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How to filter your whole home Wi-Fi with OpenDNS FamilyShield (works with any broadband provider)

Point your router at OpenDNS FamilyShield (208.67.222.123 / 208.67.220.123) to filter adult content on every device on your Wi-Fi.

✅
Verified: Last checked on Monday 5 October 2026 against OpenDNS's official Set Up OpenDNS guide and Home Internet Security page (opendns.com), and Cisco's support article Understand OpenDNS FamilyShield (OpenDNS is now part of Cisco). Covers OpenDNS FamilyShield (free, no sign-up) and an overview of OpenDNS Home (free account, customisable filtering), set up on your home router so every device on your Wi-Fi is covered. Where we mention TalkTalk and Plusnet, we've checked their own help pages too.
Note: we checked these steps against OpenDNS's and Cisco's current written instructions. We haven't tested them on a router for this edition. Every router's menus are different, so we describe where DNS settings usually live rather than exact button names — check your router's manual or your broadband provider's help pages for the exact screens.

⏱ Time to complete: about 15–30 minutes 🔧 Difficulty: Medium. You'll need to log in to your router's settings page and change one setting. Nothing to install, and it's easy to undo.

The short version (for very busy parents)

  1. Find your router's admin address and password (usually on a sticker on the router).
  2. Log in and find the DNS settings — often under Internet, WAN, LAN or DHCP.
  3. Replace the DNS servers with OpenDNS FamilyShield: 208.67.222.123 and 208.67.220.123.
  4. Save, then restart your devices (or the router) so they pick up the change.
  5. Visit welcome.opendns.com on a device on your Wi-Fi to check it's working.

What is this, in plain English?

Every time a device on your Wi-Fi visits a website, it first asks a DNS server — the internet's phone book — for the site's address. Your broadband provider normally supplies this for you.

OpenDNS FamilyShield is a free DNS service from Cisco that is pre-set to block adult content. If you point your router at FamilyShield, every device that joins your Wi-Fi — phones, tablets, laptops, consoles, smart TVs — gets the filter automatically. OpenDNS describes it as "set it and forget it".

Free option What it does Sign-up?
OpenDNS FamilyShield Pre-configured to block adult content No
OpenDNS Home Customisable content filtering (choose what to block) Yes — free account
OpenDNS Public Service Fast DNS with basic protection; not a parental filter on its own No

What about Cisco Umbrella? Umbrella is Cisco's paid business security service. For families, the free options are FamilyShield and OpenDNS Home — you don't need an Umbrella account.

Should I use this or my broadband provider's filter? If your provider has a free filter (Sky Broadband Shield, Virgin Media Essential Security, TalkTalk HomeSafe, Plusnet SafeGuard), that's usually the easiest option. OpenDNS is handy if your provider doesn't offer one, if you want the same filter across a mesh system or second router, or if you'd like something independent of your provider.

⚠️ TalkTalk customers: TalkTalk says HomeSafe can't work if you use a third-party DNS such as OpenDNS — it relies on TalkTalk's own DNS servers. Choose one or the other.

What you'll need

  • Access to your router (the box from your broadband provider, or your own router or mesh system).
  • The router's admin address — often printed on the back, such as 192.168.1.1, 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.254 (Plusnet's Hub Two uses 192.168.1.254).
  • The router's admin password — usually on the same sticker. This is often different from your Wi-Fi password.
  • A laptop or phone connected to your Wi-Fi.
  • 15–30 minutes, ideally when nobody's in the middle of an online game.

Step-by-step

Step 1: Write down your current DNS settings

Before you change anything, take a photo or note of what's already in the DNS boxes (it may say Automatic or Obtain from ISP). That way you can put it back if anything goes wrong.

Step 2: Log in to your router

  1. On a device connected to your Wi-Fi, open a web browser.
  2. Type the router's admin address into the address bar (for example 192.168.1.254) and press Enter.
  3. Enter the admin password from the sticker.

Some routers are managed through an app instead (for example, mesh systems). Look for DNS in the app's advanced or network settings.

[Screenshot: a typical router login page]

Step 3: Find the DNS settings

There's no standard place, but OpenDNS's guide and Cisco both say to set the addresses in your router's DNS or DHCP DNS settings. Common places to look:

  • Internet / WAN / Broadband settings → DNS
  • LAN / Local network / DHCP server settings → DNS server
  • Advanced settings → DNS

You may need to switch from Automatic to Manual (or untick "Get DNS automatically from ISP") before you can type in new addresses.

