Talk:Site Finder

Moved the content from VeriSign page --Tobias 20:02, 7 Mar 2004 (UTC)

How did they do it?
Hello. I'd like to know what put VeriSign in the unique position of being able to do this at all. Thanks --AlmostFree 15:51, 27 August 2006 (UTC)


 * They bought Network Solutions. --Zundark 20:12, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

Charter Com.
Anyone know of any way to opt-out from this horrible idea? Derfy 17:16, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

http://ww11.charter.net/search?qo=ahhiajkafhdhnahj.com&rn=Sir3QQ-jQlrHESJ

See: the bottom of the page. of course, it's a half-assed one, and it directs you here(http://ww11.charter.net/not_found) when you opt out, but it's still better than lining their pockets with ad cash. 66.215.12.70 (talk) 08:30, 15 December 2007 (UTC)


 * Also, you can have it redirect you to several other sites, including Google and Yahoo. 66.215.12.70 (talk) 08:32, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

Time Warner
It seems that Time Warner has just implemented a similar feature. =( —Preceding unsigned comment added by 204.210.228.182 (talk) 07:02, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Cox Communications
"209.86.66.122 or 209.86.66.122. There are Opt Out servers located at 68.105.28.13 and 68.105.29.13" None of these IPs are currently running HTTP servers on port 80. Also, 209.86.66.122 are the same IP. I'll remove the duplicate, but please correct the IPs or re-write this section as a historical note if cox is no longer doing this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.90.47.19 (talk) 05:18, 13 February 2008 (UTC)


 * 209.86.66.122 is running an HTTP server on port 80. It appears to be a search engine. The opt-out servers should be DNS servers, not HTTP servers. --Zundark (talk) 09:28, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

Non-http traffic awareness
No statement by VeriSign in support of Site Finder even acknowledged the existence of DNS traffic not caused by web clients. This is not true, please see. Would anyone please add that fact to the article. I can't because of the three revert rule... --Xif (talk) 04:05, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

See also list
Removed from article because it doesn't belong here at all: This form of "typosquatting" technology has been criticized in purchasers of common misspellings of popular domain names as well as other technologies that redirect web traffic, causing web viewers to see unsolicited advertising.
 * Whitehouse.com - A former political entertainment and adult pornography site and current political entertainment site that enjoys high traffic from people who mistakenly type "com" instead of "gov" attempting to reach the official Whitehouse.gov site.
 * Internet Explorer - Internet Explorer automatically redirects misspelled URLs to the search engine set in its preferences (by default MSN Search or Live Search). This feature can be disabled.
 * Barefruit- Barefruit has developed a range of solutions to identify and redirect internet error traffic including DNS non-existent domains and HTTP errors and works with a number of Tier 1 ISPs. Their service avoids the problems of typosquatting.
 * Paxfire - A tool used by some ISPs to redirect mistyped "hotwords" to a Paxfire page with links to paid advertisers. If a user clicks on the link, the revenue is shared between Paxfire and the ISP.
 * EarthLink - (October, 2007) Earthlink has a new twist. If someone does a search from the address bar and they are using Live Search as their search engine, EarthLink parses their search string to extract the search words and then redirects the user to earthlink-help.com where it then displays advertisements based on the search words.
 * EarthLink - EarthLink redirects nonexistent hostnames to www.earthlink-help.net, a site similar in functionality and purpose as Site Finder. EarthLink customers can opt out of this service by using alternate unsupported DNS servers provided by the company.
 * Charter Communications - Charter Communications has recently (as of April 2007) instituted a similar practice in which DNS searches for nonexistent hostnames return the address of Charter webservers that display advertising content. No usable opt-out procedure is known at the time of this writing. (9-19-2008) Changing primary DNS server to 4.2.2.1 and secondary DNS server to 4.2.2.2 allows you to get around their DNS redirect.
 * Cox Communications - Cox Communications High Speed Internet (HSI) started testing a DNS redirect similar to Site Finder on Wednesday April 18, 2007 in the Florida panhandle area. The service has now been rolled out to all the full Cox userbase. Any DNS query, such as asdf.123 or a mistype will send you to 209.86.66.122. There are Opt Out servers located at 68.105.28.13 and 68.105.29.13. The service is clearly indicated, with a link to an explanation of the service as well as the instructions to opt-out are clearly presented.
 * Rogers Communications - Rogers Communications broadband Internet service began using a DNS redirect similar to Site Finder on approximately July 18, 2008. Although Rogers claims an opt-out mechanism is available, it affects HTTP only and once a user has opted out their HTTP requests to non-existent addresses are taken to a fake failure page that assumes the browser in use is Internet Explorer.
 * Other Providers - Verizon, qwest, RCN, Time Warner Cable, Embarq and Insight Communications have all deployed DNS Redirection services.
 * dnsmasq is an open sourced dns proxy software which includes an option to specify the IP addresses of bogus nxdomain responses. In this way, users can filter out the effects of such activity.
 * Level3 provides free open DNS at the IP addresses 4.2.2.1 through 4.2.2.5 . They have very good latency as they are each distributed mirrored and at the center of the internet. By changing your DNS to these you can evade all these unwanted unasked for ads and also slightly increase your privacy.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by C. A. Russell (talk • contribs) 02:56, 13 May 2009 (UTC)

Advance notice given?
The article does not mention whether Verisign/NetSOL gave any advance notice of this change (even if poorly publicized). I don't recall there being any, but whether or not they gave advance notice is an important detail w/r/t recklessness. &mdash;dgies tc 07:00, 30 November 2009 (UTC)