Cablevision Hijacks Error Pages (Verisign Site Finder Redux)
This post was published 1 year 1 month 11 days ago and its content may not be valid anymore.Cablevision, one of my ISPs, seem to have jumped the shark by hijacking a users DNS and displaying sponsored results.
As reported by blogger Justin Flood Cablevision has secretly adjusted their TOS to reflect this morally questionable service.
The preceding search results page is displayed to you as a result of the specific Domain Name Service (DNS) servers used by Optimum Online to look up domain names. If you misspell or mistype a web address, dead-end “no such name” errors can occur. However, the DNS servers used by Optimum Online are designed to eliminate dead-end “no such name” error pages you can encounter as you surf the web. By displaying the preceding search results page, users know that the web site they’ve attempted to navigate to does not exist, and are presented with suggested sites they may have been seeking. No software is installed on your computer for this search service to work.
I’ve never been a fan of ISP’s DNS servers instead I recommend using 4.2.2.1 and 4.2.2.2 or OpenDNS. Do you think ISP’s have the right to modify error pages?
Thye’re not just “modifying an error page”, they’re intercepting NXDOMAIN requests and interfering with the correct operation of the Internet.
It’s no different than if they were filtering or blocking certain web sites, and they should lose their “common carrier” status for it. It’s a net neutrality issue.
Earthlink does this as well. Has been doing it for quite a while now.
(I really hate ReCAPTCHA more though)