ISP redirect to their web search page on 404

Dan wrote:
>
> "Jeff Higgins" <> wrote in message
> news:hbn51g$c34$...
>> Dan wrote:
>>>
>>> "Jeff Higgins" <> wrote in message
>>> news:hblb6u$qd1$...
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> My ISP (Suddenlink) redirects all 404 (if not others) to their
>>>> 'Suggested web sites" page. They have an opt out preference page
>>>> which will not work. 'Customer service' will only say that I should
>>>> 'opt out' and cannot explain why that option is not working for me.
>>>> Is there a way to stop this from within IE8?
>>>> Thank you
>>>> Jeff
>>>
>>> When you say "404" do you mean sites that don't exist (which is what
>>> VanguardLH's reply is all about), or do you actually mean a real 404
>>> response from a server (where the site exists, but the page requested
>>> doesn't).
>>
>> Well..
>> The prompt for this post was:
>> <http://www.qanyon.com/TechZone/TechZoneTranscoder>.
>>
>> If I type this into the address bar or attempt to follow
>> a link to this address I get Suddenlink 'suggested sites'.
>
> I get an advert for someone selling the domain and a prompt to install
> the Office Data Provider for WBEM, which is odd. Looking at the HTTP
> traffic in Fiddler2 I can see that it is a 404 response, with the HTML
> content set to the advert for the domain.
>
>> If I type <http://www.qanyon.com/TechZone/>
>> I go to someone offering to sell the site.
>
> I get the same, same as above.
>
>> If I type <http://bzz> I get
>> res://ieframe.dll/dnserror.htm#http://bzz/>
>
> This is normal for a non-existent domain
>
>> If I type <http://bzz.com/> I go to <http://www.bzzagent.com/>
>> ??? (chuckles) where in the world did that come from?
>
> Sounds like it redirects, pretty normal.
>
>> So I guess my knowledge of the HTTP is lacking.
>>
>> I enjoy learning and studying, I really do.
>> But this whole subject is not one that I would have
>> picked to engage.
>>
>> Anyway..
>>
>>>
>>> In the latter case, this would indicate that your ISP is forcing all
>>> HTTP requests via a proxy and is intercepting the HTTP 404 response
>>> code to display the suggested sites. Vanguard's information won't
>>> help in this case - you'll need to find a way to get around that proxy.
>>>
>>> A quick search on Google for Suddenlink and suggested sites brings up
>>> a few posts on various forums from people stating they'd already
>>> changed DNS servers and it makes no difference, which suggests that
>>> they are using an HTTP proxy and intercepting response codes -
>>> personally I'd switch ISP, but if that's not an option then you could
>>> look at finding (either free or subscription based) an SSL proxy
>>> somewhere outside of your ISP that you can make all your browser
>>> requests through - the SSL encryption will mean that your ISP can't
>>> intercept any specific response codes because they won't be able to
>>> decrypt the data.
>>>
>>
>> Well, some more reading.
>> Switching ISPs is certainly an option, but one that would require some
>> careful thought. (an alternative may present the same problem) In the
>> grand scheme this is a very minor annoyance, but cumlative. I'm very
>> grateful for the additional information. I'll do the follow-up
>> reading, begin hammering on 'Customer Service', etc. I'm hopeful I
>> can make it stop, now armed with a clearer idea of the situation, Thanks.
>
> Given what I can see for those URLs above I would suspect that your ISP
> is indeed proxying all connections and injecting it's suggested sites
> page when there is a 404 HTTP response code. Changing your DNS won't
> make any difference, you need to get this disabled by your ISP or, as I
> suggested before, find a secured proxy you can use so they can't
> intercept responses.
>
Just out of curiosity: Do you suspect there might TOS conflict issues with
the above mentioned alternative DNS server, alternative secured proxy, etc?
I'll try to find SL's TOS page. Geez. :-)

Jeff Higgins wrote:
>
> <http://www.qanyon.com/TechZone/TechZoneTranscoder>.
> If I type this into the address bar or attempt to follow
> a link to this address I get Suddenlink 'suggested sites'.
>
> If I type <http://www.qanyon.com/TechZone/>
> I go to someone offering to sell the site.

In either of those cases, or when just entering the domain, I see the
squatter that paid for the expired domain -- and a squatter who first
shows the "for sale" page but they redirect to another "site of the
moment" using scripts within 2x2 iframes which, at the time I checked,
had me redirected to an India pharmacy site (http://bestgenericpharm
..com/). One of the cells in their table says, "The owners of the domain
name qanyon.com are accepting offers from interested parties willing to
obtain ownership rights over the domain name." Yep, a domain squatter.
These are the assholes that make difficult the finding of decent domain
names without gouging over the cost of what a registrar would charge.
IANA doesn't seem to care about squatting. Registrars don't care
because they still get paid their domain registration fee.

