Embracing technology as the pastor: OpenDNS

Last week I spoke about the importance of blocking time wasting websites using Leechblock.

This week I want to talk about blocking websites that you should never visit.

The internet has been used by God to bring much good to humanity.  But the internet has also been used by Satan to bring much harm to humanity.

As a result, there are many websites you should never visit.  Ever. 

But, sadly sometimes you will end up where you shouldn't be.  It may be accidental or it may be intentional as your sinful nature rears its ugly head (much more likely).

Thus, pretty much no Christian should have unfiltered internet.

But how do you effectively filter the internet so that you cannot access web pages that are unhelpful?  You should use a service that blacklists the most dangerous sites.

To do this, there are many programs that you can install on your computer.  But if you're technically savy you can get around them fairly easily.  They can also place a drain on your computer system's resources.

OpenDNS takes a different type of approach.  It filters the internet at your router not at your computer (your router is often the device through which you receive your internet).

Such a method has a number of benefits:
(i) it is very difficult to get around (particularly if someone else has the passwords to the OpenDNS account and router interface);
(ii) it filters for all computers (including phones) which are on the network.

Oh, and did I mention that it is free.

So set up OpenDNS and protect yourself from Satan's abuse of the internet.