before, i posted on other blogs about using hosts file to 'censor' phishing sites and websites with malware, etc.
now, i just reviewed 3 internet services to offer a live alternatives to hosts file, filtered dns server.

the first who started it (cmiiw) is opendns.com
it offer only blocking phishing sites. similar to siteadvisor, in function. in their forum there're talks about 'censoring' other malware/badware sites too, in their future plan.
(i dont care about their 'smart' feature to correct misspelling, or other fancy feature)
service is currently 100% free.

then, there is scrubdns.com, also accessible at scrubit.com
it block pornographic and malicious sites. the beta account allow you also block other site that you want to block. the account might be charged for a fee in the future.
i'd really like to see inside the beta...

third, safefromsites.com selling the service per computer basis. i dont know how can they count how many computer i have inside my adsl router? like i always do, never pay for something you can get for free... :)


off course, like any other services, someone might suspect of their real intention. nothing in life is 'really' free.


what i really like is, i dont have to bother go to each and every computer to update hosts file to block those badware. they can help a lot in this.

what d'u think?

this is quick and dirty howto.
it's tested and work out ok on my system. but i dont guarantee it wont break yours.

these are the 5 easy steps:
1. enter yourdomainname.com in ipcop's dhcp service
2a. create dns record to point wpad.yourdomainname.com to your ipcop ip. or,
2b. edit /etc/hosts and put 'wpad 192.168.1.1' into a new line. replace 192.168.1.1 with your ipcop's ip
test it by ping wpad and see if it resolve to your ipcop's ip
3. create the wpad.dat file in /home/httpd/html/
4. add 'Listen 80' to a new line in /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
5. restart apache: 'kill -HUP 1234' replace 1234 with your /var/run/httpd.pid

test it by opening http://wpad/wpad.dat in your browser

that's it! your browser now can automatically detect your proxy setting.