Windstream (ISP) Manager Tells Me, "Don't Mistype Domains" !

[Seabass]

It looks like the wars to steal eyeballs is starting to get fierce at the corporate level. Big money at work now.

I made a mistype of a domain today (oops!) on Firefox and I was feed a Windstream page full of ads - it is a Yahoo feed. It says "Powered by Yahoo" and has the Windstream logo at the top, left of the page too. So, now I have the ISP hijacking going on at Windstream to deal with.

I then went to check Explorer - they now have taken control of that too, away from the regular default mistype page that IE has going on at the browser level.

So, now I can't tell anymore, in any browser, used through a Windstream connection, if a domain does not resolve. That sucks for domaining/domainers, it makes it slightly tougher in some regards.

Well, I called to complain about them hijacking the "user experience" at the ISP level and their manager (I worked my way up) told me, very shortly, like this, "Here is what.......I ........can ........do .........for .......you. Stop mistyping domains." That response kinda' stunned me.

I told him that was an insult and not a solution at all. Then I said, "Are you saying you never mistype domains? I would like you to opt me out of your new hijacking program." He then said I'm sorry I can not help you", and then transferred me back down to the on-hold line for regular customer support. He did not tell me to go talk to a specif tech dept. - nothing - just cut me off and transferred me to a clueless customer support line.

Unbelievable!

The only thing I can think of that caused that response is that they have been instructed not to speak about it to anyone since it is a shady practice and know they will be part of a class-action suit one day. Not talking about it I suppose may allow them to hijack the surfer's experience for a longer period before all this gets dragged into the public spotlight.

 

[TheBulldog]

There is nothing illegal that I am aware of that they did wrong.

Lots of companies do this.

While it is annoying, it isn't illegal as far as I know.

 

[DomainMayhem.com]

Go with another ISP, then write an email to one of the CEO's telling them that the manager convinced you to do so because of very poor/insulting customer service. Then throw in the fact that any buzz coming from you about their service will be negative.

 

[Seabass]

There is nothing illegal that I am aware of that they did wrong.

Lots of companies do this.

While it is annoying, it isn't illegal as far as I know.

I think it is probably illegal - it just has not been ruled on yet. It could be several years before this makes into the spotlight. It is still wrong.

Imagine the average "nuclear family" knowing good and well that the searches they do were being purposefully navigated to a place you did not consent to. All hell would break loose. Americans like privacy and freedom. Both of which are compromised with an ISP controlling the User Experience.

They have even stolen all mistypes to the right of the dot, such as Coke.comm or Coke.om, except in the cases where it is a legitimate extension like .cm for Cameroon. Is that not trademark infringement, just like Cameroon with the .cm extension, serving up ads when folks were looking for Coke.com but typed in Coke.cm?

 

[TheBulldog]

Actually, it's been going on for a long time.

I think it works that when the response is 404 or whatever it is for "no page" or site, then instead of returning that back to the end user, it goes to a "parking" page.

As I recall, if you search in MSN browser, not the regular IE, then msn catches it before it even goes back to your isp and microsoft gives you advertisements.

For that matter, it wouldn't be terribly difficult for google or any other search engine to do the same thing.

So good luck in that legal battle.

(all hail Bill Gates, for I lick his boots, amen)

 

[Seabass]

I know it has been going on for some time, but with other ISP's ; it just was not going on with Windstream, yesterday.

In IE yesterday, if I were to type the domain in incorrectly then IE by default would take me to a site full of ads, served up by them.

Today, Windstream now has hijacked that error search from IE and also has hijacked it in Firefox, whereas yesterday in Firefox I "would" get a "404 Not Found" page.

So, this is Windstream cutting off the other "competitors" at the ISP level.

As far as the browser makers cutting it off before it goes back to the ISP, that is news to me. I have never seen that done when the ISP "wants" that traffic, "only" when it has not already been "claimed", or taken over, by the ISP, as Windstream just did today. They staked their "claim" to this money-making scheme.

When I said "Class action suit", I did not mean from me. I meant from a group of deep-pocketed trademark holders like Geico, Coke, etc....

I resent it and will never just say "Oh well". That is not good enough for me.
Maybe this will become the status-quo, but I sure dislike the direction this is going with ISP's and browers makers.

 

[weblord]

your browser been victimized by bho
A Browser Helper Object (BHO) is a program that runs automatically every time that the Internet Explorer browser is launched. ...
www.f-secure.com/security_center/malware_code_glossary.html
switch to mozilla firefox or
scan computer with
http://www.kephyr.com/spywarescanner/index.html
or spybot search and destroy
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
to remove it

It looks like the wars to steal eyeballs is starting to get fierce at the corporate level. Big money at work now.

I made a mistype of a domain today (oops!) on Firefox and I was feed a Windstream page full of ads - it is a Yahoo feed. It says "Powered by Yahoo" and has the Windstream logo at the top, left of the page too. So, now I have the ISP hijacking going on at Windstream to deal with.

I then went to check Explorer - they now have taken control of that too, away from the regular default mistype page that IE has going on at the browser level.

So, now I can't tell anymore, in any browser, used through a Windstream connection, if a domain does not resolve. That sucks for domaining/domainers, it makes it slightly tougher in some regards.

Well, I called to complain about them hijacking the "user experience" at the ISP level and their manager (I worked my way up) told me, very shortly, like this, "Here is what.......I ........can ........do .........for .......you. Stop mistyping domains." That response kinda' stunned me.

I told him that was an insult and not a solution at all. Then I said, "Are you saying you never mistype domains? I would like you to opt me out of your new hijacking program." He then said I'm sorry I can not help you", and then transferred me back down to the on-hold line for regular customer support. He did not tell me to go talk to a specif tech dept. - nothing - just cut me off and transferred me to a clueless customer support line.

Unbelievable!

The only thing I can think of that caused that response is that they have been instructed not to speak about it to anyone since it is a shady practice and know they will be part of a class-action suit one day. Not talking about it I suppose may allow them to hijack the surfer's experience for a longer period before all this gets dragged into the public spotlight.

 

[enlytend]

Verizon started doing this a few months ago with an Ask feed.

Verizon is doing this at the DNS level, not the browser level - it's configured into their default nameservers. You can "opt out" of this "helpful feature" by using different nameservers.

From what you describe, Windstream is probably doing the same thing.

FWIW, on Verizon, the explanation and step-by-step instructions to change your nameservers are hidden in a "why am I seeing these ads" link on the ads page.