Several years ago I switched our home network over to OpenDNS.  I think that was one of the best decisions I’ve made.  They offer a great free product and one that I can customize and use to protect my whole network with a simple change to my router.    Don’t take my word for it take a look at the awards they’ve received and no I don’t receive any kickback for saying all this.  I’m just a very satisfied customer.

So click on over to OpenDNS and make the change. They’ve made it extremely easy and even give you instructions for how to do it regardless of how your network is configured.  I just went through the steps again (so I could blog about it) and it took me 45 seconds to set it up.  Yea… That’s how easy it is!  No matter what your level of computer knowledge is you can do it..  They’ve taken the time to research most major router manufactures and have instructions that will make it that easy for you setup their service.   Some router manufactures are even partnering with OpenDNS to make the ‘Net much safer. The biggest reason I have found to use this product is that it protects my network and family from a lot of different attacks that can come from the internet.  It’s not the only protection I use but it’s an important one. 

Now, the links I provided above will allow you to do two things.  The first is to just change the “DNS” settings on your router.  If you just want the basics then that’s it, change them and move on to surfing safely.  But if you want to move up a notch and begin to monitor and manage your network more like the pro’s then you have to Create the Free Open DNS Account and start using their Dashboard.  Something important to note if your network uses a Dynamic IP address (the majority of the home networks do) then I would also suggest you download and install one of the many Dynamic DNS Clients so you can keep their your account in sync with your ever changing IP address.  With that all setup you can really manage your network.

That’s it for now.  I’ll revisit this topic in the future to give you some more pointers on using this great service.

Enjoy!

In my effort to find a better deal for our digital subscriptions (TV, Phone, Internet) I called Charter Communications to see what they had to offer.  My goal is to increase my benefits without significant increase in monthly cost.  Our current cable package is very basic and being a Tigers fan, I would like to be able to see a few more games, so a sports package is important.  I also have three kids and It would be good to have some quality options for them. but being a Christian, I don't want to sacrifice my values, or those I'm trying to teach my children.  Hmm, quite a list.  So back to my call to Charter.   They were able to find a package that interested me.  It included their Cable Big, Internet (5Meg) and Telephone.  It was for $89.99.  Only about $20 more than I'm spending now.  It's worth considering, but not before I check with the competition.

Recently, my wife wanted to upgrade our AT&T phone package, so I started doing some research into different plans and packages to find out the best deal.  Since I was a little slow in getting all the details, we decided to just upgrade the phone to the AT&T Complete Choice package. But I'm not satisfied with just that, I wanted to look a our total costs for all digital services and find out what options are really available and see if there are better deals.  I've kindly referred to this as our Digital Priceprint.

Our current suite of services

• Charter High Speed Internet 5mb - $29.99
• Charter Basic Cable - $9.99
• AT&T Complete Choice - $30.00

So there you have it.  All told we pay about $70/month for the total package (Internet, Phone, TV).  Probably not a bad deal, but is there a better one out there?  I'm off to find out.  I'll try and keep you up to date on the progress and the end result.