Can't find a DNS option? Some routers supplied by broadband providers don't let you change DNS. If yours doesn't, you can either set DNS on individual devices (OpenDNS's set-up guide has instructions for computers and smart devices), use your provider's own filter, or add your own router or mesh system. If in doubt, check your provider's help pages for your router model.

Step 4: Enter the FamilyShield addresses

Replace the existing DNS servers with:

Address
Primary / Preferred DNS 208.67.222.123
Secondary / Alternative DNS 208.67.220.123

Then Save or Apply.

⚠️ Use the right numbers. OpenDNS's guide tells you to be sure to use the FamilyShield nameservers. Its standard servers (208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220) are not the pre-set family filter. Those are for OpenDNS Home (with an account) or the public service. For a no-sign-up family filter, the addresses end in .123.

[Screenshot: router DNS settings with 208.67.222.123 and 208.67.220.123 entered]

IPv6 boxes: some routers also have separate IPv6 DNS settings. OpenDNS's guide lists the IPv4 FamilyShield addresses above. If your router has IPv6 DNS fields filled in automatically, devices may use those instead — check your router's help if filtering isn't working.

Step 5: Make devices pick up the change

Devices hold on to their old DNS settings for a while. To speed things up:

  • Restart the router, or
  • Turn Wi-Fi off and on on each device (or restart it).

Step 6: Test it

  1. On a device connected to your Wi-Fi, go to welcome.opendns.com — OpenDNS's own test page. It should confirm you're using OpenDNS.
  2. Cisco also suggests checking a normal, allowed site still loads properly.
  3. If filtering doesn't seem to work, Cisco says to check nothing is overriding your DNS — such as a VPN, the browser's DNS-over-HTTPS ("secure DNS") setting, or DNS typed manually into the device.

Optional: OpenDNS Home for custom filtering

If FamilyShield's "adult content only" approach isn't enough — or blocks something you need — OpenDNS Home is free and lets you choose what to filter.

  1. Sign up for a free OpenDNS Home account at opendns.com.
  2. Set your router's DNS to OpenDNS's standard servers: 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220.
  3. In your OpenDNS dashboard, add your home network and choose your content filtering settings.

Heads-up: OpenDNS Home works by recognising your home's public IP address. Many UK broadband connections have an IP address that changes from time to time. If it changes, your custom filtering can stop applying until the dashboard is updated. Cisco publishes guidance on maintaining networks with dynamic IP addresses (usually an updater app on a home computer, or a dynamic-DNS setting on some routers). If that sounds like too much, stick with FamilyShield, which works without any account.

(We haven't verified the OpenDNS Home dashboard screens against current official help for this edition, so menu names may differ from the description above.)

Keep it working

  • It's easy to bypass if you know how. Cisco says DNS filtering can be bypassed by changing DNS settings on a device, using a VPN, or using DNS-over-HTTPS in the browser. Use your devices' own parental controls too (Screen Time, Family Link, console settings), which can stop children changing these settings.
  • Change the router admin password from the one on the sticker, so children can't simply log in and put the old DNS back.
  • Mobile data isn't covered. It only filters devices on your home Wi-Fi.
  • Router replaced or reset? You'll need to enter the DNS addresses again. Re-test with welcome.opendns.com after any broadband engineer visit or router swap.
  • It's not a full content inspector. Cisco says FamilyShield is category-based DNS filtering, not the same as a full firewall that inspects content. It blocks whole websites, not individual videos or posts.
  • Bedtimes need something else. DNS filtering doesn't do screen-time limits. Many routers (for example, Plusnet's Hub Two Access control, or Sky WiFi Max) can pause or schedule devices — or use the device's own controls.
  • Talk as well as filter. No filter is perfect. Keep talking with your children about what they see online.

Related guides (links to follow)

  • 🌐 Sky Broadband parental controls — [link to add]
  • 🌐 Virgin Media parental controls — [link to add]
  • 🌐 TalkTalk and Plusnet parental controls — [link to add]
  • 💻 Chromebook parental controls with Family Link — [link to add]

Spotted a change? Tell us

OpenDNS and Cisco occasionally update their services and addresses. If something doesn't match, [report a change: add DeviceDaddy contact form or email link here]. Tell us your broadband provider, router model and what's different. The ✅ stamp shows when we last checked.

Sources (checked 5 October 2026)

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