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lambition
join:2004-08-26
Oakton, VA

lambition to toy4x4

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Re: Email Notice Popups in Browser

I began getting this pop-up as well.

Do do not feel comfortable with this. This means cox can inject/filter contents if they wanted.

Korean ISPs in Korea is doming similar thing. It is not to display pop-up, but to detect people using router.
In Korea, ISPs are restricting use of router saying you only signed up for 1 computer and have to pay more to use 2 or more computers.
To determine use of multiple computers, they are injecting script into website customers are accessing.

COX will be able to do more than just displaying pop-up by injecting script.

Am I just paranoid?

KG_VA
@cox.net

KG_VA to toy4x4

Anon

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I believe Cox is using software from a company called Frontporch. They sell in-browser notification software. You can find a link to them with a Google search, they have their company name as a simple dot-com address (as a newer poster, I will refrain from posting links for now).

Looking over slashdot, Frontporch and some other research, as well as recalling my conversations with some Cox reps, I believe Cox used this as a test of what will basically be an inline advertising system. Next up come more service messages, after that comes the ads.

jidar
@cox.net

jidar

Anon

iptables -I FORWARD -s 184.176.0.0/12 -j DROP

I plugged this into my DD-WRT router because I was tired of seeing it and so was my wife. When you should get a popup it takes the browser a bit to timeout (3-5 seconds for me using chrome) trying to get the JS they are loading but then it works fine.

I still think this is a joke and when I tried to call yesterday to get information from Cox I couldn't get through to their technical services team. Cute. (I have them on speed dial)
betterdan
join:2002-03-20
Portsmouth, VA

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I haven't gotten any pop ups at all. Weird.
bchandler02
join:2011-07-08
Oklahoma City, OK

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Have not seen it here.
Moto 6121 modem
Win7 systems with IE, Waterfox, and Firefox spread across them.

I however do NOT use Cox email, never have, I wonder if they are able to see who accesses their POP servers and filter it to those users only?
betterdan
join:2002-03-20
Portsmouth, VA

betterdan

Member

Well if they are filtering it only to people who use Cox email they failed with me. I haven't seen any popups and all I use is Cox email.

rj123456789
@cox.net

rj123456789 to Brybry

Anon

to Brybry
said by Brybry:

Cox appears to inject a script into the head of any page (on a timer?) that creates a div/iframe with a 'popup' notification with no way to opt-out.
<IMG SRC="">

How did you find the above script (it's not in the page source of the webpage they hijacked on my machine)? A much larger amount of javascript was loaded from another directory, as well (and, in my case, everything came from 184.178.98.52).
rj123456789

rj123456789 to Gigabit1

Anon

to Gigabit1
said by Gigabit1:

I wouldn't be surprised if they're tracking everything we do online.

On its face, this intrusion didn't involve tracking, but you can be 100% sure that EVERY ISP tracks and records every bit of user activity (easily done, since all internet traffic goes through them).

But, FWIW, the biggest problem with ISP code-injection exploits isn't the stuff they send TO you - that's merely an annoyance, it's what they potentially can get FROM you that should be of concern*.

* those who've installed any ISP programs on their machines needn't be concerned by this, since they've already given the ISP the potential to access to everything on their machines.
nickphx
join:2009-10-29
Phoenix, AZ

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I haven't received any inline popups from cox..
kxrm
join:2002-07-18
Fort Worth, TX

kxrm

Member

It's not really that surprising, the commercial side has been able to inject and filter as they please for business use for the last few years.

few
@cox.net

few

Anon

I have talked to a tier 2 representative and he indicated that they reserve the right to inject content in order to notify customers of service outages, but that they would not use the in browser notification system on an individual subscriber scale or in order to push advertisements. We'll just have to see if they keep to their word. (And keep them to it)

digiblur
Premium Member
join:2002-06-03
Louisiana

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No biggie... easy to block at the router. I will just add it to my blacklist on the router. Already have the router auto-downloading 5 or 6 malware and ads lists every night. Great to see all the ads blocked on ALL devices in the home.

BillRoland
Premium Member
join:2001-01-21
Ocala, FL

BillRoland

Premium Member

said by digiblur:

No biggie... easy to block at the router. I will just add it to my blacklist on the router. Already have the router auto-downloading 5 or 6 malware and ads lists every night. Great to see all the ads blocked on ALL devices in the home.

What router are you using if I may ask?

KahunaNui
join:2000-05-01
Honolulu, HI

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to rj123456789
said by rj123456789 :

* those who've installed any ISP programs on their machines needn't be concerned by this, since they've already given the ISP the potential to access to everything on their machines.

"...ISP programs" ?? Could you provide example(s) of them?
Not sure what you refer to here.

Thanks

digiblur
Premium Member
join:2002-06-03
Louisiana

1 recommendation

digiblur to BillRoland

Premium Member

to BillRoland
said by BillRoland:

said by digiblur:

No biggie... easy to block at the router. I will just add it to my blacklist on the router. Already have the router auto-downloading 5 or 6 malware and ads lists every night. Great to see all the ads blocked on ALL devices in the home.

What router are you using if I may ask?

Asus RT-N66u w/ shibby's tomato firmware. Mean machine...3 VLANs, OpenVPN, 2 SSID's, and much more and still plenty of horsepower left in her.

Optimus2357
Premium Member
join:2010-11-21
West Warwick, RI

1 edit

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Just for the record, I was also perturbed by injection of script onto my machine. While I appreciate the added effort in notification of a outage, I feel this is slippery slope. Having a pop up on all Cox domains would have served the same purpose to a sufficient degree. And if nothing else, they should have a included a "Don't show this again" option, or better yet, a entire opt-out option. They have a opt-out for DNS redirects, and I personally see this as more intrusive.

I believe we all need to respectably voice our concerns on this issue so this trend does not continue. Imagine bill reminders, advertisements, or other purposes this method could be used for.

PS. Thumbs up for RT-N66u. I have been running it stock (minus initial update to work out the known bug) and couldn't be happier. Solid as a rock.