Sunbelt Introduces Clear Cloud-Beta Testers Needed

Good Evening ! Received an E-Mail from Curt Larson at Sunbelt, asking if I'd like to be a Beta Tester for their new Clear Cloud service. It states it will be a DNS service that filters out malicious websites. Similar in function to the web filtering feature in Vipre Premium, the service will not require Vipre to work. If your interested you can navigate to forums.ClearCloudDNS.com to get started with ClearCloud. Sincerely...Securon

 

Thanks for the info.
http://forums.clearclouddns.com/messageview.aspx?catid=247&threadid=5147&enterthread=y
A description

 

How to enable in Windows

How to Set Up ClearCloud (TM) on Windows XP
1. Open the Control Panel from your Start menu.
2. Click Network Connections and choose your current connection.
3. On the General tab of the Connection Status screen, click Properties.
4. On the General tab of Connection Properties, scroll down and select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), then click Properties.
5. On the General tab of Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Properties, in the lower section select “Use the following DNS server addresses,” then enter the ClearCloud IP address:
74.118.212.1
6. Click OK until each window is closed. You are now using ClearCloud.

Note: Advanced users can select Advanced and enter DNS server addresses in sequence.

To Disable ClearCloud on Windows XP
1. Open the Control Panel from your Start menu.
2. Click Network Connections and choose your current connection.
3. On the General tab of the Connection Status screen, click Properties.
4. On the General tab of Connection Properties, scroll down and select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), then click Properties.
5. On the General tab of Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Properties, in the lower section select “Use the following DNS server addresses,” select, “Obtain DNS server address automatically.”
6. Click OK until each window is closed. You have now reverted to your original setting.
Note: If you are an Advanced user, click the Advanced tab to remove the ClearCloud DNS entry and revert to your previous DNS server setting.

Note: If you are an Advanced user, click the Advanced tab to remove the ClearCloud DNS entry and revert to your previous DNS server setting.


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How to Set Up ClearCloud on Windows Vista
1. Open the Control Panel from your Start menu.
2. Open “Network and Sharing Center.”
3. In the Network section, select “View Status” of each connection.
4. On the General tab of the Connection Status screen, click “Properties.”
5. On the General tab of Connection Properties, scroll down and select “Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4),” then click “Properties.”
6. On the General tab of Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) Properties, in the lower section select “Use the following DNS server addresses,” then enter the ClearCloud IP address:
74.118.212.1
7. Click OK until each window is closed. You are now using ClearCloud.

Note: Advanced users can select Advanced and enter DNS server addresses in sequence.

To disable ClearCloud on Windows Vista
1. Open the Control Panel from your Start menu.
2. Open “Network and Sharing Center.”
3. In the Network section, select “View Status” of each connection.
4. On the General tab of the Connection Status screen, click “Properties.”
5. On the General tab of Connection Properties, scroll down and select “Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4),” then click “Properties.”
6. On the General tab of Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) Properties, in the lower section select “Use the following DNS server addresses,” select, “Obtain DNS server address automatically.”
7. Click OK until each window is closed. You have now reverted to your original setting.

Note: If you are an Advanced user, click the Advanced tab to remove the ClearCloud DNS entry and revert to your previous DNS server setting.


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How to Set Up ClearCloud on Windows 7
1. Open the Control Panel from your Start menu.
2. Under the “Network and Internet” section, click “View network status and tasks.”
3. In the “View your active networks” section, open the listing to the right of “Connections:”
4. On the General tab of the Connection Status screen, click Properties.
5. On the Network tab of Connection Properties, scroll down and select “Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4),” then click Properties.
6. On the General tab of Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) Properties, in the lower section select “Use the following DNS server addresses,” then enter the ClearCloud IP address as the Preferred DNS server:
74.118.212.1
7. Click OK until each window is closed. You are now using ClearCloud

Note: Advanced users can select Advanced and enter DNS server addresses in sequence.

To disable ClearCloud on Windows 7
1. Open the Control Panel from your Start menu.
2. Under the “Network and Internet” section, click “View network status and tasks.”
3. In the “View your active networks” section, open the listing to the right of “Connections:”
4. On the General tab of the Connection Status screen, click Properties.
5. On the Network tab of Connection Properties, scroll down and select “Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4),” then click Properties.
6. On the General tab of Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) Properties, in the lower section select “Use the following DNS server addresses,” select, “Obtain DNS server address automatically.”
7. Click OK until each window is closed. You have now reverted to your original setting.

Note: If you are an Advanced user, click the Advanced tab to remove the ClearCloud DNS entry and revert to your previous DNS server setting.

