Holy S - virgin media

OneADay

aliEnRIK wrote: »

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

This is the first time I have encountered it today, having been with virgin for years. I was trying to ebay uk site, typed in ebay.co.uks by mistake and it landed on a page showing the sort of listings you get on google results pages.

Now call me suspicious, buy phorm has been linked with virgin media. Otherwise if its a gimmick by virgin to make a few pennies - its not one I appreciate. I know they can spy on anything they like within the law but throwing advertising in my face is not what I want.

aliEnRIK

ahhh. I use the google toolbar which works differently (simply says the link is broken)

-TangleFoot-

It appears to be a recent development; this was posted just over a week ago.

bat999

-TangleFoot- wrote: »

It appears to be a recent development; this was posted just over a week ago.

Yes, it's never happened to me before.
But now I've opted out and rebooted Firefox
Here's before and after shots.
Sorted! :cool:

fuzzball172

I saw it for the first time today, seems like a good idea, rather than getting a rather useless browser error, you get something helpful. The ads are clearly marked as sponsored results. I dont see the problem. I mean does anyone really think that they can do anything completely anonymously on the net?

-TangleFoot-

fuzzball172 wrote: »

I dont see the problem.

The Wikipedia article on DNS hijacking mentions the possibility of cross-site scripting attacks. Does that sound good to you?

OneADay

fuzzball172 wrote: »

I saw it for the first time today, seems like a good idea, rather than getting a rather useless browser error, you get something helpful. The ads are clearly marked as sponsored results. I dont see the problem. I mean does anyone really think that they can do anything completely anonymously on the net?

Its a form of snooping in my book. My default search engine in both Ie and Firefox is Google and I expect that to be used by default. I do not expect a third party (and in this case virgin are third party) to come along, without asking permission, take over my search functions be it they may be limited to mis-typed urls.

I prefer the blank browser error page - it tells me exactly what I have done wrong and does not present me with adverts to click and make money for virgin. They have my money every month.

timbim_2

OneADay wrote: »

Its a form of snooping in my book. My default search engine in both Ie and Firefox is Google and I expect that to be used by default. I do not expect a third party (and in this case virgin are third party) to come along, without asking permission, take over my search functions be it they may be limited to mis-typed urls.

You will have given permission, in one way and another, when you agreed to Virgin's terms and conditions. Virgin is hardly a third party as it is their DNS server that is providing your connection. If you don't like it, do somthing about it. One thing that is not is phorm.

[Deleted User]

Opt out here, although I think it'll prove far more useful to people than simply not using it at all..

kwikbreaks

This really is a bit of a storm in a teacup IMO. The first line says the url was not found and the rest are obviously adverts.

It may even be that one will be the site you intended to find. If you click it the bearded one gets a few coppers towards another madcap scheme. Seeing him crush his nads again while absailing or similar must have some value surely?