Rant to Optusnet

I have recently been away from my parents place. When I returned I discovered that on this Cable Internet connection all failed DNS queries are redirected to a search portal (a yahoo based search portal).

 

I find it quite annoying that Optus have decided to hijack queries and break the DNS system. I am also annoyed that my personal data (domains that I am accessing) is being forwarded to Yahoo without my explicit consent.

 

The two different methods that are provided for users to 'opt-out' of this system are both broken (but in different ways).

 

The first method works by setting a cookie in the user's browser. This does not make DNS behave correctly, it only masks the problem for that particular browser (you have to click on this link in every browser installed on that system, for every user account). This method also does not work for non-http connections (including https and ssh), or when cookies are blocked (Chrome's incognito mode).

 

The second method requires the user to manually set the DNS servers on their computer. While this will 'fix' the issue, this fix is very fragile.

 

It requires that a (technically competent) user changes the configuration on each computer. If Optus decides to change their network configuration at any time, I will have to manually change the configuration back (as things will just stop working).

 

Statically configuring the DNS on laptops also means that they are unable to resolve IP addresses when they are on other networks (such as when they are taken to work/university or a friend's house).