How to access a site blocked by OpenDNS

I'm using OpenDNS to filter some of the content my kids can get to on our home network. Is there any way to access a site that's being blocked without whitelisting it? For example, there are some humor sites I don't want my kids to go to but I enjoy - but with OpenDNS it seems to be all or nothing. Is there any way around this, like a password to access the site or something?

Solution 1:

I don't think you can do it using strictly OpenDNS. Others have requested a similar feature, e.g. http://ideabank.opendns.com/story.php?title=Password_Overwride.

But if you are using OpenDNS on your router and you use a separate computer from your kids, you can circumvent OpenDNS by setting your computer's DNS server to the one given by your ISP or 4.2.2.2.

Oh, and restrict access to the DNS settings on your kids computers in case they read SuperUser.

Solution 2:

Extending on YHVH's answer, you can get the site's IP address (using something like NetworkTools for example), then put it in your "hosts file".

On Windows, this should be something like C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts (may be different on 64bit), and on Linux its in /etc/hosts

Both files have the same format:

IPAddress www.example.com example.com

Where "IP Address" is the IP, and the variations of "example.com" are the domain name. With that in mind, YHVH's example would be:

69.59.196.219 superuser.com

Solution 3:

Hmm, you could try adding .nyud.net to the domain you want to visit, for example:

www.superuser.com.nyud.net

Perhaps this trick can circumvent the OpenDNS blocking system...?

Solution 4:

If you and your kids are using different computers, you can use your ISP's DNS server on your PC and OpenDNS on the PCs which are used by your kids.

@YHVH: The »solution« you posted won't work. ping will use the default system's DNS server to resolve the ip address. You will have to use nslookup and tell the program to use another DNS server.