back to article Baby, I swear it's déjà vu: TalkTalk customers unable to opt out of ISP's ad-jacking DNS – just like six years ago

TalkTalk broadband users are complaining they can't opt out of its Error Replacement Service, which swaps NXDomain DNS results with an IP address. And if that sounds familiar, it should. Users of the budget ISP complained about the very same issue back in 2014. The Error Replacement Service redirects links to DNS addresses …

  1. Dwarf

    ISP -> Internet Service Provider

    Where in that definition does it say that you should fiddle with the content on the way through ?

    Your job is to route packets from A to B and back again in a reliable manner, that is all.

    1. Version 1.0 Silver badge

      Re: ISP -> Internet Service Provider

      It's actually ISP -> Internet Sales provider these days.

      1. DJV Silver badge

        Re: ISP -> Internet Service Provider

        I'm with Virgin - often the "S" means Shit!

        1. trindflo Bronze badge
          Joke

          Re: ISP -> Internet Service Provider

          It's a Jedi mind trick: This is not the servicing you are looking for.

          1. Chris King

            Re: ISP -> Internet Service Provider

            "Servicing", in the way bulls service cows ?

        2. Terry 6 Silver badge

          Re: ISP -> Internet Service Provider

          My VM connection is (usually) brilliant.

          VM customer service is variable and some aspects are grim to the point of hostility. Generally if you speak to someone sensible they will get problems sorted out. But at the policy level ugh. There's is the web site with a Help page that has a "Contact us" link that takes you to a FAQ page that directs you to the Help page.

          Theirs s is the web mail page that won't let you mark several emails together as "Spam" saying that they are "newsletters" and you can only mark them as spam one at a time. There's are the filter rules that won't accept partial addresses, so that you can block bitcoin@spammerxyz.com but not b1tc0in@spammerxyz etc.(and by the way theirs is the service that is totally unable or unwilling to filter this shit)

          1. zb

            Re: ISP -> Internet Service Provider

            So why use them for your email? Anyone whose access to email is conditional on continuing to be a customer of the ISP is asking for trouble.

            1. Alan Brown Silver badge

              Re: ISP -> Internet Service Provider

              "Anyone whose access to email is conditional on continuing to be a customer of the ISP is asking for trouble."

              Anyone whose access to email is conditional on continuing to be a customer of the ISP is locking themselves into the vendor

              Which is why ISPs continue to provide email (back in the old days it was the only reason to sign up, but in these days of ISPs being pipe providers, there's NO point in being reliant on anything else they offer

              setting up your own independent namesevers behind your firewall isn't hard either. That way you're not beholden to google or others playing games - however some ISPs used to intercept/redirect port 53 queries to their local nameservers anyway. They may still do so.

            2. Terry 6 Silver badge

              Re: ISP -> Internet Service Provider

              I don't. Or at lest not solely them. I use about three different email accounts. None get to read all my business.

          2. JetSetJim

            Re: ISP -> Internet Service Provider

            > There's are the filter rules that won't accept partial addresses, so that you can block bitcoin@spammerxyz.com but not b1tc0in@spammerxyz

            Shit - even the Outlook mail client won't let you kill a domain when marking an email as spam - although I agree you can define your own custom rule but it would be nice if there's a shortcut to this in the "junk email" menu. Oddly it allows you to whitelist a domain. I frequently get shit from some arsewipe hopping multiple domains and emails attempting to sell me silicon wafers.

          3. EnviableOne

            VM customer service is variable

            RF: nthell the originators of the the worst level of support an ISP can provide.

            the reason they are variable, is due to you occasionally getting someone who originated from Telewest, who actually cared about their customers occasionally....

    2. Jamie Jones Silver badge

      Re: ISP -> Internet Service Provider

      Imagine dialing a wrong number, and getting an audio ad, and a suggestion of sites you may have actually meant!

      1. JetSetJim
        Mushroom

        Re: ISP -> Internet Service Provider

        I hope no-one from BT and other phone suppliers reads your post

        1. Jamie Jones Silver badge

          Re: ISP -> Internet Service Provider

          :-)

          I also want to thank you for not mentioning I wrote "sites" instead of "numbers"!

          1. JetSetJim
            Facepalm

            Re: ISP -> Internet Service Provider

            I'm sure they would be quite happy to read out URLs letter-by-letter to you:

            "h-t-t-p-colon-backslash-backslash-w-w-w-dot-u-n-i-c-o-r-n-s-dot-com-backslash-b-t-offer"

  2. Pete 2 Silver badge

    Diversion --->>>

    > The Register has asked TalkTalk to comment. We haven't heard back yet,

    The reply probably got redirected by Talk Talk's DNS

    There is now a fly-by-night "enlargement" outfit wondering what a technical support is and whether they should be selling it.

