Re: DNS Redirection System Turned Off in DSL Extreme http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r15852046 en Fri, 04 Dec 2009 21:56:13 EDT Fri, 04 Dec 2009 21:56:13 EDT Re: DNS Redirection System Turned Off http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15900174 djrobx : Sonic.net comes to mind. :uhh: We do have lots of options. Thankfully it didn't come to that.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15900174 Fri, 14 Apr 2006 23:16:07 EDT Re: DNS Redirection System Turned Off http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15899809 Okman :
said by harryhoudini See Profile :

Talk about kicking someone in the face when they apologize.

Dont do something like this again? I would hate to be your kids or under your managment.

Serenity now
I agree. People should just thank god that they have an alternative ISP who at least listen (though don't know how much longer). And I love it when guys threaten to jump ship. Jump ship to what? SBC? lol]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15899809 Fri, 14 Apr 2006 22:06:40 EDT Re: DNS Redirection System Turned Off http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15891251 harryhoudini : Talk about kicking someone in the face when they apologize.

Dont do something like this again? I would hate to be your kids or under your managment.

Serenity now]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15891251 Thu, 13 Apr 2006 17:59:41 EDT Re: DNS Redirection System Turned Off http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15868252 anon : I am the original poster of the thread titled, "I want to thank DSL Extreme for wasting my time."

Although I am glad the "feature" has been turned off now, and yes DSL Extreme listened to customers, but what guarantee is there that such things without informing customers will not happen again in the near future?

So it was Ikano management who implemented that "feature"?

I recently found out about Ikano's acquisition on this board. Why weren't we informed about this either? Why wasn't an email or letter sent to us explaining about the acquisition and what it means to current customers?

There are some serious communication issues with the company and I think it should be rectified.

I still have second thoughts about renewing.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15868252 Mon, 10 Apr 2006 15:33:30 EDT Re: DNS Redirection System Turned Off http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15859831 walken42 : I was not affected by the issue myself, being in the northern California area. Plus I run my own caching DNS server anyway, based on the idea that the least external services I depend on, the less things can (will) go wrong. So I only learnt about it here, after it had been fixed. Glad they fixed it though - as a techie, I do not appreciate companies breaking standards.

I do not buy the IKANO connection though - if the change had been imposed by them, I do not think it could have happened that fast. Sounds more like a major brain fart within dslx, I would guess. Maybe they drank too much at the buyout party :) Shit happens - just make sure it does not happen twice, and I'll keep being a happy customer.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15859831 Sun, 09 Apr 2006 03:02:27 EDT Re: DNS Redirection System Turned Off http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15859816 djrobx :
quote:
and now that they "fix" it we praise them for listening to their customers?
Well said. Good point. I suppose I'm thanking George and Ari in particular for listening to us and taking our comments to Ikano. Really it should have never happened in the first place, and in the end, this whole experience still leaves me a bit less confident in the future of our ISP now that it's in Ikano's hands. I can only wonder what other cost cutting measures are on the horizon.

I suppose it's a sad state of affairs, but the truth is with most of the bigger ISPs, when a negative change is put in place, it's done, and all complaints seemingly fall on deaf ears. There's a certain comfort in knowing that we aren't wasting our time by expressing our displeasure here. While it doesn't absolve them of wrongdoing, I do think that does deserve some praise. They could easily have just ignored our complaints, but they did the right thing. I'm human, so I too make mistakes every now and then. I'd hope people could tolerate my blunders, assuming I do what I can to correct them quickly. I don't see why I shouldn't extend the same courtesy to DSLX. They made a mistake and they fixed it. I can move on.

-- Rob
--
\\ROB - a part of the SCB local network]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15859816 Sun, 09 Apr 2006 02:56:48 EDT Re: DNS Redirection System Turned Off http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15859646 OZO : I'd like to thank not DSLExtreme (I do not see why they deserves it now), but those DSL users who put their efforts to explain to DSLExtreme (and particularly to IKANO) that we're paying our money for service that should not be deteriorated or replaced silently with an inferior one. If they'd insist, well, money is money, I'd stop giving mine $62.16...

I think it was obvious that every day of delay to revert back this "new feature" ruined IKANO's reputation. See how many people read just this one thread - redirects to look-up-results.com. What was created by DSLE's hard working for several years was under threat to be destroyed. Bad marketing decision, IKANO.

Thank you again to you guys who gave this lesson (it looks like Verisign's miserable failure two years ago to do the same was not enough). You are those who saved the service (so far), and not marketing department of IKANO.
--
Keep it simple, it'll become complex by itself...]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15859646 Sun, 09 Apr 2006 02:09:47 EDT Re: DNS Redirection System Turned Off http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15859214 gobbledygook : I wanted to write DSLExtreme to:
- Thank you for reverting the change, and
- Endorse shortckt's call to COMMUNICATE!

And I don't mean just before, but after, as well. Two to three days elapsed from the time the problem was identified until it was fixed. But it appears that during this time nothing was ever posted at the DSLExtreme website, either detailing the problem or its workarounds. Nor direct email to customers, either.

