New York’s Cablevision hijacks 404 error pages
Well, this is interesting. Just took this screenshot of what appears to be an Optimum Online search results page that now comes up whenever I happen to travel to a domain that doesn’t exist.
From what I can see, Cablevision has changed it’s DNS service so that it now hijacks 404 pages to redirect to “domainnotfound.optimum.net” and deliver a page of what look to be Google search results that are supposed to show you the page you were originally looking for. They are calling this “service” the DNS Assistance Service.
According to the DNS Assistance Service page:
The preceding search results page is displayed to you as a result of the specific Domain Name Service (DNS) servers used by Optimum Online to look up domain names. If you misspell or mistype a web address, dead-end “no such name” errors can occur. However, the DNS servers used by Optimum Online are designed to eliminate dead-end “no such name” error pages you can encounter as you surf the web. By displaying the preceding search results page, users know that the web site they’ve attempted to navigate to does not exist, and are presented with suggested sites they may have been seeking. No software is installed on your computer for this search service to work.
Not only that, they’re serving some SPONSORED RESULTS along with the search results. I’m going to have a fit. Hijacking my web connection to deliver YOUR search results is bad enough, hijacking my web connection to serve ADS to me is absolutely insulting and ridiculous. You certainly aren’t lowering the cost of my internet connection, from the revenue you’re making from AdSense or whatever, so why are you serving me ads? It’s completely ridiculous.
Sorry Cablevision, but I do NOT approve. Not one freakin’ bit. As soon as I get home, I’m switching my PCs to use OpenDNS instead, and I highly suggest all other Cablevision customers to do the same. We don’t need your help OR your ads. Thank you very much.
Tags: ads, Cablevision, DNS, Optimum Online