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What is OpenBLD.net Gears?

OpenBLD.net Gears is a set of tools and services that help make online experience more secure, private and faster.

Gears​

Control system​

  • Private DNS Profiling (PDP): A service that provides complete isolation of your DNS requests, ensuring that no one can track your online activity. It also offers personalized DNS settings, robust security with DNSSEC, TLSv1.2, and TLSv1.3, and more.
  • DNS Upstream Fly Selector (DUFS): A service that automatically switches to fastest available upstream servers, according selected balancing mode.
  • DNS Guarantee Resolving System (DGRS): A system that guarantees the resolution of DNS requests if those are not resolved by the upstream DNS servers.

Instrument panel​

  • Custom Terminal Messages (CTM): Allow customizing terminal messages for nslookup etc.
  • Dashboard System (DS): A system that provides a dashboard with metrics data.
  • Metrics Collection (MC): A service that collects metrics about DNS requests and responses.

Braking system​

  • DNS Type Blocking (DTB): A service that blocks specific DNS request types.
  • DNS Filtering (DF): A service that filters DNS requests based on the user's preferences.
  • Blocklists with Categories (BLC): A service that blocks unwanted content based on categories.
  • DNS Rate Limiting (DRL): A service that limits the number of DNS requests per second.

Nitro​

  • DNS Race Resolver (DRR): A service that resolves DNS requests from multiple upstream servers and returns the fastest response.
  • DNS Transmission Switching (ADDS): Differentiated DNS switching to faster upstream servers for priority (trusted) domain names.
  • DNS Caching (DC): A service that caches DNS requests to speed up the resolution process.

Sensors​

  • DNS Logging (DL): A service that logs DNS requests and responses. Has a log rotation mechanism.
  • Multi Output Channeling (MOC): Different channeling for different output data.
  • DNS Rsyslog forwarding (RSF): A service that forwards logs to the remote syslog server.
  • EDNS Client Subnet Detector (ECSD): A service that provides the client's subnet information.

Modes​

OpenBLD.net Gears offers several modes to help to customize your online experience and available as default settings in:

  • ADA - Adaptive DNS Acceleration: A mode that automatically switches to faster upstream servers for priority (trusted) domain names.
  • RIC - Strict DNS Concentration: A mode that allows majority DNS requests to the OpenBLD.net servers from PDP Gear. All other DNS requests are blocked.
  • KID - Kid Protection Mode: A mode that blocks adult content, gambling, and other unwanted content.
  • ZTM - Zero Trust Mode: A mode that blocks all DNS requests except for those explicitly allowed by the user.

Dashboard​

OpenBLD.net Dashboard Example

All metrics data compatible with Prometheus and Grafana.

Rate Limiting​

Service that limits the number of DNS requests per second and can be configured based on the user's preferences.

Options:

  • Per IP Address: Limits the number of DNS requests per second per IP address.
  • Per Byte: Limits the number of DNS requests per second per byte.
  • Per NXDOMAIN: Limits the number of DNS requests per second per NXDOMAIN.
  • Block by Query Type: Limits the number of DNS requests per second per query type.
  • Blocking Threshold: Blocks the IP address if the number of DNS requests per second exceeds the threshold.
  • Blocking Time: The time the IP address is blocked if the number of DNS requests per second exceeds the threshold.
  • Whitelist: Allows specific IP addresses and CIDR's to bypass the rate limiting.

Filtering​

  • Local and Remote file loading
  • Regular expressions
  • Domain lists
  • Downloading interval

Caching​

  • Response caching
  • Different cache storing time for different DNS responses
  • Enrichment cache with additional information (categories)
  • Automatic cache cleaning
  • Domain matching cache

Logging​

OpenBLD.net Logging Example

  • Asynchronous logging
  • Forward logs to the remote syslog server
  • Enriches the blocked domains with additional information (categories).
  • Colorized logs

Modes​

  • Zero Trust Mode (ZTM): A mode that blocks all DNS requests except for those explicitly allowed by the user.
  • Blackhole Mode (BHM): A mode that blocks all DNS requests, based on blocklists.
tip

The user can enable this mode optionally.

Additional Information​

important
  • It its own internal technologies of OpenBLD.net which can be provided to users as a service in OpenBLD Plus mode.
  • Not all technologies are available for public use.
  • These technologies are not used in public services:
    • no metrics
    • no logs (see How it works)
    • no data collection
    • no data selling
    • no data analysis
    • no central data storage,
    • no data aggregation
    • see How it works for more details.