S_engineer
join:2007-05-16
Chicago, IL | Comcraptic
it will be easy to switch DNS servers, this shouldn't be that big a deal. However, it follows a trend being set by ISPs to advertise you to death.
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BF69~~~Please stop suffocating gerbils! |
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TKJunkMail
Enjoy the sun
Premium
join:2002-03-03
Avalon, NJ
 ·Sprint Mobile Broa..
 ·Comcast
3 edits |  There is nothing wrong with these services and for most users it is actually a help. For the few users that see this as a problem, it is easy to opt-out. And pointing you to web sites that may have been what you really wanted anyway is not a negative.
OpenDNS, which many use as an alternative to ISP DNS servers, also provides that same functionality by default. It can also be opted out of easily.
And the browsers now used by most (IE & FF) also redirect as part of their toolbar functions. And if you use the Google Toolbar in either of those browsers, they also, by default, do this as well.
As for me, I just point my router to OpenDNS servers and I use all the security features that service provides. And for the rare times I mistype a domain name, the error page that OpenDNS provides is more handy than a 404 msg.
The extra features supplied by these DNS helpers can actually be very useful. And by pointing to them in a router, you can actually protect device like smartphones, Wii's, Playstations, etc from dangerous web sites.
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My BLOG .. .. Internet News .. .. My Web Page |
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davidu
join:2006-12-28
San Francisco, CA | Thanks for the nice post and screenshots Liam! |
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Nightfall
My Goal Is To Deny Yours
Premium,MVM
join:2001-08-03
Grand Rapids, MI
 ·Site5.com
 ·AT&T Midwest
·Comcast
| reply to TKJunkMail
I agree with Liam.
For dslreports users, this service sucks and I don't blame them. At the same time though, its easy to just shut it off so there shouldn't be any complaints.
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My domain - Nightfall.net |
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digitalfreak
join:2005-12-09
49533 | reply to TKJunkMail
*golf clap* |
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MiloMindbend
join:2001-01-18
Jeannette, PA
| reply to TKJunkMail
said by TKJunkMail  :There is nothing wrong with these services and for most users it is actually a help. There's _plenty_ wrong with these services. They're not a clean design, they're a kludge with all kinds of side-effects.
DNS requests are a lower level "utility function" of the network than anything web browsers do. An application (including, but not limited to, your web browser) asks the system resolver library to fetch it the address of a name, and if the resolver doesn't already have one, it goes off and tries to get one from the configured DNS servers. Your application (again, might be a web browser, might be something else) then tries to connect to that address on some specified port and tries to talk some protocol like HTTP. Or SSH. Or SMTP. Or jabber. Or rsync. Or... See why it's a bad idea to think of futzing with DNS responses as a way of serving ads^W^Woffering helpful advice to web browsers? DNS is used to plumb connections for nearly every protocol on the net, not just for interactive web browsing.
This DNS redirection crap is a bad idea implemented with a lack of understanding of _how_things_work_. It breaks the contract of how DNS is supposed to behave, and applications and protocols that these advertising guys have probably never even heard of have been built against those contracts. The "Internet" is more than just web browsers talking to web servers.  |
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DrStrange
Technically feasible
Premium
join:2001-07-23
West Hartford, CT | reply to TKJunkMail
Thanks for posting the info about OpenDNS' TLD blocking. |
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TKJunkMail
Enjoy the sun
Premium
join:2002-03-03
Avalon, NJ
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
·Comcast
| said by DrStrange :Thanks for posting the info about OpenDNS' TLD blocking. Yes. That works well. Doing some research on security sites I found that the following TLDs were the most likely to serve up malware:
bg
cc
cn
gs
info
kr
nu
ro
ru
st
tc
tk
vg
ws
By blocking these, it makes it easier to filter out some dangers - especially when visitors to the house use the computer system and are less than cautious when web browsing.
The only domain in that list that can be sometimes annoying is the "info" TLD. There are many legit sites there, but it is also one of the worst at serving up malware.
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My BLOG .. .. Internet News .. .. My Web Page |
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openbox9
join:2004-01-26
Alexandria, VA
·AT&T Southeast
| reply to MiloMindbend
said by MiloMindbend :The "Internet" is more than just web browsers talking to web servers. And if you need more and this redirection interferes with your use, then opt-out or utilize alternate DNS servers. It's really not that difficult. |
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fenix_jn
join:2006-12-28
Miami, FL | reply to TKJunkMail
Thank you, added to blocked domains! |
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verolom
join:2002-03-23
Eagleville, PA | how racist of you two! |
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