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This is why I use Google's DNS servers (8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4). I was surprised by this rather recently, when my girlfriend and I moved in with her brother to conse

This is why I use Google's DNS servers (8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4). I was surprised by this rather recently, when my girlfriend and I moved in with her brother to conserve finances (both his and ours, since their other brother had just moved out leaving him with larger-than-payable bills). I mistyped a URL and it came back with an ISP-provided search page, which infuriated/surprised me. As it turns out, I only had the wireless connection set to use GDNS, but I was temporarily using a wired connection until I could buy a new wireless router (the previous one was a modem/router combo from the ISP, despite the fact that when I returned it the woman at the desk "corrected" me when I told her I was returning the router, saying that they don't deal with routers. I just smiled, did my business, and left.)

desigooner 15y ago
Comcast and Verizon both do this. Verizon's been pointing to YellowPages website with a frame above notifying the user that the domain does not exist.
- ejdyksen 15y ago
  Comcast hosts anycast DNS servers that opt out of the "domain helper" feature (and support DNSSEC): 75.75.75.75 and 75.75.76.76 http://dns.comcast.net/dns-ip-addresses2.php http://dns.comcast.net/dns-ip-addresses2.php
alastairpat 15y ago
It's not a uniquely American thing - Telstra/BigPond in Australia do it too, partnering with Yahoo search. It's frightfully annoying (but easily disabled for the technically-aware), because it actually redirects - this means fixing newss.ycombinator.com requires retyping the URL in its entirety.
trebor 15y ago
You hate the ISP doing it, but you'll freely give Google a list of all sites you visit? Admittedly this doesn't tie to your Google account directly, but if you hit it recently enough for both requests to have a similar time and IP address... you can figure the rest. I prefer to use OpenDNS. They do show a search page, or a "not responding" page, but they don't bug or track me that I'm aware of.

desigooner 15y ago

Comcast and Verizon both do this. Verizon's been pointing to YellowPages website with a frame above notifying the user that the domain does not exist.

ejdyksen 15y ago
Comcast hosts anycast DNS servers that opt out of the "domain helper" feature (and support DNSSEC): 75.75.75.75 and 75.75.76.76 http://dns.comcast.net/dns-ip-addresses2.php http://dns.comcast.net/dns-ip-addresses2.php

alastairpat 15y ago

It's not a uniquely American thing - Telstra/BigPond in Australia do it too, partnering with Yahoo search. It's frightfully annoying (but easily disabled for the technically-aware), because it actually redirects - this means fixing newss.ycombinator.com requires retyping the URL in its entirety.

trebor 15y ago

You hate the ISP doing it, but you'll freely give Google a list of all sites you visit? Admittedly this doesn't tie to your Google account directly, but if you hit it recently enough for both requests to have a similar time and IP address... you can figure the rest. I prefer to use OpenDNS. They do show a search page, or a "not responding" page, but they don't bug or track me that I'm aware of.