  3. Richard Jones 1
    FAIL

    Waiting For Tal-Talk

    Make sure you have a good supply of books, coffee, and all other refreshment facilities before locking into a wait position for Talk-Talk to come back. Probably your message will take till after the Coronavirus is a distant memory to get through. It is perhaps a shame they do not really know how to run the technical side of the business. Though the rest has not always been that hot either!

    1. big_D Silver badge

      Re: Waiting For Tal-Talk

      Start up Age of Empires... By the time you get a reply, you'll have already taken over the world with water powered nuclear generators.

      They'll probably reply just as you are about to go for a leak, so make sure the PFY's briefcase is within easy reach...

      Yes, I'm going through the BOFH chronicles. That was 2003 episode 23.

    2. Snake Silver badge

      Re: Waiting For Tal-Talk

      In all fairness it is not just TalkTalk: it took 3 hours and 3 minutes on hold to get through to Key Bank, a bank I did not have any business with until the government decided to use to process benefit through.

  4. Jou (Mxyzptlk) Silver badge

    Switch provider, and refuse payment

    if you can. That is what they listen to. Written complaint about what is wrong, what issues it causes, and therefore allowing instant-termination of their service no matter what is written in the contract. Including refusal to pay.

    At least that is what works in Germany, does it work on the other side of the tunnel?

    1. IGotOut Silver badge

      Re: Switch provider, and refuse payment

      If you refuse to pay, expect court action and the bailiffs knocking on your door and your credit rating destroyed.

      In the UK NEVER stop payments for a service.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Switch provider, and refuse payment

        Depends. You can get to their cancellations department. Then after the cancellation fee/termincation confirm your are going to trading standards/financial ombudsman about it. Sometimes you may have to pay up front then get it back later.

        If a company is in the wrong, and willing to charge you the cancellation fee, they obviously have something very wrong with their service because they need the cash more than you do! So must be desperate.

        This does not include the fee for the hardware and postage though, but you can offer to send that back to them.

        I got a 30 day no quibbles option to cancel when I set up one ISP, cancelled with no charge and saved £££s at 29 days as the service was dire, and the promises to improve were mute as going on for 12 months on their forums.

        I did not do the same with a mobile operator, as it did turn out to be occasional signal loss during the 5g upgrade, and thankfully is sorted now.

      2. low_resolution_foxxes

        Re: Switch provider, and refuse payment

        Don't be silly! There's a whole game to be played here, especially if there is a genuine fault caused by Talk Talk.

        Register your complaint. Register the failure of the resolutions.

        Demonstrate the effect as unreasonable. Waste their time as much as possible.

        If company is ISO9001 certified, ask for the quality managers details, raise a complaint and demand a copy of your ISO9001 complaint reference number. Make constant requests for updates. Register any lack of resolution and communication. Politely waste as much time as possible and eventually, when they see it as a "cost saving" to get rid of you, voila! Success.

        Just pissing off the quality manager enough to force technical meetings about registered ISO9001 complaints is surprisingly effective in all industry sectors.

        1. Arthur the cat Silver badge

          Re: Switch provider, and refuse payment

          If company is ISO9001 certified

          FFS we're talking about Talk Talk. They're not even ISO 3103 certified.

          1. Marc 13
            Pint

            Re: Switch provider, and refuse payment

            I had to Google it, but you now ow me a keyboard... Mines been damaged by an ISO 3001 beverage.

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3103

            M

          2. low_resolution_foxxes

            Re: Switch provider, and refuse payment

            You're probably right

            Man, I've worked for some dire small companies that could fill in ISO 9001 docunentation.

            1. Mike 137 Silver badge

              Re: Switch provider, and refuse payment

              "...companies that could fill in ISO 9001 docunentation"

              Operating as a business risk consultant, I've seldom seen an ISO 9001 or ISO/IEC 27001 implementation that existed other than entirely on paper, in any size of organisation. Certification is sought because it opens doors to lucrative contracts, and the basic principle of compliance is "what's the least we can get away with doing to [pass the audit] [keep the regulator of our backs]?

