How One Big Company can basically destroy the entire Internet. From today (or actually yesterday), ALL unregistered .com and .net domains will resolve to Verisign.
This means that a lot of search engines and spamfilters will be disrupted, since they both use the non-existance of domains.
Even worse, every single typo in a .com/.net address will result in Verisign making money from it's advertisements on their "Site Finder". And even worser than that, by mistyping a domain, you WILL enter into a legal deal with Verisign, as per their Terms of Use.
Now, both Slashdotters and Metafilterers have already sent umpteen mails to [email protected]. I hope that the ICANN is smart enough to ban such monopolistic, evil abuse of domain names.
Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
That is so disgusting. Getting money for people's misspelling.
We're lucky the internet doesn't have that many bad spellers around. No, wait...
Well, I'm never typing any url from memory again. Hello shortcuts!
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
So, should internet advertising be banned? I'm sick of pop-ups and audiovisual banners, whenever I visited the IMDb I'd be inundated with loud quacking noises from some banner or other. It'd mean the end of Tripod, Angelfire and Geocities-type websites, but then how many of those have you ever seen that were worth a damn? Problem is, sites like IMDb would suffer as well. . .
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
Not to mention some of the more non-commercial sites that are trying to cover some of their operating fees -- sites like TrekToday.
But yeah, I think that anyone who sells internet advertising should die. That includes the "ownership" of unpurchased domain names. How can that be legal, anyway? They're not the sole owner of the Internet...
Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
Send Max Payne into the VeriSign skyscraper, he'll sort'em out. Ha ha ha, ka-BOOM!!
Posted by Harry (Member # 265) on :
I'm not that opposed to normal banners. Most people have developed 'banner blindness' anyway.
But what Verisign is doing...it's taken over ALL unregistered .com/.net domains, and making money of it!
I'm sure there must be a rule somewhere that you can't make money with stuff that isn't yours. They've simply stolen every domain-name.
And another REALLY REALLY REALLY EVIL side-effect of this... If you mistype an email address, your mail WILL end up with Verisign. I think this is nothing more than grave violation of privacy laws.
Oh, and a nice tidbit from their Terms of Use, which you automatically agree on when you MAKE A FUCKING TYPO.
quote: "We use third-party companies to serve paid and unpaid search results and other content to our Site Finder. In the course of serving these results, these companies may place or recognize a cookie on your browser, and may use information (not including your name, address, e-mail address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other web sites in order to serve content to our site..."
(and BTW, under the Patriot's Act, the US Government has access to all those nice little details)
So either this is a very aggresive way of promoting good spelling, or a highly suspect way of making money and disrupting the net.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
SpyBot Search and Destroy.
It's free and kills all that shit.
Posted by Mountain Man (Member # 1114) on :
Spybots good but you should also get "SpyBlaster" It is also freeware and does alot better job at immunizing your PC. Also you do not have to make a typo to be affected by the problem. The local infrastructure has been compromised by massive storm damage. My conections have gone down a hundred times a day. Thats one reason I can't edit my post properly. Even using search engines and linking though favorites and history I'm often redirected to the pages mentioned. Less often since I installed backup programs to all my protections.
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
You could also possibly program your browser to block information from certain IP addresses... assuming that you can isolate the location(s) of Verisign's servers handling the "unregistered domain" pages. Not sure how possible that is without some relatively difficult coding...
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
I didn't like the phrasing of my post the first time, so take number two:
My undergraduate thesis is likely going to have something to do with the phenomenology(1) of the OS environment, and the issues that come up when it is modified by, for instance, pop-up ads.
I was kind of hoping to find a more impartial description. Oh well.
[ September 16, 2003, 11:08 PM: Message edited by: Sol System ]
Posted by Harry (Member # 265) on :
Hehe. I sent a mail to Verisign asking how to disable their service:
quote: Dear Mr. Doddema,
Thank you for contacting Network Solutions.
We apologize for the inconvenience. Site Finder is a new service offered by the VeriSign Global Registry. For more information or further assistance please contact VeriSign at [email protected].
Please know that your inquiry is important to us, and we value your business.
--- Original Message --- From: Harry Doddema Received: 09/16/2003 07:33am Central Standard Time (GMT - 5:00 ) To: [email protected] Subject: Mis-spelled domain names
Dear Sir/Madam
I recently found out that if I mis-type a domain name, I get redirected to the "Verisign Site Finder" service. Is there any way to disable this?
It disturbs my browsing, since it changes the URL in the address-bar. Why did you give me this 'service'? I didn't ask for it, and I do not wish to use it. How do I disable it and get the normal "page not found" errors back?
-- Harry Doddema
I'll forward it to that other address, and see what comes from this. I mean.. just out of common sense, if I don't want a service, I should be able to not use it, right?
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
Well, it seems that the Internet Software Corporation, the nonprofit group that makes some of the foundational Web software like BIND, has already come out with a patch. Unfortunately, this is something that our ISPs need to install, and probably not something we can do ourselves. No hint yet (that I've found) of something we can do to our individual browsers...
I'm sending an e-mail right away to my University, asking them to disable this "feature."
Just because I was curious, though, I did try the feature out by mistyping a couple of URLs. The first one I got, by simply leaving a letter out (with "startrkrenaissance.com") did point me to the proper location. However, if you seriously misspell a word, it seems much less likely to come up with the intended result. (I guess that's what I deserve for putting a less-well-known word like "minutiae" in my URL!) Just like any spell checker, this "service" appears generally useless for most situations unless someone already knows what they're trying to spell. If they totally foul up the wording, then it ain't gonna work.
