Comcast opts users into 404 helper
p2pnet news view | Advertising:- “Today, we`re beginning to roll out something new to help high-speed Internet customers get where they want to go online even faster and easier than before,” says a Comcast missive.
What would that be?
It’s the Domain Helper service, launched as a market trial in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Washington, says the company.
What do it do?
Well, you know when you get those pesky ‘404 not found‘ errors? Comcast, “will instead help direct your Web browser to an easy-to-use page with suggestions and links to get you back on track,” it says, going on
We also provide a seamless search experience on this page, which is powered by Yahoo!, so you can find relevant search information, or simply perform another search.
Powered by Yahoo? Oh! Cool!
But wait. Yahoo ? hmmmm
And then, “We also understand that sometimes customers want to surf their own way, without the assistance of services like Domain Helper, so we offer an easy way to opt-out right on the Domain Helper search page,” says Comcast glibly.
Opt out? But, but, but —- that must mean users have already been written in !
Like, without ever having been asked.
Not only but also, “I wonder if Comcast realises this can (read: does) break spam filtering on the client-side if DNS resolution (forward and reverse) is used as a form of validation” asks koitsu on dslreports, going on »»»
There’s numerous other “gotchas” which I can go into if people are curious. But as others have mentioned, other ISPs have tried this and gotten shot down as well.
Also, Comcast rolling this out now puts into question whether or not this individual was telling the truth, and that “ComcastBonnie” who stated publicly “engineering confirms we do not hijack any DNS traffic in our network and certainly not to 3rd party resolvers” was probably lying.
Like others have said: very, very bad idea. Comcast, you will end up rolling this back, so be sure to forward my comments on to whatever managerial or marketing idiot proposed this idea to begin with. 
EDIT: Also, there’s a problem with the opt-out Emails your opt-out page sends. The Emails themselves contain a multipart attachment (which is fine), however there’s no content in the actual mail itself — the content is only available inside one of the multipart attachments. This is what I’m talking about:
If we examine the multiparts, we see:
Attachment #2 contains a text version (text/plain) of the content in attachment #4 (text/html). Attachment #2 should really be placed in the root body of the Email (what would be shown above as Attachment #1).
“This should work like a lead balloon!” – says usa2K, point to a [post on CNet News, which goes
"We hope customers find this service to be helpful, so tell us what you think," says Comcast.
Stay tuned.
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
dslreports - [DNS] Comcast Launches Trial of Domain Helper Service, July 9, 2009
Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It`s really easy!
Subscribe to p2pnet.net | | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile – http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php
Net access blocked by government restrictions? Use Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Go here for details.
July 13th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
Based on your suggestion, we’re changing this to a plain text email shortly.
July 13th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
Why can’t you get it that network should stay as dumb as possible.
Smart stuff is and should be in the hosts.
July 13th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
This is EXACTLY what rogers is doing. I have their portable modem (not so portable BTW), and even with regular rogers service, if you go to any website that does not have custom 404 pages, they redirect you to their ad-infested page. Your “opt-out” doesent do anything. It just changes the page it redirects you to.