGeek, OpenDNS swag, and perhaps most importantly, bragging rights to their friends and colleagues.

Thank you to everyone who entered and raised the bar for the 2011 OpenDNS SysAdmin Awards.