              The concept of a certificate being indicative of performance is culturally dead, not just in these contexts. Practically every educational qualification is now merely considered as a pathway to non-relevant employment, so nobody studies the subject more than minimally to qualify - witness the dramatic rise in the proportion of "first class" degrees over the last couple of decades. The downside of all this is a population suffering from Dunning Kruger - it's long term at least as dangerous as Covid.

              1. Terry 6 Silver badge

                Re: Switch provider, and refuse payment

                I'd have to agree. Once a test of proficiency becomes a gateway it ceases to serve its function, because all effort will be directed at the test, not the learning.. This starts at age 6 with early years settings required to reach various "early learning goals" irrespective of where the kids start from. Schools with lots of kids from deprived backgrounds/poor English skills ( which is mostly native English speakers with poor language models btw) etc. need to be brought up to the test level. And the only way to do that is to teach to the test. Then there's tests at 7 and so it goes. SATS at 11, GCSE, A level, even degrees. And driving tests of course. You learn to pass, not to drive.

                1. jfm

                  Re: Switch provider, and refuse payment

                  Agreed re driving tests. I recently (for reasons of emigration and bureaucracy) had to sit a local driving test. I walked into the driving school, said "I've been driving for 30 years but I need to learn to pass the test", and did exactly what I was told until I did pass. (The instructor said I was a much easier student than the younger learner-drivers, who don't listen.)

          3. Scott 26

            Re: Switch provider, and refuse payment

            have an upvote.... I have to rememebr that one....

            1. low_resolution_foxxes

              Re: Switch provider, and refuse payment

              It kinda depends on the type of company.

              It's best for less consumer-y companies. Basically one of the 9001 requirements is a controlled official complaint tracker. Which must be reviewed by the quality manager (or equivalent). Even better, it will regularly be monitored by the external auditor, so companies are more likely to act to close the complaint.

              Doesn't always work. But as a former quality engineer who has had 3 customers pull this stunt on me, it was pretty effective.

              1. Alan Brown Silver badge

                Re: Switch provider, and refuse payment

                "Even better, it will regularly be monitored by the external auditor, so companies are more likely to act to close the complaint."

                Which probably explains why many are so dead keen to do so without solving the problem.

        2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

          Re: Switch provider, and refuse payment

          "ask for the quality managers details"

          First ask if they have one.

        3. oldfartuk

          Re: Switch provider, and refuse payment

          There was a small booklet you could buy back in the 1970's that gave yo udetailed information on how to bamboozle and waste the time of various government departments. For example, many forms back then contained areas marked DO NOT WRITE HERE or FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY, the booklet advised going over these areas with a candle to make them unwriteable with a ball point pen or pencil. It also pointed out (at the time) there was no compulsion to fill in forms in english (it recommended russian ), nor to perform maths or numerics in english (latin numerals were sufficient).

          1. Missing Semicolon Silver badge

            Re: Switch provider, and refuse payment

            "Bureaucrats: How to annoy them" by R. T. Fishall.

            Who was in fact the late lamented Patrick Moore.

            A Gem.

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Switch provider, and refuse payment

        My mum's bank stopped payments to talk talk after she passed away; repeated calls to customer 'service' did nothing to stop the tide of threatening letters.

        We wrote "return to sender - deceased" on various correspondence and popped in the post back to them. Not sure whether that did the trick or not as we're no longer getting post forwarded.

        1. Arthur the cat Silver badge

          Re: Switch provider, and refuse payment

          My mum's bank stopped payments to talk talk after she passed away; repeated calls to customer 'service' did nothing to stop the tide of threatening letters.

          You quite possibly have a chance of getting them charged with harassment under those circumstances. See the Citizens Advice page here and remember you're not even a debtor.

          A few years back friend of mine was being hassled by carrion eating debt collectors over a debt that was more than 6 years old and no longer enforceable. One snottagram to them threatening to take the matter to the police made them vanish.

      4. oldfartuk

        Re: Switch provider, and refuse payment

        we moved to Spain two and a half years ago. At that point i cancelled my AA membership. despite cancelling it i got charged £280 for another years membership 6 months later. I rang them , they refunded the money an cancelled the membership again. last month i checked my bank statements, lo and behold the AA had charged me for another years membership.. I rang them again, and again they have refunded my money , and claim the last person DIDNT cancel the membership, but now they have, allegedly. We'll see next year.

        1. Terry 6 Silver badge

          Re: Switch provider, and refuse payment

          And you don't need to leave the country for that. And it's always, "Sorry the person last year didn't cancel.......". Even though you'd had the refund in full a year ago..

