OpenDNS is a useful tool for monitoring your kids' online activities and blocking websites you don't want them to visit. I blogged about this tool in my blog series named The Complete Guide on Monitoring and Parental Control on a Chromebook.
One useful feature of OpenDNS is the ability to block en entire category of websites with a few clicks. You can look at the list of domains your kids visited and select the domain you want to block. Then you have the option to block this domain or block similar domains as shown below.
For example, my daughter used to waste a bunch of time "window" shopping on online shopping sites. I simply clicked block similar domains from OpenDNS, and many web shopping sites that I have never even heard of all became blocked, to my great satisfaction.
However, sometimes a specific website slips through because it was not part of a category when it should have. One example is disneynow.com. It is clearly a video site. But when I blocked YouTube with the category of video sites, OpenDNS only considered video upload sites.
If you select block similar domains on disneynow.com, you will get a prompt saying it doesn't belong to any categories and you can suggest a category. However, it doesn't really let you create the new category and block it. If you select block similar domains, you actually get an error message says "Error blocking disneynow.com. Undefined." This is No Bueno!
A little bit of research revealed that people actually reported this problem as far back as 2016. But guess this bug never had high enough priority, so it never got fixed (see link below).
https://support.opendns.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/220050547-When-i-try-to-block-a-domain-i-get-an-error-
However, it is still possible to block the domain. You just have to go through a different route. Here are the steps:
1. Click the SETTINGS tab at the top.
2. Select your network from the dropdown box.
3. Scroll to the bottom to find a section named Manage individual domains.
4. Add the domain you want to block in the Always block field.
5. Click the ADD DOMAIN button.
Voila, mission accomplished! Lanny 1 and Lanny's daughter 0!!
Moving on to the next battle!!
Video of the Day:
One useful feature of OpenDNS is the ability to block en entire category of websites with a few clicks. You can look at the list of domains your kids visited and select the domain you want to block. Then you have the option to block this domain or block similar domains as shown below.
For example, my daughter used to waste a bunch of time "window" shopping on online shopping sites. I simply clicked block similar domains from OpenDNS, and many web shopping sites that I have never even heard of all became blocked, to my great satisfaction.
However, sometimes a specific website slips through because it was not part of a category when it should have. One example is disneynow.com. It is clearly a video site. But when I blocked YouTube with the category of video sites, OpenDNS only considered video upload sites.
If you select block similar domains on disneynow.com, you will get a prompt saying it doesn't belong to any categories and you can suggest a category. However, it doesn't really let you create the new category and block it. If you select block similar domains, you actually get an error message says "Error blocking disneynow.com. Undefined." This is No Bueno!
A little bit of research revealed that people actually reported this problem as far back as 2016. But guess this bug never had high enough priority, so it never got fixed (see link below).
https://support.opendns.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/220050547-When-i-try-to-block-a-domain-i-get-an-error-
However, it is still possible to block the domain. You just have to go through a different route. Here are the steps:
1. Click the SETTINGS tab at the top.
2. Select your network from the dropdown box.
3. Scroll to the bottom to find a section named Manage individual domains.
4. Add the domain you want to block in the Always block field.
5. Click the ADD DOMAIN button.
Moving on to the next battle!!
Video of the Day:
You got to love this boy's attitude. He keeps battling and never gives up!
BTW: The easiest way to remember my blog address is http://lanny.lannyland.com
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