Ahh okay, I do the same effectively with cloudfare 1.1.1.2 and using either
https://itexpertoncall.com/additional_info/moabpre.html to block access to bad sites…
or
https://axiomcyber.com/shield/
Depending upon budget, the former is the most cost effective method for the layperson, the latter is decent if you write it off as a business expense.
(already registered, good till 13 Sept LOL).
YES, FlashStart is a cloud DNS service.
It is intended for business/governments/education/ISP organizations.
The scripts synchronize your public IP and let you query the anycast DNS.
And you have both router and remote protection for people in mobility.
There are free services that compete with your secret pricing services.
NextDNS also has a free plan, you can white/blacklist any domain and also use the lists provided by them or not.
AdGuard offers similar services for a known price.
AdGuard Home is free and you can host it yourself with currently superior services (encrypted services like DoH etc).
The well known Pi-hole that you can host yourself, similar to the above.
The last two can run on some MikroTik routers using containers (currently with some hiccups, but I expect the bugs to be polished in the near future), for free!
As I said before, free filtering platform or software (ex. Pi-Hole) are suitable if the Organization has a skilled admin supporting the service. And if there is no need for enterprise features (such as Active Directory integration, Google workspace synchronization, etc).
Free filter service or paid ones?
It depends on the scenario.
We wrote an article:
https://flashstart.com/the-case-against-free-dns-content-filtering-for-business/amp/
Amazing.
LE: Well, I still see no valid reason to choose FS even for a trial.
And I’m still laughing at your “secure DNS” over the standard UDP/53.
But hey, good luck with your marketing!
No problem, thank you for the chat.
In case of need, here we are!
Francesco
why prices are hidden?
FlashStart is only distributed by Partner and it is not sold directly.
To access pricelists, we have a web form here: https://flashstart.com/landing-get-quote/
Our platform is not proposed to end users - it’s a corporate product distributed by Partner offering a support service, too.
So no feedback possibility in a topic requesting feedback on a product.
As I said before, free filtering platform or software (ex. Pi-Hole) are suitable if the Organization has a skilled admin supporting the service. And if there is no need for enterprise features (such as Active Directory integration, Google workspace synchronization, etc).
Most companies using MT equipment are very price sensitive and have limited resources. So before knowing if your AI DNS service is inside the feasible price range, most users here will not take the time to even have a look at it.
To be honest, I think you miss your target audience by advertising here. This is a technical forum, where peoples mainly have a technical background. And this peoples tend to run away the moment you just bring up marketing stuff while lacking any technical details. Especially with overused buzzwords like “AI on neuronal networks”.
Companies requiring AD synch and similar hardly use MikroTik equipment. Your product seems to be competing with things like Cisco Umbrella DNS. Your whole marketing is obviously made to impress big cooperate purchase suits lacking technical background. Claiming five-nines availability in your marketing is a strong warning sign for every technical educated person.
Read the #40 https://forum.mikrotik.com/viewtopic.php?p=955078#p954437
“yet another DNS hijacking and IP firewall address list service”
No deep packet inspection = useless DNS hijacking.
Just one click on Firefox and you use NextDNS (or Cloudflare) DoH for free, bypassing any “IA powered DNS 53 hijack”
On Google I have find on some place €5,00 , on other €10,00
nothing close to NextDNS 300.000 queries for free or unlimited queries for $1,99
I use NextDNS as upstream for AdGuardHome running currently on a Raspberry until MikroTik fixes the remaining container bugs in RouterOS.
The 300k queries are enough for my home network, for free.
And yes you can have profiles with different settings in NextDNS for different locations/devices, if you want to.
LE: Container mount permissions seem fixed in v7.6beta4, which means I’ll retire the Raspberry soon enough.
So yeah.. there’s that.
NICE! That looks like a path forward.
A couple of times you’ve mentioned this but every time someone opposes something, you put the heels in the sand.
And no upfront way to get prices ? So you’re actually fishing for contact info …
Not very commercial, I think. Definitely a no-no from my side.
About this
It requires no additional hardware or software and does not perceivably impact Router performance.
Without technical detail how your service works and what it does, there is no way anyone can verify that claim.
(or did I miss that part somewhere ?)
@JBL42, I am really starting to like the pink blob, excellent post!!
I currently use Flashstart, it has improved since this thread was first posted.
Now in Italy it helps to solve all the legal problems (rotture di scoglio ni).
Well done, nice work.
I use a product called flashstart, but its for starting fireplace fires…
The key to a winning product is if it offers DPI protection, as there appears to be many such DNS only type based filtering products, thats all they do, some sort of filtering based on someones idea of what the ‘best list’ is. Making efficient use of MT tools and software is the key to a good product and a reasonable price to automate the process of finding good lists and updating them frequently enough is helpful. The good thing about these products, is that they actually look at your outbound traffic (whereas as most of us dont ), and instead of a blind LAN to WAN rule, have some sort of curated list of bad guys to avoid. Not sure if this catches all the dumb things family members click on etc… but if they do, then it may be a reasonable approach!!