—This article supersedes the previous OpenDNS article, to bring everything up to date.—
I previously wrote an article about how to fix the search results that get thrown up by OpenDNS when you’re trying a quick search in Firefox’s address bar. However, if you use the Google Toolbar, you will have the same problem. There also appear to be issues with OpenDNS’s default behaviour (which perhaps should be an "opt-in" rather than an "opt-out"?)
It’s surprising how used to the Firefox address bar feature you get. I, for instance, just type “gmail” into the address bar and Firefox/Google gets me to where I want to go. Some people I know of have actually got rid of OpenDNS for this reason alone. Well all is not lost!
First things first, go to the address bar of Firefox and type about:config and hit return. You may be given a warning message, simply click “I’ll be careful, I promise!”. What appears is a list of the configurable variables that Firefox uses. Beware, messing with the wrong ones can break your browser. We’re interested in only one of them. In the filter box, type keyword. Double click the keyword.URL entry in the list and change the contents of the box that appears to http://www.google.com/search?btnI=I%27m+Feeling+Lucky&q= click OK. And for those of us in the UK, just substitute the google.com with a google.co.uk.
Secondly, you’ll need to have an account with OpenDNS, so you can manage your network settings. For those of you that have a static IP it’s very simple, simply register your IP with OpenDNS, give it a friendly name (like Home Broadband or something) and you can start managing everything within minutes. If you do not have a static IP address, please read their section on Dynamic DNS first and then download a small program that notifies OpenDNS when your network address changes.
Once you have your IP address registered with OpenDNS, you can manage the settings yourself. Click on advanced settings for the network and make sure, right at the bottom of the page, Enable OpenDNS proxy is ticked. The OpenDNS proxy will allow Firefox address bar traffic through unscathed (hopefully) – but it only appears to work in combination with the Firefox fix above (at least in my case). You may also want to disable the typo correction (personal choice).
Anything you now type into the address bar of Firefox, if it’s not a valid website address, will be redirected to Google’s “I’m Feeling Lucky” search. I’m Feeling Lucky, for the uninitiated, is a button next to Search on the Google homepage that you can use if you’re sure the first entry that’s going to be returned by Google’s normal search will be what you’re looking for. Firefox will now act exactly the same way when you type your search term into the address bar – bypassing that horrible (and annoying) OpenDNS search page.