Of course, I'm not using Suddenlink as my ISP. Maybe Suddenlink
considers this squatter's site as a phishing site. If that were true,
however, Suddenlink should show something of why they redirected you for
your own good.

> If I type <http://bzz> I get
> res://ieframe.dll/dnserror.htm#http://bzz/>
>
> If I type <http://bzz.com/> I go to <http://www.bzzagent.com/>
> ??? (chuckles) where in the world did that come from?

I see the following if I use SamSpade to view the raw source of the
bzz.com site:

10/21/09 11:02:56 Browsing http://bzz.com/
Fetching http://bzz.com/ ...
GET / HTTP/1.1

Host: bzz.com
Connection: close
User-Agent: Sam Spade 1.14

HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently
Connection: close
Date: Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:02:18 GMT
Server: Microsoft-IIS/6.0
X-Powered-By: ASP.NET
X-AspNet-Version: 2.0.50727
Location: http://www.bzzagent.com
Cache-Control: private
Content-Length: 0

So it appears the redirect occurs at the web server to which you
connect, not by anything your ISP is doing. The domain registrant is
BzzAgent for both bzz.com and bzzagent.com. They aren't using bzz.com
anymore so they have their web server on the bzz.com domain immediately
transfer you to the web server on the bzzagent.com domain (it's probably
the same web server but just a different domain). They "Moved
Permanently" from bzz.com to bzzagent.com. Nothing to do with your web
browser or anything your ISP is doing with perhaps their interfering
"suggested sites" service. The redirect is something the bzz.com's web
server is doing. You visited the door marked bzz.com but THEY slid you
over to the door marked bzzagent.com.

VanguardLH wrote:
> Yep, a domain squatter.
Virtual panhandler with sanctioned muscle.

> You visited the door marked bzz.com but THEY slid you
> over to the door marked bzzagent.com.

Ah. I think I'm getting it.
<http://bzz> IE considers malformed and refuses to even post a request.
bzz = first random noise to come to my mind.

I just wish that IE would just say "Malformed URL" or
"Status: 404 Not Found" or some such, instead of the truly
uninformative <res://ieframe.dll/dnserror.htm#http://bzz/>.

Thanks,
JH

Jeff Higgins wrote:

> I just wish that IE would just say "Malformed URL" or
> "Status: 404 Not Found" or some such, instead of the truly
> uninformative <res://ieframe.dll/dnserror.htm#http://bzz/>.

IE8 is even worse and just pukes out a "help" page but never divulges
the error code that it got.

"Jeff Higgins" <> wrote in message
news:hbnefl$2kl$...
> VanguardLH wrote:
>> Yep, a domain squatter.
> Virtual panhandler with sanctioned muscle.
>
>> You visited the door marked bzz.com but THEY slid you
>> over to the door marked bzzagent.com.
>
> Ah. I think I'm getting it.
> <http://bzz> IE considers malformed and refuses to even post a request.
> bzz = first random noise to come to my mind.
>
> I just wish that IE would just say "Malformed URL" or
> "Status: 404 Not Found" or some such, instead of the truly
> uninformative <res://ieframe.dll/dnserror.htm#http://bzz/>.


404 is a response code that a server returns when the requested URL is not
present (or in the case of some server security configurations, if the
requested resource is disallowed). If IE were to return "Status: 404 Not
Found" for a non-existent hostname then it would get a lot more confusing -
that would suggest that the site itself exists but that the page requested
does not, but this domain name doesn't have a site running.

There could be lots of reasons why a site name you enter doesn't respond, so
having "Malformed URL" is also unhelpful. It could be that your connection
is down, your ISP is blocking requests, a router between you and the server
is down, or the site itself is down, or there's a DNS issue which means the
lookup for the IP address is failing, your IP address or something in the
request from your browser might cause a router/firewall/http server to drop
the request, and lots of other reasons.

The result IE provides isn't great, but it does at least provide a list of
possible reasons and things to look at.

--
Dan

"Jeff Higgins" <> wrote in message news:hbn9jl$m2u$...


>> If you start up IE in "no add-ons" mode does it still happen?
>>
>
> run -> iexplore extoff -> still goes to SL


Typo? You omitted the hyphen necessary to make that viewed
and actioned as a switch.

Run...

iexplore.exe -nohome -extoff

Then you may have to click Stop or press Ctrl-t to be able to use
the Address bar. Then you will see the running with add-ons disabled
warning.