  5. Snake Silver badge

    Not unusual

    In the United States this is not unusual, Spectrum-TimeWarner has been doing the sane thing for years (mistype a URL, get a Spectrum search results page). Although Spectrum is certainly a company that pretty much doesn't give a damn about its customers (taking cues from Verizon, trust me), I'm just surprised that it took TalkTalk customers this long to complain.

    1. Captain Hogwash

      Re: doing the sane thing for years

      Freudian slip?

    2. John H Woods Silver badge

      Re: Not unusual

      I dunno, given the Talk Talk data breach and their famously woeful customer service, I'd pretty much say that their users are a self-selecting sample of absolute numpties. Hmm, I need an ISP, I know, why not these guys, they've won worst UK ISP of the year loads of times!

      1. Arthur the cat Silver badge

        Re: Not unusual

        Hmm, I need an ISP, I know, why not these guys, they've won worst UK ISP of the year loads of times!

        More a case of "I need an ISP, I know SFA about it, look, these are cheap" I suspect.

        1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

          Re: Not unusual

          And not to mention the old "all publicity is good publicity" adage, ie Talk Talk were all over the mainstream news a couple of times of the last few years. Most people don't remember why but do remember the name.

    3. Gene Cash Silver badge

      Re: Not unusual

      I filed an FCC complaint (this was in the pre-Pai days) and actually got someone to call me back.

      He argued with me for over an hour with the "everybody does it" argument, and I responded just as strongly "that doesn't make it right... if everyone jumps off a roof, I'm not just going to blindly follow"

      I went to Google DNS after that.

  6. Zippy´s Sausage Factory
    Devil

    I eventually ended up as a TalkTalk customer after they bought Tiscali, after that bought WorldOnline. I never really noticed this because I always used Google's Public DNS. Mainly because, at the time I did it, the DNS servers of whatever-it-was-called-at-the-time was up and down more often than a drunken fiddler's elbow during a lockin.

    That said, I can't really say I'm surprised by TalkTalk being shady. I seem to recall this DNS hijacking was actually inherited, probably from Tiscali, which was very fond of doing shady things like that.

  7. fnusnu

    The most annoying thing about it is that you can't just go back to the URL and correct the typo

  8. steviebuk Silver badge

    Teamviewer

    TalkTalk are the same knobs that decide to, by default, block Teamviewer on their routers because "The bad guys use it" yes, and they use other fucking apps as well. And us good support people also use Teamviewer so now everyone is staying at home, we're having to try and talk people through logging onto their router to unblock Teamviewer so we can then connect to them.

    I hate TalkTalk, the dicks.

  9. James 139

    The first..

    ..rule of Internet Club is to use your own router.

    The second rule is Dont Use TalkTalk.

    1. Teiwaz

      Re: The first..

      ..rule of Internet Club is to use your own router.

      The second rule is Dont Use TalkTalk.

      If one and two are ranked in importance, I think I'd swap those around.

      1. Danny 14

        Re: The first..

        Yup. Zen user here. They gave me a fritz box and didnt mind if I installed openwrt on it.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: The first..

      Unluckily for many people a router is a magic box with internet fairies inside that make Google, Facebook, Amazon and Netflix happen when a light blips. And the whole DNS thing would look "strange" to them.

      The Internet Nerd/Geek Club is still a far smaller one.

  10. Martin Summers Silver badge

    If you think this is bad, anyone remember when Network Solutions did it for the entire Internet in the root DNS?

  11. anthonyhegedus Silver badge

    These crappy consumer services seem to introduce things that break stuff with regular monotony. Virgin break VPNs, BT break SMTP, Sky break being able to use your own router. They all seem to have one thing or another than they do, and none of them actually offer just a 'pure' internet service

    1. katrinab Silver badge

      You can use your own router on Sky. I did it when I was with them.

      Details you need are:

      Protocol/Encapsulation :- PPPoA (PPP over ATM)

      Multiplexing method: VC-BASED or VC-Mux

      (On some routers the above 2 settings may be combined as "PPPoA VC-Mux".)

      VPI = 0

      VCI = 38

      Username: install@o2broadband.co.uk

      Password: install

      I was an ex O2 customer, but as far as I'm aware, anyone can use those details.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    TalkTalk offers a way to opt out of the service

    unless you have NO. OTHER. OPTION. (or were born yesterday) - you deserve ALL you get from talktalk.

  13. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
    Boffin

    "Whatever you are relying on the internet for..."