After one of my applications started failing (no, not web browsing) I contacted DSLExtreme. The tech could not understand the problem, despite being provided the incorrect response to DNS queries. I remembered this forum, and figured other folks must also be having problems. So I acquired a username to weigh in on the issue.

But I am sure many of your customers that don't check here wasted a lot of time. I commend you for your presence and help in this forum, but I expect known issues to come up in the "Network Status" page.

I'll balance my complaint by stating that I have been a very satisfied customer of DSLExtreme for years, across three different homes at different times. But you've just cashed in a chunk of the goodwill you had banked over this time. So I'll be less understanding next time.

P.S. And yes, you may relay my sentiments to IKANO.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15859214 Sun, 09 Apr 2006 00:21:24 EDT Re: DNS Redirection System Turned Off http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15857721 shortckt : So an ISP violates RFC 1035 and modifies the normal operation of their DNS and expectations of how DNS should behave.

This causes customer's systems to break, on purpose, without any warning, and now that they "fix" it we praise them for listening to their customers?

I have no problem with DSL Extreme setting up special DNS servers with the redirecting feature as long as it was optional to use and set on servers other than their advertised standard DNS servers. That way customers can make a conscious choice and when things break, would know why and could switch back. After all, DNS services are part of what a customer pays for not just bandwidth, and breaking it on purpose is not expected.

I know this issue has been covered ad nauseum the last few days. I know I could change to different DNS service. BUT THERE WAS NO WARNING! When I suspected a DNS problem the first place I looked was the ISP network status web site and recording on the tech support line (opt. #7).

The unexplained change in DNS service affected not only web browsers but everything that uses DNS right down to ping and trace. I had noticed this from home a few days ago when pings to non-existent domains returned an IP on Level3 networks, and assumed the DNS servers had been mis-configured and this would be discovered and fixed in due time.

This was more than an inconvenience. It actually broke things for one of my customers. Their two remote offices could not access the exchange email server located at the main office because of this. I suppose I could blame that on Microsoft for trying to resolve machine names in dns before trying WINS resolution, but I figure that they, like most software vendors create their products with an expectation that standard services will behave in a standard way.

This customer will end up paying me for the time it took to fix this and time wasted looking for non-existent spyware on the machines; and I don't know how much business loss they incurred as a result of this DNS fiasco.

Much of this time wasting could have been avoided if DSL Extreme would have simply COMMUNICATED THEIR INTENTIONS in advance to their users! I checked email and network status several times about this but did not have the time to wait on hold with tech support. Nay, even if they had posted something about this after it was implemented that would have still saved me hours of headache.

From reading other's posts it seems even calling tech support would not have been enlightening since even the techs did not seem to know about this change at first.

As for the opt-out method, that was just weak... many users clean cookies or don't allow them in the first place. This should have been OPT-IN from the start.

The opt-out method and no warning is more likened to scum operations like spammers and such. I'm fairly certain DSL Extreme did not intend to tarnish their image like this. I will give them the benefit of the doubt and chalk it up to a poorly thought out marketing idea.

DSL Extreme, remember to COMMUNICATE! COMMUNICATE! COMMUNICATE! network changes to your customers since there is no way to anticipate every effect your changes may have on your customer's systems.

As for the claims of trying to reduce nuisance tech support calls, why not add a recording on hold to remind callers to check their URL spelling if this kind of problem is an issue? Callers already hear the network status recording when selecting tech support from the voice menu.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15857721 Sat, 08 Apr 2006 19:33:56 EDT Re: DNS Redirection System Turned Off http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15856121 brmehlman : Nicely done!

Even though the problem didn't affect me, the fact that it got fixed so soon has restored most of the warm fuzzy feeling I've had about this service and its provider.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15856121 Sat, 08 Apr 2006 15:00:04 EDT Re: DNS Redirection System Turned Off http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15855500 dslx_gm : The alternate DNS server addresses were pointed to the standard DNS server pool. It will continue to work with those addresses. If you want to keep things standard you can switch back though.
--
George
General Manager
DSLExtreme
Will work for reviews. ;)]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15855500 Sat, 08 Apr 2006 13:12:13 EDT Re: DNS Redirection System Turned Off http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15855434 fitbryan : Ok so for all of use who went to the alternate .200 DNS should we continue to use that or go back to the original?]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15855434 Sat, 08 Apr 2006 12:59:43 EDT Re: DNS Redirection System Turned Off http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15855166 klynch_gdd : This is more then what I was expecting and a VERY pleasent suprise. I am glad to see that DSLX and IKANO are listening to there customers and taking our information to heart.

I will be changing my review to explain in short that you guys listen to there customers and respond to our complaints with appropriate action to show a company that cares.

Thanks.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15855166 Sat, 08 Apr 2006 12:12:50 EDT Re: DNS Redirection System Turned Off http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15855110 piersden : George: Many sincere thanks for your actions and response to the deeply felt customer anger.

One quick question: Per DSLExtreme's recommendation, I changed my DNS settings from "Find DNS address automatically" to:

Primary/Preferred: 66.51.205.200
Alternate: 66.51.206.200

Should I reset back to find automatically?