---

When you get to the ISP redirected page (Suggested Web Sites) save the
complete URL and do a whois to get its IP address. With both the URL and IP
address of the URL, make changes to the Hosts file directing both the URL
and IP address to either 127.0.0.1 localhost (your computer so you'll not
get any page) or to a page you prefer using its IP.
More info on Hosts: http://www.accs-net.com/hosts/how_to_use_hosts.html


"Dan" <> wrote in message
news:613DCC86-B8E0-4425-8194-...
>
> "Jeff Higgins" <> wrote in message
> news:hblb6u$qd1$...
>> Hi,
>>
>> My ISP (Suddenlink) redirects all 404 (if not others) to their
>> 'Suggested web sites" page. They have an opt out preference page
>> which will not work. 'Customer service' will only say that I should
>> 'opt out' and cannot explain why that option is not working for me.
>> Is there a way to stop this from within IE8?
>> Thank you
>> Jeff
>
> When you say "404" do you mean sites that don't exist (which is what
> VanguardLH's reply is all about), or do you actually mean a real 404
> response from a server (where the site exists, but the page requested
> doesn't).
>
> In the latter case, this would indicate that your ISP is forcing all HTTP
> requests via a proxy and is intercepting the HTTP 404 response code to
> display the suggested sites. Vanguard's information won't help in this
> case - you'll need to find a way to get around that proxy.
>
> A quick search on Google for Suddenlink and suggested sites brings up a
> few posts on various forums from people stating they'd already changed DNS
> servers and it makes no difference, which suggests that they are using an
> HTTP proxy and intercepting response codes - personally I'd switch ISP,
> but if that's not an option then you could look at finding (either free or
> subscription based) an SSL proxy somewhere outside of your ISP that you
> can make all your browser requests through - the SSL encryption will mean
> that your ISP can't intercept any specific response codes because they
> won't be able to decrypt the data.
>
> --
> Dan

If it's a transparent proxy returning the page and not a redirection then
this won't do much except require every incorrect host ever visited to be
entered which will likely be much more annoying to the user than seeing the
suggested sites.

Dan


"John" <> wrote in message
news:...
> When you get to the ISP redirected page (Suggested Web Sites) save the
> complete URL and do a whois to get its IP address. With both the URL and
> IP address of the URL, make changes to the Hosts file directing both the
> URL and IP address to either 127.0.0.1 localhost (your computer so you'll
> not get any page) or to a page you prefer using its IP.
> More info on Hosts: http://www.accs-net.com/hosts/how_to_use_hosts.html
>
>
> "Dan" <> wrote in message
> news:613DCC86-B8E0-4425-8194-...
>>
>> "Jeff Higgins" <> wrote in message
>> news:hblb6u$qd1$...
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> My ISP (Suddenlink) redirects all 404 (if not others) to their
>>> 'Suggested web sites" page. They have an opt out preference page
>>> which will not work. 'Customer service' will only say that I should
>>> 'opt out' and cannot explain why that option is not working for me.
>>> Is there a way to stop this from within IE8?
>>> Thank you
>>> Jeff
>>
>> When you say "404" do you mean sites that don't exist (which is what
>> VanguardLH's reply is all about), or do you actually mean a real 404
>> response from a server (where the site exists, but the page requested
>> doesn't).
>>
>> In the latter case, this would indicate that your ISP is forcing all HTTP
>> requests via a proxy and is intercepting the HTTP 404 response code to
>> display the suggested sites. Vanguard's information won't help in this
>> case - you'll need to find a way to get around that proxy.
>>
>> A quick search on Google for Suddenlink and suggested sites brings up a
>> few posts on various forums from people stating they'd already changed
>> DNS servers and it makes no difference, which suggests that they are
>> using an HTTP proxy and intercepting response codes - personally I'd
>> switch ISP, but if that's not an option then you could look at finding
>> (either free or subscription based) an SSL proxy somewhere outside of
>> your ISP that you can make all your browser requests through - the SSL
>> encryption will mean that your ISP can't intercept any specific response
>> codes because they won't be able to decrypt the data.
>>
>> --
>> Dan
>

would u please provide the printscreen & some more details of the same, reason i m asking for the information coz most of the isp's provide relevant information to their customers.....