    A quote from their current UK TV advert.

    What a load of bollocks.

  14. Ceyarrecks

    easiest fix: Hard code PC's DNS and DISABLE DNS Service. (1.1.1.1, 1.1.1.3, 1.0.0.3 [Cloudflare]; 4.4.4.4 [Level 3]; 208.67.222.222, 208.67.220.220 [OpenDNS]; 8.8.8.8, et. al.)

    best fix: Pi-Hole (a self-contained personal DNS server) which is well worth the investment to setup the Raspberry Pi and Pi-Hole! Blocks WAY more crap then you know was even there,...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I need to do this.

      You know, that's a good idea. I need to get around to doing this. :P

      1. katrinab Silver badge

        Re: I need to do this.

        By the way, you don't need a raspberry pi to do it. I have it installed on a Hyper-V virtual machine.

    2. sqlrob

      I'm surprised that actually works. I wonder if they'll "fix" it.

      They can just intercept port 53 and return what they want.

      1. Probie

        Not if its dnssec, you will know. That said I would think that if Talk Talk decided on intercepting and then hijacking plain UDP port 53 dns, the remidy would come under section three of the 1990 computer misuse act.

        "Unauthorised acts with intent to impair, or with recklessness as to impairing, operation of computer, etc."

        1. sqlrob

          It's their network though. Would the act even apply?

          1. Gene Cash Silver badge

            > It's their network though. Would the act even apply?

            Yeah, if that act applied, I think it'd apply now, as they're doing this in direct contravention of the RFCs and other standards.

          2. SImon Hobson Bronze badge

            It's their network though

            But it's your information and your computer they are impairing the operation of. Not only the CMA applies here, there's also the other one about interception of information (whatever it's called these days).

    3. A.P. Veening Silver badge

      best fix: Pi-Hole (a self-contained personal DNS server) which is well worth the investment to setup the Raspberry Pi and Pi-Hole! Blocks WAY more crap then you know was even there,...

      And just to prevent ISPs from pulling that hijacking trick, also use an Unbound server on that Raspberry Pi, the Pi-Hole by itself won't protect you from hijacked typing errors.

    4. tip pc Silver badge

      “best fix: Pi-Hole (a self-contained personal DNS server) which is well worth the investment to setup the Raspberry Pi and Pi-Hole! Blocks WAY more crap then you know was even there,...“

      Bonus points for also setting up a DNS over HTTPS proxy to minimise your ISP eavesdropping on where your going to (minimise as some sites like that pirate bay are still dropped but apparently resolving it to another Cloudflare ip gets around that)

    5. Lotaresco

      "best fix: Pi-Hole"

      As others have said you don't need a RaspberryPi to run Pi-Hole. In addition to the ways already suggested, you can achieve the same functionality on a pfsense firewall by installing pfblockerNG and configuring it with the same publicly available lists that are used by pihole.

  15. GrumpenKraut
    Go

    to LOL or not to LOL

    I do feel bad for the customers. Still, this so bizarre, it is amusing. Maybe El Reg should have a section "Curiously shitty companies".

    1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: to LOL or not to LOL

      Maybe El Reg should have a section "Curiously shitty companies".

      Wouldn't "Curiously goof companies" be easier to maintain?

      1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

        Re: to LOL or not to LOL

        Dammit - good

        1. KittenHuffer Silver badge

          Re: to LOL or not to LOL

          I don't know, I thought that was quite a goof answer!

  16. Keith Oborn

    J**** F*** W****

    I designed and implemented a system to do this for <well known cableco> in 2006.

    Optout is a doddle to do, and doesn't need to require users reboot anything at all.

    Worked with TT in 2015-17 - on DNS related stuff.

    If only they had asked. The optout method was pretty much public domain by then.

    1. A.P. Veening Silver badge

      Re: J**** F*** W****

      Opt-out should be the default, opt-in should be by special request.

    2. tophlammiepie

      Re: J**** F*** W****

      I mean, it wasn't a single afternoons worth of doddle as I recall - it was a doddle that took several months and a reasonable quantity of perl.

  17. Usermane

    Not bad

    I'm paying at this momen more than £20 for the cheapest sky broadband and isn't so different than dialup

  18. Andrew Yeomans

    Can be done on the router

    I have a TalkTalk Sagem router, and found it is a bit confusing. There are two DNS settings, the one to alter is TalkTalk Wifi Hub" -> "Static DNS Server Configuration" which actually sets the DNS addresses sent by DHCP to connected devices. Set those to your preferred provider. Leave the "Internet Connectivity" DNS settings on 79.79.79.79 / 79.79.79.80 so the router itself gets DNS from TalkTalk,while your devices get it from elsewhere.

