[astroman]

Having read a few things about Opendns on this forum I have started using the service myself but am still not sure what is actually happening.

It is described as an address verification service but am I viewing cached pages that are on their servers or am I viewing Soundsbox (for example) direct?

Does my ISP know the sites that I visit so that they can slap my wrists if I visit sites that they don't like (Soundsbox for example)?

Am I right in assuming if my slow internet connection at peak times is due to my ISP not having enough capability at the local telephone exchange, using Opendns will not make any difference to my connection speed?

I am asking these questions here as opposed to the Opendns Forum as I find folks here much easier to understand!

[solaris]

Originally Posted by astroman

Having read a few things about Opendns on this forum I have started using the service myself but am still not sure what is actually happening.

OpenDNS offers DNS resolution for consumers as an alternative to using their Internet service provider's DNS servers.

By placing company servers in strategic locations and employing a large cache of the domain names, DNS queries are usually processed much more quickly, thereby increasing page retrieval speed.

DNS query results are sometimes cached by the local operating system and/or applications, so this speed increase may not be noticeable with every request, but only with requests that are not stored in a local cache.

Originally Posted by astroman

It is described as an address verification service but am I viewing cached pages that are on their servers or am I viewing Soundsbox (for example) direct?

You will always be watching a cached page of SoundsBox no matter if you go through your own ISP or if you go through OpenDNS OpenDNS just often works faster than your own ISP (see first answer above).

Originally Posted by astroman

Does my ISP know the sites that I visit so that they can slap my wrists if I visit sites that they don't like (Soundsbox for example)?

I'm pretty sure only the nice people at OpenDNS know, which sites you visit

Originally Posted by astroman

Am I right in assuming if my slow internet connection at peak times is due to my ISP not having enough capability at the local telephone exchange, using Opendns will not make any difference to my connection speed?

You ARE right, astroman (see my first answer)

Originally Posted by astroman

I am asking these questions here as opposed to the Opendns Forum as I find folks here much easier to understand!

I hope you still feel that way after these replies