Re: Virgin Media Hijack customers browser search options
 

In my experience it is significantly faster and infinitely more reliable.

For latency to be a factor one would have to look at the relative efficiency of each set of devices. It would appear that OpenDNS is faster by virtue of efficiency to a degree that overcomes latency.

VM's DNS servers often looked like a bottleneck during busy periods and although I shall not be using them it would be interesting to see if they are slower now that they are a nice little earner with extra work to get done.

Re: Virgin Media Hijack customers browser search options
 

OpenDNS have servers all over the place, including one location in London. I use them at home and at work and speed has never been an issue, in fact I originally switched during a bad patch of reliability for Virgins servers.

However they do make their money of redirecting failed DNS requests in exactly the same way as Virgin so if that is a concern to you they are not an alternative.

Re: Virgin Media Hijack customers browser search options
 

OpenDNS making money off my choice to use them is of no concern to me whatsoever. They provide an excellent service at zero cost to me.

What I object to in principle is paying a high price for a product just to find that some form of extra financial exploitation has been implemented.

I was all for the old principle of advert supported software for free against the full paid product as advert free, but when someone tries a variation of both to enhance their bottom line I see it as exploitation.

Re: Virgin Media Hijack customers browser search options
 

How is this any different than adverts in subscription channels such as Sky One, Living or the Sky Premium channels - for instance.

At least with this you can opt out if you want

Re: Virgin Media Hijack customers browser search options
 

In principle it doesn't but with subscription channels, we can choose whether or not to subscribe. If our enjoyment of those services is frustrated by the imposition of adverts then for many they are dumped and the primary plus secondary revenues are lost to the provider.

When exploitation is implemented within a core element of a paid for service it is a catch all on part of a service without which, for most the service will not work.

I suspect the opt out will be implemented by very few as although there is a notification on the VM website I would guess that few ever go there to trawl through something so boring.

As has been pointed out by another within this thread, the response is an apparent over-reaction but until VM completely disassociate themselves from the click through (phorm) type exploitation there is underlying suspicion as to their future path. This is IMO a partial but minuscule step in that direction and further reduces my trust in VM.

Re: Virgin Media Hijack customers browser search options
 

Agree this is the main concern, rather than the browser hijack itself.

Re: Virgin Media Hijack customers browser search options
 

There is no browser hijack, nothing is changed on your PC.

As others have said, this is no different to what OpenDNS are doing, while I don't agree with not reporting DNS failures, if it means better funding for VM's network without costing me anything then where is the harm?

Re: Virgin Media Hijack customers browser search options
 

Sorry, wrong terminology. More correctly, DNS Hijacking

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNS_hijacking

In particular

"The concern with DNS hijacking has to do with this hijacking of the NXDOMAIN response. Internet applications rely on the NXDOMAIN response to describe the condition where the DNS has no entry for the specified host. If one were to query the invalid domain name (fakeexample.com), one should get a NXDOMAIN response - informing the application that the name is invalid and taking the appropriate action (for example, displaying an error). However, if the domain name is queried on one of these non-compliant ISPs, one would receive an IP address belonging to the ISP. In a Web browser, this behavior can be annoying or offensive as connections to this IP address display the Web page of the provider, sometimes with advertising, instead of a proper error message. However, other applications that reply on the NXDOMAIN error will instead try to connect to this IP address, potentially exposing sensitive information like logins."

Re: Virgin Media Hijack customers browser search options
 

Reported to el-reg, and a few other places, see if they wanna take the story and run.

VM have NOT been upfront about it. I wasn't even aware of it till I read this thread. No email or letter from VM informing me about it, along with instructions on how to opt-out, which they should have done, especially considering they decided to opt-everybody-in by default.

Only a webpage that isn't checked very often.

Oh, and I just switched to OpenDNS, although I have issues with OpenDNS, I have even bigger issues with a company that implements a DNS hijacking, without even having the manners to send me an email that they were implementing it.

Re: Virgin Media Hijack customers browser search options
 

I run Treewalk local DNS service. No issues with that and the addition of the Confetch plugin adds a lot of blocking/filtering options.

http://treewalkdns.com/

Re: Virgin Media Hijack customers browser search options
 

There is a 'What is this page' link at the very top every time it comes up

There is a 'What is this page' at the top everytime you encounter the VM page with the opt out link

Re: Virgin Media Hijack customers browser search options
 

hahahahahaha - you are a right plonker!

Re: Virgin Media Hijack customers browser search options
 

Thats where vm fail, every added service must be OPT IN did vm just ignore the phorm scandal with a oohhh yeah we will still opt all of our muppet customers in (the way we get treat nowadays) give them as little as they know about it the better for us more monies.

Some vm staffers might be better off telling them to quickly go and change it before a few go and complain to the ico or offcom, they have already stated that anything that changes or has the likeleyhood to change communications (i.e blacklisting non partner websites or searches - Function creep standard) must be opt in.

Re: Virgin Media Hijack customers browser search options
 

This is a lousy step by Virgin.

Among the problems it will cause... It will break features such as address bar search in Internet Explorer, and prevent other applications correctly discovering and reporting DNS lookup errors.

Its symptomatic of a communications company that has completely lost the plot... lost the capacity to comprehend the basic requirement for security, integrity and privacy in telecommunications services.

I'm so glad I left them.

Re: Virgin Media Hijack customers browser search options
 

I am sorry but am I missing something here..

I don't see the big deal?