Thanks
Sid



Jeff Higgins wrote:

ISP redirect to their web search page on 404
20-Oct-09

Hi

My ISP (Suddenlink) redirects all 404 (if not others) to thei
'Suggested web sites" page. They have an opt out preference pag
which will not work. 'Customer service' will only say that I shoul
'opt out' and cannot explain why that option is not working for me
Is there a way to stop this from within IE8
Thank yo
Jeff

Previous Posts In This Thread:

On Tuesday, October 20, 2009 5:47 PM
Jeff Higgins wrote:

ISP redirect to their web search page on 404
Hi

My ISP (Suddenlink) redirects all 404 (if not others) to thei
'Suggested web sites" page. They have an opt out preference pag
which will not work. 'Customer service' will only say that I shoul
'opt out' and cannot explain why that option is not working for me
Is there a way to stop this from within IE8
Thank yo
Jeff

On Tuesday, October 20, 2009 6:56 PM
VanguardLH wrote:

Jeff Higgins wrote:If you use your ISP's DNS server, and if their DNS server
Jeff Higgins wrote

If you use your ISP's DNS server, and if their DNS server is configure
to never fail on a lookup but instead redirect to their "suggeste
sites" page then you are screwed. Comcast did the same thing but the
provided an opt-out process (which usually took under 4 hours t
complete). Verisign tried the same fiasco many years ago with thei
stranglehold over the .com top-level domains (but there were so man
complaints that they quit, threatened to return, but never did). I
appears your ISP intends to let their customers opt-out of the redirec
page for DNS lookup failures. How long have you waited for it to ge
updated for your account? Did you change your cable modem after optin
out? Have you asked for someone higher up than the first-leve
script-reading near-boob tech that answers when you call your ISP's tec
support line? You'll need to push to get your ticket escalated beyon
the idiot that first answers their support calls

OpenDNS is an alternate DNS service you could use. Configure you
TCP/IP settings to use it instead of your ISP's (i.e., switch fro
dynamically assigning your ISP's DNS server to specifying to us
OpenDNS' DNS server). However, OpenDNS also has their redirect servic
for DNS lookups that would otherwise fail. You must open an accoun
with OpenDNS, keep your current WAN-side IP address updated in you
account (which requires you install an IP updater client on your host)
and disable their redirect service (Typo Correction). They need to kno
your current IP address so they know what account's settings to appl
when they get a connection to their DNS server. Alas, when you disabl
their redirect service, they disable many features in a free accoun
(i.e., they really want to generate revenue from that Google search o
their redirect page). If you use OpenDNS without an account, you ge
stuck with their DNS redirection. If you use OpenDNS with an accoun
(and an IP updater client to keep your current dynamic IP addres
recorded in your OpenDNS account), you can disable the Typo Correctio
feature but will lose lots of other features of having an account (i
you even care about them)

There are probably other public DNS services (some free) that you coul
use that might not implement a DNS redirection "service". Happ
hunting

http://www.google.com/search?q=%2Bdns+lookup+%2Bfree

On Tuesday, October 20, 2009 8:00 PM
Jeff Higgins wrote:

VanguardLH wrote:Hey buddy, can you spare a dime?
VanguardLH wrote


Hey buddy, can you spare a dime
Tip jars
Virtual panhandlers
Shrug

it is been several days since I declined the 'help'
I reckon I will attempt to escalate ..
Another day, another damned ..

Grateful thanks for the lucid discussion o
alternative DNS servers, I have some reading to do

Appreciativ
Jeff Higgins

On Wednesday, October 21, 2009 6:39 AM
Dan wrote:

When you say "404" do you mean sites that do not exist (which is
When you say "404" do you mean sites that do not exist (which is what
VanguardLH's reply is all about), or do you actually mean a real 404
response from a server (where the site exists, but the page requested
does not).

In the latter case, this would indicate that your ISP is forcing all HTTP
requests via a proxy and is intercepting the HTTP 404 response code to
display the suggested sites. Vanguard's information will not help in this
case - you will need to find a way to get around that proxy.

A quick search on Google for Suddenlink and suggested sites brings up a few
posts on various forums from people stating they'd already changed DNS
servers and it makes no difference, which suggests that they are using an
HTTP proxy and intercepting response codes - personally I'd switch ISP, but
if that is not an option then you could look at finding (either free or
subscription based) an SSL proxy somewhere outside of your ISP that you can
make all your browser requests through - the SSL encryption will mean that
your ISP cannot intercept any specific response codes because they will not be
able to decrypt the data.

--
Dan

On Wednesday, October 21, 2009 10:15 AM
Jeff Higgins wrote:

Dan wrote:Well..The prompt for this post was:<http://www.qanyon.
Dan wrote:

Well..
The prompt for this post was:
<http://www.qanyon.com/TechZone/TechZoneTranscoder>.

If I type this into the address bar or attempt to follow
a link to this address I get Suddenlink 'suggested sites'.

