Windstream redirecting failed website requests
CTC was bought by Windstream and as evidence that they've started converting the CTC network to Windstream, when I went to a down website today, I was redirected to ww23.entry-not-found.com. Since it's Windstream branded and other people have reported it, I don't think I've been rooted. I have already complained.
If you're concerned about your DNS having the same problem, for now I apt-get install bind9 and changed my DNS from my dd-wrt box (which is using Windstream DNS servers) to 127.0.0.1.
Then in /etc/hosts I set entry-not-found.com and ww23.entry-not-found.com to resolve to 127.0.0.1.
When I asked Windstream about it, they offered an opt-out alternative:
In response to your concern, Windstream recently implemented a new feature to aid the majority of our customers experiencing issues while browsing websites. When a customer types in an incorrect web address, this feature now redirects the customer to a list of possible websites they were trying to access instead of giving the generic "Page Cannot Be Displayed." Because a majority of our customers thought to believe our service had disconnected, this change was made. However, we have seen a few examples with this that is causing a small part of our customers to be unable to access specific sites. Currently, the only way to bypass this feature is to set the opt out DNS servers into your Local Area Connection. The DNS servers are as follows:
Primary DNS Server: 166.102.165.32
Secondary DNS Server: 207.91.5.32
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| DD-WRT configuration with alternate DNS servers | 18.78 KB |
opendns
Check out opendns.com. You can point your dd-wrt router to their dns servers and say bye bye to Windstream's tricks.
Shrop
same thing
They do the same thing though. When I get a failed DNS lookup, they have to fund their service by showing an search result ad page to me. It turned out when I complained to Windstream that they had opt-out DNS servers, so I have actual failed pages when a domain doesn't exist now.
Charter was planning to do even more
Charter had plans to data mine all their customer's traffic and present ads that were suited to what they are surfing at the time. We should all be very interested in ways to protect our surfing patterns from our ISP's. The first link is an article explaining what they were planning to do. The second link explains that they have since abandoned the plans. What I can't figure out though is how they intended to deliver the ads to their customers. We're they going to replace the ads on sites that you visit with their own ads? Doesn't this make the ISP behave more like spyware?
http://www.hackaday.com/2008/06/25/charter-abandons-packet-monitoring-ad...
http://webworkerdaily.com/2008/06/24/charter-cancels-nebuad/
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