Therefore, this new VeriSign program provides no real benefit to Web surfers; it's simply a way to put their advertisements in front of you and get themselves some extra cash. Just like everyone said from the outset, I know, but I don't see any real use of this thing at all!
I tried getting an address wrong, and I got the MSN Search page. In fact, I've had that for a while. When did that start appearing, eh?
Posted by The359 (Member # 37) on :
I believe that's an internet explorer thing. I'm not sure how to turn it off though.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
If you're using Windows, go to the system directory and then \drivers\etc under that. There should be a file called "hosts" (no extension). First make a copy and call it "hosts.bak" or something, so you can recover if something goes wrong. Now, in the "hosts" file, add one of the following two lines:
0.0.0.0 sitefinder.verisign.com
or
127.0.0.1 sitefinder.verisign.com
My understanding is that some computers do better with 0.0.0.0 and some do better with 127.0.0.1. Basically, what this does is tell your browser that, when it tries to go to "sitefinder.verisign.com", it should skip looking up the DNS entry and just go to the IP address provided. Of course, this also means that, if you ever wanted to go to sitefinder.verisign.com, you wouldn't be able to. But what are the chances of that?
By the way, I'm not absolutely certain that hosts file will be located in the same directory on every version of Windows. You might be best off just doing a search for any file called "hosts". It should be under the Windows system directory somewhere.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
Sometimes it's system, sometimes it's the system32 directory. But, yeah, doing a search for 'hosts' should turn it up.
. . . Except I don't seem to have one at all on this laptop, just hosts.sam. Odd. But then the build they use at the place I'm working is weird anyway.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Well, when I said "Windows system directory", I didn't necessarily mean the one called "system". I just meant whatever directory the system files were in on the individual computer in question.
Posted by Topher (Member # 71) on :
You know the weird thing is that sometimes when I mis-type a URL I get the usual page not found message but other times I get the MSN search-thingy. I put in a random string of letters into the address bar just now at my uni and got the usual 404 page.
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
I came back home last night because school was cancelled for the rest of the week due to the hurricane, and in browsing around this afternoon, it seems that Comcast has already implemented the BIND patch that I mentioned above -- when I try to access the same "startrkrenaissance.com" domain that I tested yesterday morning at the university, I now get the usual "could not locate server" message.
That would be nice if it were true, and not just due to some other change that I haven't figured out. Posted by Alshrim (Member # 258) on :
i don't see how this will work! The Root Servers on the internet are not controlled by VeriSign, or previously Network Solutions! For this to work, VeriSign would have to have an IP 'A' entry on every Root Server on the Internet .. and they would have to partner with EVERY SINGLE Web-Provider out there to resolve mistyped addresses under there domain to their redirector...
*shakes head* i just don't see this happening.
For Instance... if you have a website on Geocities - and mistype the domain name... a geocities page will pop up and say the page yer looking for is unavailable... verisign would have to tell Geocities.. "Ok.. redirect that to our spam page!"
This is virtually impossible.. I think we'll see Error 404 or 500's only Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
The domain name and the file location are two separate things. Compare these two:
http://www.geocitiies.com/Area51/
http://www.geocities.com/Area511/
Number (1) is a misspelled domain name, which is the "dotcom" part of a URL. Number (2) is a correct domain name, but a bad file location.
Posted by Austin Powers (Member # 250) on :
Well, thank god that most of my typos occur while trying to type some .de address. And as the problem only concerns .com and .net Domains, I can live with it.
I just tried www.desifer.com to test the method, and I really ended up at Verisign. Great thing to have bookmarks... Posted by Harry (Member # 265) on :
Yes MM - I understand that, and I see your point.. but i just can't see how Verisign can be completely successful.
They may hold all the domain names.. but they do not control the root servers throughout the world!
For instance .. I have a domain name - and I control where my domain name resolves (DNS Name servers). These entries are held on the root servers in Scotland - cuz that's where my domain name sits! This info is then propogated throughout the world on 100's of other root servers in the US, UK, Australia, Russia, and throughout Europe. SO when you type out my domain name... and have a spelling error... the root servers return the 404 message, that it cannot be found! In order for Verisign's thingy to work.. they would have to have an entry on EVERY ROOT SERVER that *.com that is unresolved is mapped to their IP!
Carriers wouldn't do that ! I just can't see it happening. Every web-carrier in the world would have to partner with VeriSign..
Verisign can try all they want to do this.. but they would not be entirely successful.. too much would have to happen.
Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :
"but they do not control the root servers throughout the world!"
VS runs four or five of them, enough to be a... nuisance.
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
quote:Originally posted by Alshrim: Carriers wouldn't do that ! I just can't see it happening. Every web-carrier in the world would have to partner with VeriSign..
Verisign can try all they want to do this.. but they would not be entirely successful.. too much would have to happen.
You're not reading things carefully enough. That is EXACTLY what VeriSign has done, but creating a "wild card" address that redirects unresolved domains to the SiteFinder. And the rest of the world has nothing to say about it, because VeriSign has sole and absolute control over all .com and .net domains.
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
Just saw an article stating that VeriSign is finally decided that it's pissed enough people off, and is taking down the Site Finder.
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