If I type <http://www.qanyon.com/TechZone/>
I go to someone offering to sell the site.

If I type <http://bzz> I get
res://ieframe.dll/dnserror.htm#http://bzz/>

If I type <http://bzz.com/> I go to <http://www.bzzagent.com/>
??? (chuckles) where in the world did that come from?

So I guess my knowledge of the HTTP is lacking.

I enjoy learning and studying, I really do.
But this whole subject is not one that I would have
picked to engage.

Anyway..


Well, some more reading.
Switching ISPs is certainly an option, but one that would require some
careful thought. (an alternative may present the same problem) In the
grand scheme this is a very minor annoyance, but cumlative. I am very
grateful for the additional information. I will do the follow-up reading,
begin hammering on 'Customer Service', etc. I am hopeful I can make it
stop, now armed with a clearer idea of the situation, Thanks.

Appreciative
Jeff Higgins

On Wednesday, October 21, 2009 10:30 AM
Tom Willett wrote:

It happens in any browser, not just IE.
It happens in any browser, not just IE. it is something your ISP or the web
site owners or someone else has done, perhaps on a dns record level.

There is nothing *you* can do about it, unless you can figure out the opt
out. it is not a browser issue.

On Wednesday, October 21, 2009 10:31 AM
Dan wrote:

I get an advert for someone selling the domain and a prompt to install
I get an advert for someone selling the domain and a prompt to install the
Office Data Provider for WBEM, which is odd. Looking at the HTTP traffic in
Fiddler2 I can see that it is a 404 response, with the HTML content set to
the advert for the domain.


I get the same, same as above.


This is normal for a non-existent domain


Sounds like it redirects, pretty normal.


Given what I can see for those URLs above I would suspect that your ISP is
indeed proxying all connections and injecting it is suggested sites page when
there is a 404 HTTP response code. Changing your DNS will not make any
difference, you need to get this disabled by your ISP or, as I suggested
before, find a secured proxy you can use so they cannot intercept responses.

--
Dan

On Wednesday, October 21, 2009 10:35 AM
Dan wrote:

Sorry, one other thing came to mind - the possibility that your browser
Sorry, one other thing came to mind - the possibility that your browser is
hosting a plugin from your ISP that is handling this, in which case there is
something you can do about it.

If you start up IE in "no add-ons" mode does it still happen?

--
Dan

On Wednesday, October 21, 2009 11:10 AM
Jeff Higgins wrote:

Dan wrote:Thanks for the follow-up Dan.I will attempt another go with SL.
Dan wrote:
Thanks for the follow-up Dan.
I will attempt another go with SL. Hopefully I have neglected to follow
precisely a procedure or what-not, and this will have become a non-issue.
If it comes to it, I may transcribe some of this discussion.
Either way I will post back with the outcome.

I appreciate your time,
Thanks.
JH

On Wednesday, October 21, 2009 11:33 AM
Jeff Higgins wrote:

Dan wrote:run -> iexplore ?extoff -> still goes to SL
Dan wrote:

run -> iexplore ?extoff -> still goes to SL

On Wednesday, October 21, 2009 12:01 PM
Jeff Higgins wrote:

Dan wrote:Just out of curiosity: Do you suspect there might TOS conflict
Dan wrote:
Just out of curiosity: Do you suspect there might TOS conflict issues with
the above mentioned alternative DNS server, alternative secured proxy, etc?
I will try to find SL's TOS page. Geez. :-)

On Wednesday, October 21, 2009 12:56 PM
Jeff Higgins wrote:

VanguardLH wrote:Virtual panhandler with sanctioned muscle.Ah.
VanguardLH wrote:
Virtual panhandler with sanctioned muscle.


Ah. I think I am getting it.
<http://bzz> IE considers malformed and refuses to even post a request.
bzz = first random noise to come to my mind.

I just wish that IE would just say "Malformed URL" or
"Status: 404 Not Found" or some such, instead of the truly
uninformative <res://ieframe.dll/dnserror.htm#http://bzz/>.

Thanks,
JH

On Wednesday, October 21, 2009 1:24 PM
VanguardLH wrote:

Jeff Higgins wrote:IE8 is even worse and just pukes out a "help" page but
Jeff Higgins wrote:


IE8 is even worse and just pukes out a "help" page but never divulges
the error code that it got.

On Thursday, October 22, 2009 4:28 AM
Dan wrote:

404 is a response code that a server returns when the requested URL is
404 is a response code that a server returns when the requested URL is not
present (or in the case of some server security configurations, if the
requested resource is disallowed). If IE were to return "Status: 404 Not
Found" for a non-existent hostname then it would get a lot more confusing -
that would suggest that the site itself exists but that the page requested
does not, but this domain name does not have a site running.

