Virgin Media Hijack customers browser search options - Page 9

Traduk · 19-08-2009, 01:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by token

Funny you saying Virgin's DNS servers are slow - I did a few quick digs against their DNS servers, and I can't get a response for what I assume must be cached lookups in more than 10ms. OpenDNS don't respond in less than 50ms ever.

With VM its the age old story... when its good, its very very good but when its bad its awful. A snapshot in time doesn't prove much for me as I use the service for hours each day. Over the span of a few days the use of VM's DNS servers always led me to wondering what had gone wrong and if wasn't the usual packet loss it was I suspect queuing for DNS responses.

Personally I couldn't care less about how good bad or indifferent VM's DNS servers are because I can choose not to use them or disable the hijack that they are going to implement.

What bothers me is the fact that they are obviously actively looking at revenue adding and I suppose that it is ironic that when I used the words "mission creep" earlier it took relatively little time for someone to find a fairly current missive from VM which puts Phorm and the likes back in the frame, albeit they are still undecided.

This DNS hijack is a pathetic little problem but is "opt-out" and may well set a precedent for something like Phorm when from in-house statistics VM will be able to state massive percentages that chose not to opt-out. If that argument opens the doors to Phorm then the services that VM provide and I do actually enjoy them (most of the time) will be dumped. It is the threat of Phorm etc that is and will stop me from upgrading to 50Meg because if my opt-out is via the exit door then I will not allow a new contract.

**Hugh** · 19-08-2009, 08:15

Isn't there a difference between "hijack" and "redirect", as they appear to be being used interchangeably in this thread.

I have never heard on the news that terrorists have redirected a plane to Cuba.

PhilThomas · 19-08-2009, 10:28

Think of all that money from the Ads ...... and to think that Virgin will plough all this back into providing us with a better, cheaper service and not give a single penny to the shareholders ..... wow what a great company.

Their main reason for introducing this is "to help us get to where we want to go on the internet", this in itself is admirable, but to use all the revenue generated to reduce their prices and provide us with a more efficient service, deserves an award from Alan Sugar.

....... if anyone seriously believes any of this carp, we might as well all give up now

**Hugh** · 19-08-2009, 11:59

Mmmmm, businesses looking for new ways to make a profit - barstewards!

MeGMeG · 22-08-2009, 15:29

Actually this really ****ed me off as I pay enough to Virgin as it is. I phoned them up (dial 150 from virgin line) told them I was ****ed off and they told me they flicked a switch on their stystems to turn this so called "feature" off... after a restart I no longer see the virginmedia PPC search screen

---------- Post added at 15:29 ---------- Previous post was at 15:23 ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by MeGMeG

Actually this really ****ed me off as I pay enough to Virgin as it is. I phoned them up (dial 150 from virgin line) told them I was ****ed off and they told me they flicked a switch on their stystems to turn this so called "feature" off... after a restart I no longer see the virginmedia PPC search screen

Oh... If they said to me we will reduce your monthly bill if we can feed adverts to your browser I would then have said "sure, no problem"... But this is not the case so I'd advise anyone who is cheesed of by this "feature" to call virgin media and tell them to turn off the feature on your account!

Sirius · 22-08-2009, 16:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by MeGMeG

they told me they flicked a switch on their stystems to turn this so called "feature" off...

Ignitionnet · 22-08-2009, 16:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sirius

Obviously they aren't giving the customer service people computers anymore. Like the old, old telephone exchanges they have collections of wires to link together and switches to flick.

**Hugh** · 22-08-2009, 17:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by Broadbandings

Obviously they aren't giving the customer service people computers anymore. Like the old, old telephone exchanges they have collections of wires to link together and switches to flick.

Ignitionnet · 22-08-2009, 17:12

Bingo!

Toto · 22-08-2009, 17:13

LOL, I didn't know VM's systems were THAT complicated

Stephen · 22-08-2009, 18:09

Its a simple redirect VM didn't hijack anything. I tested this a couple of months ago and I can see it useful for people that mistype things. Maybe older people or less computer literate people.

MeGMeG · 22-08-2009, 18:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stephen

Its a simple redirect VM didn't hijack anything. I tested this a couple of months ago and I can see it useful for people that mistype things. Maybe older people or less computer literate people.

No. They are using their DNS servers. Phone virgin media up and ask them "why am I seeing a virgin search screen in my browser when I misstype youporn.com".

Sir John Luke · 22-08-2009, 18:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stephen

Its a simple redirect VM didn't hijack anything. I tested this a couple of months ago and I can see it useful for people that mistype things. Maybe older people or less computer literate people.

No, the DNS lookup returns 'Not found'. Instead of returning this response unchanged to the the user, it is hijacked by VM and replaced with the IP of their search page.

Ben B · 22-08-2009, 18:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sir John Luke

No, the DNS lookup returns 'Not found'. Instead of returning this response unchanged to the the user, it is hijacked by VM and replaced with the IP of their search page.

Redirected

Jon T · 22-08-2009, 18:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by MeGMeG

No. They are using their DNS servers. Phone virgin media up and ask them "why am I seeing a virgin search screen in my browser when I misstype youporn.com".

They aren't hijacking anything. If you type type a URL in wrong you normally would get a failed lookup from the dns servers, instead of this happening, they are forwarding the results on to a search engine on your behalf.

BTW, no need to phone up, earlier in the thread this url was posted: https://my.virginmedia.com/advancederrorsearch/settings

Thing is, there are certain family/friends of mine that would welcome this service on their ISP, mainly as their IT literacy is best described as "limited".