Holy S - virgin media

OneADay

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

Just typed in an invalid url for ebay (by mistake) into firefox.

I am on virgin broadband - and bloody page went to advancedsearch.virginmedia.com web page showing me a googlish web page with selected alternatives.

Apparently this is virgins idea of an "Advanced Network Error Search" - more like bleeding spying and advertising. Is this meant to be phorm?

Have opted out now using a link given with these alternative results - beware.

espresso

So don't use it, use OpenDNS instead here.

-TangleFoot-

OneADay wrote: »

Is this meant to be phorm?

Nope - just your average DNS hijack. OpenDNS does things the same way; type something that doesn't correspond to any known web address and you'll get shown a search page filled with advertising instead.

Does this help?

• Stop OpenDNS From Redirecting Invalid URLs to their Search Pages
• Prevent OpenDNS From Redirecting Google Searches - Fix for Firefox & IE Address Bar

mp80

there are two Pipex DNS servers that are public

158.43.192.1
158.43.192.2

Used em for years without any problems

OneADay

Ok thanks everyone for the replies - at least its not phorm.

I am not keen on opendns (will look into it) - I have opted out of this virgin thing and now I get my normal no page default browser error page if I put in an invalid url (which is what I expect and am happy with).

It was just a small shock to see the ISP snooping like this - they should ask their subscribers formally before doing this.

-TangleFoot-

According to a comment in one of the articles I've linked to, you can also prevent this from happening by adding the offending servers to your HOSTS file thus:

# Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
#      102.54.94.97     rhino.acme.com          # source server
#       38.25.63.10     x.acme.com              # x client host

127.0.0.1       localhost
127.0.0.1       guide.opendns.com
127.0.0.1       advancedsearch.virginmedia.com

Owzat?

robt_2

OneADay wrote: »

It was just a small shock to see the ISP snooping like this - they should ask their subscribers formally before doing this.

Snooping? You make it sound like before now they didn't know what sites you were visiting! It is offering exactly the same as OpenDNS does when you use that, which people choose to do (most likely for its other features).

OneADay

Oh I know they can watch everything and anything that goes from my through their network but what I was not expecting was to be served up with adverts all of a sudden, especially in wake of the stories about phorm trials with virgin media.

aliEnRIK

I use virgin but never encountered what youve described. Are you absolutely sure its a virgin problem and not actual spyware?

timbim_2

As has been said before, it will be the virgin DNS server. Your requests have to go through one of those to get to anywhere on the internet, and so to send you there, they need to know what you've typed in. If it can't find anything for that, most DNS servers will display a page with suggestions. If you don't like virgin doing this use openDNS. If you don't like anyone being able to see what sites you've visited, you're just going to have to do without the internet. It's just one of those things.

alanrowell

Pretty pathetic spying if you can easily turn it off