There could be lots of reasons why a site name you enter does not respond, so
having "Malformed URL" is also unhelpful. It could be that your connection
is down, your ISP is blocking requests, a router between you and the server
is down, or the site itself is down, or there is a DNS issue which means the
lookup for the IP address is failing, your IP address or something in the
request from your browser might cause a router/firewall/http server to drop
the request, and lots of other reasons.

The result IE provides is not great, but it does at least provide a list of
possible reasons and things to look at.

--
Dan

On Thursday, October 22, 2009 10:35 AM
Robert Aldwinckle wrote:

Typo?
Typo? You omitted the hyphen necessary to make that viewed
and actioned as a switch.

Run...

iexplore.exe -nohome -extoff

Then you may have to click Stop or press Ctrl-t to be able to use
the Address bar. Then you will see the running with add-ons disabled
warning.


---

On Monday, October 26, 2009 2:21 PM
John wrote:

When you get to the ISP redirected page (Suggested Web Sites) save thecomplete
When you get to the ISP redirected page (Suggested Web Sites) save the
complete URL and do a whois to get its IP address. With both the URL and IP
address of the URL, make changes to the Hosts file directing both the URL
and IP address to either 127.0.0.1 localhost (your computer so you will not
get any page) or to a page you prefer using its IP.
More info on Hosts: http://www.accs-net.com/hosts/how_to_use_hosts.html

On Tuesday, October 27, 2009 6:08 AM
Dan wrote:

If it is a transparent proxy returning the page and not a redirection thenthis
If it is a transparent proxy returning the page and not a redirection then
this will not do much except require every incorrect host ever visited to be
entered which will likely be much more annoying to the user than seeing the
suggested sites.

Dan

EggHeadCafe - Software Developer Portal of Choice
It's the Process, Stupid!
http://www.eggheadcafe.com/tutorials...ss-stupid.aspx

would u please provide the printscreen & some more details of the same, reason i m asking for the information coz most of the isp's provide relevant information to their customers same as anyother search engine does......


Thanks
Sid



Jeff Higgins wrote:

ISP redirect to their web search page on 404
20-Oct-09

Hi

My ISP (Suddenlink) redirects all 404 (if not others) to thei
'Suggested web sites" page. They have an opt out preference pag
which will not work. 'Customer service' will only say that I shoul
'opt out' and cannot explain why that option is not working for me
Is there a way to stop this from within IE8
Thank yo
Jeff

Previous Posts In This Thread:

On Tuesday, October 20, 2009 5:47 PM
Jeff Higgins wrote:

ISP redirect to their web search page on 404
Hi

My ISP (Suddenlink) redirects all 404 (if not others) to thei
'Suggested web sites" page. They have an opt out preference pag
which will not work. 'Customer service' will only say that I shoul
'opt out' and cannot explain why that option is not working for me
Is there a way to stop this from within IE8
Thank yo
Jeff

On Tuesday, October 20, 2009 6:56 PM
VanguardLH wrote:

Jeff Higgins wrote:If you use your ISP's DNS server, and if their DNS server
Jeff Higgins wrote

If you use your ISP's DNS server, and if their DNS server is configure
to never fail on a lookup but instead redirect to their "suggeste
sites" page then you are screwed. Comcast did the same thing but the
provided an opt-out process (which usually took under 4 hours t
complete). Verisign tried the same fiasco many years ago with thei
stranglehold over the .com top-level domains (but there were so man
complaints that they quit, threatened to return, but never did). I
appears your ISP intends to let their customers opt-out of the redirec
page for DNS lookup failures. How long have you waited for it to ge
updated for your account? Did you change your cable modem after optin
out? Have you asked for someone higher up than the first-leve
script-reading near-boob tech that answers when you call your ISP's tec
support line? You'll need to push to get your ticket escalated beyon
the idiot that first answers their support calls

OpenDNS is an alternate DNS service you could use. Configure you
TCP/IP settings to use it instead of your ISP's (i.e., switch fro
dynamically assigning your ISP's DNS server to specifying to us
OpenDNS' DNS server). However, OpenDNS also has their redirect servic
for DNS lookups that would otherwise fail. You must open an accoun
with OpenDNS, keep your current WAN-side IP address updated in you
account (which requires you install an IP updater client on your host)
and disable their redirect service (Typo Correction). They need to kno
your current IP address so they know what account's settings to appl
when they get a connection to their DNS server. Alas, when you disabl
their redirect service, they disable many features in a free accoun
(i.e., they really want to generate revenue from that Google search o
their redirect page). If you use OpenDNS without an account, you ge
stuck with their DNS redirection. If you use OpenDNS with an accoun
(and an IP updater client to keep your current dynamic IP addres
recorded in your OpenDNS account), you can disable the Typo Correctio
feature but will lose lots of other features of having an account (i
you even care about them)