Again, many thanks for the support.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15855110 Sat, 08 Apr 2006 12:04:43 EDT Re: DNS Redirection System Turned Off http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15853825 djrobx : Now *THAT* is what I call a resolution to the issue! *THIS* is the DSLExtreme that I know and love. Thanks for listening to us!

-- Rob
--
\\ROB - a part of the SCB local network]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15853825 Sat, 08 Apr 2006 02:53:37 EDT Re: DNS Redirection System Turned Off http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15853698 ddavtian : We in NorCal were not affected, but it's awesome to see the continued excellence from DSLX. Thanks George.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15853698 Sat, 08 Apr 2006 02:08:39 EDT Re: DNS Redirection System Turned Off http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15853602 Phil : Thanks George, DSLX. Much appreciated. :)
--
Correcting one "looser" at a time.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15853602 Sat, 08 Apr 2006 01:41:23 EDT Re: DNS Redirection System Turned Off http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15853149 johnfreez : I'm just in awe of the concept of a company listening to its customer's concerns and feedback and then affecting changes suggested by the users. Truely amazing. It's a big reason why I'm a DSL Extreme customer. They work WITH their clients.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15853149 Fri, 07 Apr 2006 23:54:50 EDT Re: DNS Redirection System Turned Off http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15852557 LittleKenny : Good news indeed. I really appreciate the fact that DSLX listened to the response and made appropriate changes.

Thank you DSLX.

~lk
--
Fold On!]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15852557 Fri, 07 Apr 2006 22:13:27 EDT Re: DNS Redirection System Turned Off http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15852375 wicked_wifi : Snuggles George. US as clients do matter to big business.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15852375 Fri, 07 Apr 2006 21:46:01 EDT Re: DNS Redirection System Turned Off http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15852050 sded : Sure seem to be a lot of people here who can't type or spell ;). Finally entered a phony URL to see what the fuss was about, and still don't see it. At least the DNSs should go back to normal speed now. But advance announcements and requesting volunteers for beta testing like the other new services would go a long way.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15852050 Fri, 07 Apr 2006 20:56:41 EDT Re: DNS Redirection System Turned Off http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15852046 braden : Thanks George. I appreciate everyone at DSLX considering our points of view and making (what I consider to be) the right decision. ]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15852046 Fri, 07 Apr 2006 20:56:06 EDT Re: DNS Redirection System Turned Off http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15851966 ylen131 : review will be updated to reflect the change]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15851966 Fri, 07 Apr 2006 20:43:17 EDT Re: DNS Redirection System Turned Off http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15851959 shortman : I had confidence DSLExtreme would listen to our outcry. Thanks for hearing us.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15851959 Fri, 07 Apr 2006 20:41:32 EDT Re: DNS Redirection System Turned Off http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15851939 blacksurfer : I see that "Power to the people" still works! ]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15851939 Fri, 07 Apr 2006 20:39:09 EDT Re: DNS Redirection System Turned Off http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15851927 Lanik : I think this should go on a front page. Its nice that DSLX has gotten all that attention as of late. But its the wrong kind of attention if you ask me. I remember when Verisign tried to do this and it failed miserably. DSLX is a great company I would hate to see it stoop to that low of a level.

I understand the need to make money but I'm sure there is another way, other then forcing it on us users without any way of opting out or any advanced warning.
--
Computer Consulting for the Next Generation.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15851927 Fri, 07 Apr 2006 20:37:13 EDT Re: DNS Redirection System Turned Off http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15851781 MsGeek : Thank you. This was an insult to your user base, and it's good that you rethought and fixed it. Please don't do anything like this again.

Now if only DSL Extreme's DNS servers could be a little more robust...
--
Online since 1987, thinking different since 1995, Linux-friendly since 1997, Broadband since 1999. Where do I want to go today? Wherever I want!]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15851781 Fri, 07 Apr 2006 20:15:25 EDT Re: DNS Redirection System Turned Off http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15851580 deblin : Thanks George, I'm glad you guys were able to solicit feedback and take this to IKANO. And more importantly, that they listened.

So folks out there that dinged DSLX in your review, you might want to "undo" what you've written, or at least update it to reflect DSLX's changes based on customer feedback.

George, as others have pointed out, if there is something new in the future, I think everyone would appreciate having to opt into it, or at the very least have a warning email to know what was coming.

Thanks again!
--
The question isn't "what are we going to do," the question is "what aren't we going to do?" - Ferris]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15851580 Fri, 07 Apr 2006 19:47:01 EDT DNS Redirection System Turned Off http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15851413 dslx_gm : Thank you for your feedback while we were testing the DNS redirection system in Southern California. Ari, Jim and I have taken your feedback as well as our original assessment of the system to IKANO and all agreed that the system was not the right fit for our DSLExtreme clients.

We have therefore turned off the system and set our DNS servers back to normal. The alternate DNS servers have been pointed to the standard pool. If you changed your IP address to a non DSLExtreme DNS server we recommend that you set it back out standard addresses.

We would like to ensure you that our focus towards our client’s satisfaction will continue as it has for many years. Thank you for your continued support!
--
George
General Manager
DSLExtreme
Will work for reviews. ;)]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15851413 Fri, 07 Apr 2006 19:22:38 EDT