As a managed services provider (MSP), MyITpros often receives questions such as “Why is our Internet slow?” or “How do we keep people off social media?” Another concern for a lot of our clients is making sure employees aren’t compromising the network by visiting harmful sites. To answer these common queries, there are numerous technologies out there that both offer network protection and give you access control.
We recommend a security software brand for our clients called OpenDNS.
What is OpenDNS?
First off, it’s important to know what DNS is. “DNS” stands for “domain name system,” and it’s essentially what allows you to browse the Internet without having to type in the IP address of the server hosting whichever resources you want to access. It’s considered the phone book of the Internet, translating domain names that are readable to humans into IP addresses that are readable to machines. Most Internet users never know they are using DNS hundreds of times per day.
Unfortunately, malicious systems can utilize DNS to ease the deployment and management of virus/malware infected systems. So, how does OpenDNS help prevent you from becoming infected?
OpenDNS is essentially a filter that sits between your system and the rest of the Internet. It will prevent you from ever connecting to unsafe systems, and thus prevents any individual user on the network from downloading harmful malware through links or infected websites. With OpenDNS, you get multiple layers of security, not to mention added visibility into your network so you can see what’s going on behind the scenes.
There are two more major advantages to utilizing OpenDNS software: OpenDNS can perform filtering (i.e. prevent people from going to Facebook or any other site you want blocked) and it will improve Internet performance from bandwidth-wasting sites.
Other uses for OpenDNS
Besides blocking access to specific sites, increasing website navigation speeds and preventing users from hitting harmful pages, OpenDNS provides several other advantages to businesses, including:
- Cloud services monitoring and reporting
- Identifying what cloud services are being used and by whom (Dropbox, Box, etc.)
- Advanced filtering
- Restriction of guest networks
- Ensuring compliance with Internet use policies
- Providing security to all devices inside and outside of the corporate network, whether these are corporate-owned, guest computers or mobile devices
Our approach to security
OpenDNS is one part of MyITpros’ Advanced Endpoint Security (AES) service created to establish multiple layers of security for our clients. Our primary purpose for OpenDNS is to proactively prevent malware and botnet infections and reduce our customers’ overall exposure and susceptibility. As an example, if a computer manages to become infected but the virus is blocked from reaching the control server, further infection can be prevented.
OpenDNS is a solution that addresses multiple problems and provides our customers great bang for their buck. The ability to filter and reduce bandwidth-consuming applications and websites can lead to a significant improvement in bandwidth utilization and allows you to conserve what is becoming an increasingly valuable resource.
Matt Rohler, Director of Operations
Our goal with this blog is to answer the questions you ask! If you have questions about MyITpros or any IT topic, feel free to contact us and we’ll be happy to help. You can also check out our services page for more information on all of our offered services!