There are probably other public DNS services (some free) that you coul
use that might not implement a DNS redirection "service". Happ
hunting

http://www.google.com/search?q=%2Bdns+lookup+%2Bfree

On Tuesday, October 20, 2009 8:00 PM
Jeff Higgins wrote:

VanguardLH wrote:Hey buddy, can you spare a dime?
VanguardLH wrote


Hey buddy, can you spare a dime
Tip jars
Virtual panhandlers
Shrug

it is been several days since I declined the 'help'
I reckon I will attempt to escalate ..
Another day, another damned ..

Grateful thanks for the lucid discussion o
alternative DNS servers, I have some reading to do

Appreciativ
Jeff Higgins

On Wednesday, October 21, 2009 6:39 AM
Dan wrote:

When you say "404" do you mean sites that do not exist (which is
When you say "404" do you mean sites that do not exist (which is what
VanguardLH's reply is all about), or do you actually mean a real 404
response from a server (where the site exists, but the page requested
does not).

In the latter case, this would indicate that your ISP is forcing all HTTP
requests via a proxy and is intercepting the HTTP 404 response code to
display the suggested sites. Vanguard's information will not help in this
case - you will need to find a way to get around that proxy.

A quick search on Google for Suddenlink and suggested sites brings up a few
posts on various forums from people stating they'd already changed DNS
servers and it makes no difference, which suggests that they are using an
HTTP proxy and intercepting response codes - personally I'd switch ISP, but
if that is not an option then you could look at finding (either free or
subscription based) an SSL proxy somewhere outside of your ISP that you can
make all your browser requests through - the SSL encryption will mean that
your ISP cannot intercept any specific response codes because they will not be
able to decrypt the data.

--
Dan

On Wednesday, October 21, 2009 10:15 AM
Jeff Higgins wrote:

Dan wrote:Well..The prompt for this post was:<http://www.qanyon.
Dan wrote:

Well..
The prompt for this post was:
<http://www.qanyon.com/TechZone/TechZoneTranscoder>.

If I type this into the address bar or attempt to follow
a link to this address I get Suddenlink 'suggested sites'.

If I type <http://www.qanyon.com/TechZone/>
I go to someone offering to sell the site.

If I type <http://bzz> I get
res://ieframe.dll/dnserror.htm#http://bzz/>

If I type <http://bzz.com/> I go to <http://www.bzzagent.com/>
??? (chuckles) where in the world did that come from?

So I guess my knowledge of the HTTP is lacking.

I enjoy learning and studying, I really do.
But this whole subject is not one that I would have
picked to engage.

Anyway..


Well, some more reading.
Switching ISPs is certainly an option, but one that would require some
careful thought. (an alternative may present the same problem) In the
grand scheme this is a very minor annoyance, but cumlative. I am very
grateful for the additional information. I will do the follow-up reading,
begin hammering on 'Customer Service', etc. I am hopeful I can make it
stop, now armed with a clearer idea of the situation, Thanks.

Appreciative
Jeff Higgins

On Wednesday, October 21, 2009 10:30 AM
Tom Willett wrote:

It happens in any browser, not just IE.
It happens in any browser, not just IE. it is something your ISP or the web
site owners or someone else has done, perhaps on a dns record level.

There is nothing *you* can do about it, unless you can figure out the opt
out. it is not a browser issue.

On Wednesday, October 21, 2009 10:31 AM
Dan wrote:

I get an advert for someone selling the domain and a prompt to install
I get an advert for someone selling the domain and a prompt to install the
Office Data Provider for WBEM, which is odd. Looking at the HTTP traffic in
Fiddler2 I can see that it is a 404 response, with the HTML content set to
the advert for the domain.


I get the same, same as above.


This is normal for a non-existent domain


Sounds like it redirects, pretty normal.


Given what I can see for those URLs above I would suspect that your ISP is
indeed proxying all connections and injecting it is suggested sites page when
there is a 404 HTTP response code. Changing your DNS will not make any
difference, you need to get this disabled by your ISP or, as I suggested
before, find a secured proxy you can use so they cannot intercept responses.

