Rogers Hijacking failed DNS lookups

[TVJunkie]

Rogers made an interesting change today. They killed the internet for all non public DNS settings. Thanks Rogers. They did this to spam us with advertising when we type in a wrong IP address. I called the help desk and they said well just use a public DNS server (I pay rogers to provide this.) But even though I tried several DNS 3rd party providers but most of my VPN applications do not work.

I surfed around for other DNS servers but all seem to provide the same DNS SPAM type services. I can't believe I Pay Rogers for this service and they did this without asking us and they refuse to turn it off.

[hugh]

Yep its true.



I just canceled my Rogers Internet Service

[TVJunkie]

They said the solution is to select a cookie to revert the URL and OPT out well that helps for a browser but not my 20+ applications. Do they provide an alternative DNS server no.

I would shut my account but I just purchased an IPHONE.

The "official reason" is to help us dumb users who type incorect URLS

but notice all the links are just pages of pure spam.

http://www20.search.rogers.com/searc...qusJ1hUiCodku1

[technut]

Doing this without an opt-in is just another indication of the lack of respect that Rogers has for their customers.

And it is further proof that they don't consider themselves a telecommunications carrier... they obviously feel free to step all over your traffic to throttle, inject and redirect whatever they like.

If that is the case, they should lose the legal protections normally provided to a telecommunications carrier (eg. immunity from being prosecuted for illegal content available via their network).

And just when the heck is this government going to take a stand on how we're being treated by our ISPs?

[99gecko]

Unbelievable.
I can't believe they would be doing this with all the net neutrality awareness lately. I agree with technut. I think they believe they can do whatever, whenever, to whomever they want.

I can't wait to see what Rogers is going to come up with next. Perhaps they'll start spell checking my email for me, and insert hyperlinks where they feel it's appropriate ????

[tbusa]

Yeah this pissed me off. I noticed this morning when using world wide web and then I guess I have been using a old favorite url to this site and I kept getting Rogers/Yahoo blowme & cheese sandwich crap. Its a real shame that Rogers thinks its okay to screw around with my internet signal, but its not okay for me legally to screw around with theirs


time to look at another unmolested internet connection , Hello CRTC whats wrong with this picture ?

[powerstream]

Originally Posted by TVJunkie

hxxp://www20.search.rogers.com/searc...qusJ1hUiCodku1

With some of the banners on that page you get spy cookies and probably some other crap. And what benefit does this serve to the customer? Nothing. Just more cash going to Rogers from advertisers to serve that page.

[slam_to]

I find the big problem with Rogers hijacking DNS look-up failures is that is opens up a huge security hole.

read up:
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/200...rror-page.html

If you type in gmai.google.com (ie. gmail without the l, by mistake). Your browser will now annoyingly go to the Rogers/Yahoo search page. Now, what if someone hijacked Rogers/Yahoo search page and injected a page to look like Gmail?


I don't see how we can stop this. I bet Rogers will block access to Bit Torrent search engines, possibly it's competition, , or even ones critical of Rogers. I know it's a slippery-slope argument, but they already throttle encrypted packets.

[Alternate]

Some places to complain too.
Not that it will help at all.. And remember to donate to your local politician like Rogers faithfully does every year. A Monopoly needs friends in high places. Remember when Ma Bell got broken apart years ago? Mention that to your local politician.

Token government complaints site. Like the BBB.
http://www.ccts-cprst.ca/en/

Government representatives contact page..
http://www.canada.gc.ca/directories-...irect-eng.html

[technut]

Originally Posted by TVJunkie

They said the solution is to select a cookie to revert the URL and OPT out

I don't like the solution, but they do provide a page for setting the cookie. You can get to it from the link at the bottom-right of the search results, which takes you here, with an OPT OUT link on the page.

[stampeder]

"Opting Out" is just like the scheme called "Negative Option Billing" used by cable companies in the past (we'll just go ahead and bill you until you complain). It is completely anti-consumer.

[BobFillmore]

This practice is disgusting, and could erode consumer confidence. For example, when we surf to www.bell.ca to check out competing services, how do we know that the content hasn't been altered?
You're starting down a slippery slope Rogers.....

[shabbs]

Is this really DPI? I would not consider invalid DNS requests being redirected as DPI. I certainly don't like this practice though. OpenDNS is an option for anyone that wants to avoid this, however, they too redirect bad URLs to their search page.

[flinstoner]

Ironically, there's a DH forum that I have bookmarked that I check regularly.....and the link doesn't work as of today so I was brought to the hijacked search page from Rogers! In reading this thread, I've "opted out" but as others have mentioned, it's not a true opt out since the URL is still (http://www20.search.rogers.com/not_found)

I can't believe how stupid they could be with the recent iPhone debacle, you'd think someone might have learned a lesson...guess not. We need some other kind of massive petition against Rogers - they changed for the data packages, there's no reason not to change this...

[actng]

how to complain? does anyone have a contact aside from the generic 1-800 numbers and support@rogers.com? I need a real person to bitch at.

i'm not going to wait on hold for an hour like i did for fido to add money to a prepaid just to file a complaint.