Source
http://forums.clearclouddns.com/messageview.aspx?catid=237&threadid=5146&enterthread=y

 

How to enable in Mac

1. Open System Preferences (this is the square icon with the gears inside, found at the dock in the bottom of the monitor).
2. Click “Network.”
3. Choose your current network adapter from the left column.
4. Click in the “DNS Server:” blank area.
5. Enter 74.118.212.1
6. Click “Apply,” found in the lower right corner.
7. Do steps 3-6 for each adapter (Ethernet, AirPort, etc.)
8. You can safely close the Network box.

To disable ClearCloud on Mac OS X
1. Open System Preferences.
2. Click “Network.”
3. Choose your current network adapter from the left column.
4. Click in the “DNS Server:” blank area.
5. Delete 74.118.212.1
6. Click “Apply,” found in the lower right corner. Your previous settings will be restored.
7. Do steps 3-6 for each adapter (Ethernet, AirPort, etc.)
8. You can safely close the Network box.

Source
http://forums.clearclouddns.com/messageview.aspx?catid=243&threadid=5150&enterthread=y

 

Re: How to enable in Mac

Using it now. So far so good....

 

Re: How to enable in Mac

Will the browser be redirected to some ads sites if the site doesn't exist?

 

It goes to a Sunbelt page saying why it was blocked from what I have read.

 

Re: How to enable in Mac

No it redirects to a google search page.
For example I searched for an arbitrary www.gfhyu.com and it redirects me to http://www.google.co.in/search?q=www.gfhyu.com&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-Address&ie=&oe=&redir_esc=&ei=WPw1TLmrG5G8sQPIqcToAQ

 

Re: How to enable in Mac

Great! This way I won't lose the address of the site I was browsing

 

how about privacy policy?

 

It seems to me that all these "free" DNS services amass a great deal of useful traffic information, which must have some commercial value.
How do we know that our DNS requests are not being logged?
(I use Open DNS, BTW.)

 

The same way that you don't know that your ISP isn't loggin your DNS requests. Kinda freaky actually.

 

Gonna try this now.

 

The fact they are blocking ping doesn't fill me with confidence, but from what I could determine by a trace, they have U.S. only servers.

I'll pass.

 

they're likely using anycast. just like most other dns providers. they have nodes all over the place that reply to requests, probably based on geoip, load or maybe round-robin request fulfillment.

here's a link to the status page which shows the locations of all their nodes:
http://forums.clearclouddns.com/messageview.aspx?catid=268&threadid=5212&enterthread=y

also, why would it matter if they're blocking icmp? icmp is usually pretty heavily deprioritized in well-managed networks anyway.

 

Most likely to mask performance checks. There is nothing wrong with ping, every other DNS provider I've tested allows it.

Read my post again.

All U.S. servers apart from London which is likely offline or not having connections routed to it properly.

 

i guess i'm not clear how you're coming to the conclusion that the london and/or sydney nodes aren't answering or operational.

i wasn't saying anything was wrong with allowing icmp, merely that it's not a necessity. you can "performance check" dns servers with dig regardless of whether they block icmp traffic or not. you'll still get an answer with query time, regardless. (barring failure, of course...)

Code:

~% dig wilderssecurity.com @74.118.212.1

; <<>> DiG 9.6.1-P3 <<>> wilderssecurity.com @74.118.212.1
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 37339
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 4, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;wilderssecurity.com.           IN      A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
wilderssecurity.com.    14400   IN      A       65.175.38.194

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
wilderssecurity.com.    172800  IN      NS      dns234.a.register.com.
wilderssecurity.com.    172800  IN      NS      dns010.d.register.com.
wilderssecurity.com.    172800  IN      NS      dns030.b.register.com.
wilderssecurity.com.    172800  IN      NS      dns036.c.register.com.

;; Query time: 226 msec
;; SERVER: 74.118.212.1#53(74.118.212.1)
;; WHEN: Sun Jul 11 20:10:59 2010
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 154

 

Installed this yesterday. Running smoothly and browsing speed is just as fast as before. It was a pretty simple process. Changed the DNS setting on my router and now all computers on home network benefit from Clear Cloud. Pretty cool.

 

Have been testing it out for a few weeks on my test PC, haven't seen it block much then again, my standards are the amount Norton DNS blocks.

 

Think I'll pass on this. I will decide which sites I want to visit thank you very much!

 

Norton DNS is basically the same type of service? I checked on here and didn't see any threads talking about it.

 

Yeh both are DNS and the blacklist is the same as the Webshield blacklist of both...

 

Yes it is. When it comes to choosing new security software/tweaks I like to test everything out against X amount of samples and decide what works best for me. Norton DNS blocked more threats than any of the others that I tried, which include, OpenDNS, Google DNS, COMODO DNS, Clear Cloud...etc.
http://www.nortondns.com/

I'm certainly not ready to say that Clear Cloud is hopeless.

Be well.

 

So how is it running for everyone else? I just started running it today and so far it's running fine. If it keeps working fine I may have my router set all my PCs so use ClearCloud

 

I've been running since last weekend. Running great. I set my router, no problems.