--
Dan

On Wednesday, October 21, 2009 10:35 AM
Dan wrote:

Sorry, one other thing came to mind - the possibility that your browser
Sorry, one other thing came to mind - the possibility that your browser is
hosting a plugin from your ISP that is handling this, in which case there is
something you can do about it.

If you start up IE in "no add-ons" mode does it still happen?

--
Dan

On Wednesday, October 21, 2009 11:10 AM
Jeff Higgins wrote:

Dan wrote:Thanks for the follow-up Dan.I will attempt another go with SL.
Dan wrote:
Thanks for the follow-up Dan.
I will attempt another go with SL. Hopefully I have neglected to follow
precisely a procedure or what-not, and this will have become a non-issue.
If it comes to it, I may transcribe some of this discussion.
Either way I will post back with the outcome.

I appreciate your time,
Thanks.
JH

On Wednesday, October 21, 2009 11:33 AM
Jeff Higgins wrote:

Dan wrote:run -> iexplore ?extoff -> still goes to SL
Dan wrote:

run -> iexplore ?extoff -> still goes to SL

On Wednesday, October 21, 2009 12:01 PM
Jeff Higgins wrote:

Dan wrote:Just out of curiosity: Do you suspect there might TOS conflict
Dan wrote:
Just out of curiosity: Do you suspect there might TOS conflict issues with
the above mentioned alternative DNS server, alternative secured proxy, etc?
I will try to find SL's TOS page. Geez. :-)

On Wednesday, October 21, 2009 12:56 PM
Jeff Higgins wrote:

VanguardLH wrote:Virtual panhandler with sanctioned muscle.Ah.
VanguardLH wrote:
Virtual panhandler with sanctioned muscle.


Ah. I think I am getting it.
<http://bzz> IE considers malformed and refuses to even post a request.
bzz = first random noise to come to my mind.

I just wish that IE would just say "Malformed URL" or
"Status: 404 Not Found" or some such, instead of the truly
uninformative <res://ieframe.dll/dnserror.htm#http://bzz/>.

Thanks,
JH

On Wednesday, October 21, 2009 1:24 PM
VanguardLH wrote:

Jeff Higgins wrote:IE8 is even worse and just pukes out a "help" page but
Jeff Higgins wrote:


IE8 is even worse and just pukes out a "help" page but never divulges
the error code that it got.

On Thursday, October 22, 2009 4:28 AM
Dan wrote:

404 is a response code that a server returns when the requested URL is
404 is a response code that a server returns when the requested URL is not
present (or in the case of some server security configurations, if the
requested resource is disallowed). If IE were to return "Status: 404 Not
Found" for a non-existent hostname then it would get a lot more confusing -
that would suggest that the site itself exists but that the page requested
does not, but this domain name does not have a site running.

There could be lots of reasons why a site name you enter does not respond, so
having "Malformed URL" is also unhelpful. It could be that your connection
is down, your ISP is blocking requests, a router between you and the server
is down, or the site itself is down, or there is a DNS issue which means the
lookup for the IP address is failing, your IP address or something in the
request from your browser might cause a router/firewall/http server to drop
the request, and lots of other reasons.

The result IE provides is not great, but it does at least provide a list of
possible reasons and things to look at.

--
Dan

On Thursday, October 22, 2009 10:35 AM
Robert Aldwinckle wrote:

Typo?
Typo? You omitted the hyphen necessary to make that viewed
and actioned as a switch.

Run...

iexplore.exe -nohome -extoff

Then you may have to click Stop or press Ctrl-t to be able to use
the Address bar. Then you will see the running with add-ons disabled
warning.


---

On Monday, October 26, 2009 2:21 PM
John wrote:

When you get to the ISP redirected page (Suggested Web Sites) save thecomplete
When you get to the ISP redirected page (Suggested Web Sites) save the
complete URL and do a whois to get its IP address. With both the URL and IP
address of the URL, make changes to the Hosts file directing both the URL
and IP address to either 127.0.0.1 localhost (your computer so you will not
get any page) or to a page you prefer using its IP.
More info on Hosts: http://www.accs-net.com/hosts/how_to_use_hosts.html

On Tuesday, October 27, 2009 6:08 AM
Dan wrote:

If it is a transparent proxy returning the page and not a redirection thenthis
If it is a transparent proxy returning the page and not a redirection then
this will not do much except require every incorrect host ever visited to be
entered which will likely be much more annoying to the user than seeing the
suggested sites.

Dan

On Tuesday, November 03, 2009 2:20 AM
siddhesh dhumal wrote:

PAGE PRINTSCREEN
would u please provide the printscreen & some more details of the same, reason i m asking for the information coz most of the isp's provide relevant information to their customers.....

Thanks
Sid

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