Listen up parents! If you don’t know what your kids are finding and viewingon the internet then I suggest you string a few key words together and try not to get offended at the google results (Free+Sex+Videos will do nicely). If you think your teen hasn’t (or wouldn’t) then you need to do a little research on internet pornography. Unfortunately everyone is going to come across it and the youngsters who spend the most time on the net at your house, and looking up game cheat codes on questionable internet sites are definitely going to be exposed.

So, what to you do? Well, you can spend a lot of money on expensive hardware or software filters that will do a good job. But with a little time you can also filter your entire network for free. If you have kids and they are on the internet at times when you are not there to watch them YOU NEED TO DO THIS.

Step 1. Make sure you can get into your router. Most home networks will have the router available at the IP address 192.168.1.1 (sometimes 192.168.0.1). Type that into your web browser and see if a username and passsword page or your wireless router configuration comes up. If it doesn’t you need to find the IP address and get the username and password to get into your router. If you don’t have a password on the router or your kids actually set it up for you learn how to get into it and change the password. DO NOT PROCEED TILL YOU CAN GET INTO THE ROUTER AND ONLY YOU KNOW THE PASSWORD.

Step 2. OpenDNS offers a great free service for filtering any content before it gets directed to your network. It means questionable content doesn’t get to your router and every device connected to it (computers, laptops, ipods, Wii’s and PS3′s etc) will all be protected. Visit http://opendns.com and sign up for an account. Be sure to note the username and password – you should be the only one that knows it.

Step 3. OpenDNS has instructions for setting up your Network. They have instructions for changing every type of router. Follow thier instructions. You need to adjust the DNS settings of the router so that all address look ups go through the OpenDNS service. Get your router set up and test it on openDNS.

Step 4. In the OpenDNS settings you can set your security level. In the Dashboard > settings area they have preconfigured levels you can select. I did High, which blocks everything including the fun stuff, and then clicked on the customize to open a few categories such as Chat and Blogs. You can also continue to block a category but add a ‘never block’ rule to a specific domain. For example we blog webmail, but allow gmail.com. We also block games and only allow the few and make the kids ask to have a domain unblocked.

Step 5. Be active in monitoring the network. Set up the custom messages, review the Stats and Logs frequently, let your kids know if there is a site they find not working that it’s not a big deal to have it unblocked. If you don’t like the adds and want to keep your history you can pay $9.95 for a whole year. Now try your search again . . .

Drop me a note if you have any problems getting it set up, or you want to know what I have set. It will take some time, but once you know how and have control of what’s coming down the pipe you’ll feel soooooo much better. Enjoy!