    1. A.P. Veening Silver badge

      Re: Can be done on the router

      And that elsewhere preferably being your Pi-Hole, which in turn gets it from your Unbound. The first will double the perceived download speed of websites, the second will prevent this type of Man In The Middle attacks.

      1. ExampleOne

        Re: Can be done on the router

        Oh the sweet innocence...

        I caught Sky engaging in deep packet manipulation to change the IP in DNS replies from the authoritative servers to my local servers. The only reason I can’t see TalkTalk doing similar is their technical incompetence.

        I am no longer a Sky customer, obviously.

        1. A.P. Veening Silver badge

          Re: Can be done on the router

          Not innocent, keeping it simple. Adding DNSSEC to the mixture isn't the most difficult thing to do, but goes a bit off-topic. And if I ever catch my ISP doing something like that, there will be some serious problems (and not for me).

        2. Jou (Mxyzptlk) Silver badge

          Re: Can be done on the router

          That does not need "deep packet". It is simply the same type of setup used for split-DNS. Quite often used in company setups to avoid unneeded traffic going outside when not needed since you are in the LAN. In some companies it is used to block well known bad countries, like adding the evil country domani to your local DNS and make it answer with 127.0.0.1. Quite effective.

          As for your case: It is evil, but I wouldn't call it "deep inspection", that type of setup is known and used since the beginning of DNS.

  19. Inventor of the Marmite Laser Silver badge

    Based on previous experience of the incompetent customer indifference halfwits* at WankWank, they will tell you they can't help over the problem with your email service. After a pause if about 6 months you will get a call from some nebulous twat "following up" about your "problem with email" and asking how WankWank did.

    *Sorry, but I am bigging WankWank up to an unreasonable degree with that choice of words however a proper expression of my real contempt would damage your screen.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Had that years ago in my country

    Some years ago, my then provider decided to try that one too.

    Broke some scripts testing for a negative response.

    I called their "service department" and lodged a "service is broken complaint". After some time they confessed and would not turn it of.

    As I now had written proof, I complained to the regulator. At first they tried to say "that is a contract problem".

    A called them and gave them arguments to reasses their stance.

    A negative response is also a response and valid communcation so this is tampering with telecommunications and that is a criminal act here (at that time up to 10 years). They were not only the regulator but the agency tasked bringing violations against that telco act to prosecution and that officials knowing of criminal acts within their remit are required to bring them to prosecution, unless they were trying to aid and abet. So try to change the mind of the telco stat or face a criminal complaint.

    4 days later these shennigans were stopped. I cannot explain why ....

    Even i the UK this must fall under unlawful interception and possible tampering.

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Vidgin media used to do this but I havent seen it done in a few years, plus I use 1.1.1.1 now

    1. Huw D

      Virgin turned it back on about a month ago.

  22. Nifty Silver badge

    No one has mentioned that some browsers and Windows file explorer do the same, type either an invalid url or a non existent folder path and a Bing search is launched. Thus revealing your url or private folder names to Bing. And making a small typo correction impossible. Of course you can configure to prevent this but I don't recall being offered the option of opting in or out of this during Windows setup.

    1. Jou (Mxyzptlk) Silver badge

      While this is true, there is a difference: When everything in your system which uses DNS gets f* up by your provider your can be in deep s*, VPN not working as expected, mail not working etc etc etc. The browser method, even though I hate it from the deepest bottom of my heart, is only when you actually surf around.

      The better browsers have a regex in place to distinguish between typical domain typos and things you actually search. "googpe.coom" results in DNS fail, while "googpe coom" is sent to your search engine since it not a possible domain.

      1. Nifty Silver badge

        I think that was a typo you meant googpe.com for DNS fail.

        1. Jou (Mxyzptlk) Silver badge

          > I think that was a typo you meant googpe.com for DNS fail.

          Well no, googpe.com is taken, IP 54.235.212.68. You should have checked before commenting. I did, 'cause I know some other reg forum user would check and point out my fail.

          googpe.coom is real DNS fail.

  23. Lotaresco

    If I Were Forced To Use Talk-Talk

    I can't foresee a future in which this would happen, but if every other ISP disappeared overnight and I had to use them I'd be sure to have my own firewall, use PiHole's block lists and to blackhole the Excrement Replacement Service.

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