ICANN says DNS Redirection Can Hurt The Web
The ICANN also know as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers has spoke out against the practice of DNS redirection. This practice returns a portal page instead of a NXDOMAIN error message when a person mistypes a URL. These types of DNS redirections most often lead to portal pages filled with advertisements.. The ICANN says the drawbacks of using such a system of DNS lookups could lead to the Internet not working the way it was intended.
The free service Open DNS uses this type of DNS Redirection service in return for using its phishing protection, and web filtering capabilities. However, The portal pages Open DNS serves when a URL is mistyped is a page laden with advertisements. Also, Comcast and other ISP’s have begun similar DNS Redirections to portal pages full of advertisements when URL’s are mistyped in a way to get more revenue from their service.
The ICANN stated some of the pitfalls of this model could be for example emails sent to an address that doesn’t exist should return an error message in a few seconds to a minute. However, if the DNS request is redirected to a page set up to handle web requests, then it could take days to receive an error message from the que. Also, if the site they are supposed to be redicted to goes down then the user no longer receives response times.
The ICANN also said redirect sites are prime targets for hackers trying to drive traffic to their malicious web servers. The ICANN has published its findings on this topic in this draft memo
In this blogger opinion, I hate the DNS redirection services. It sends its users to sites they did not want to visit in the first place. If a user types a URL in their address bar, and it doesn’t exist. The service should return a 404 or other error. It should not redirect the user to some portal page full of advertisements that says something like “oh were you looking for this” or something along those lines. We all know the whole time they are just hoping to get more money from ad revenue in any way they possibly can, it doesn’t matter if the user actually has a genuine interest in the product or service.
I used to use Open DNS back in the day, i eventually left for the DNS Redirect issue. Comcast Internet also deploys such tactics, and users are opted into the service by default. a person has to either opt themselves out, or change their DNS servers to get away from it. Since most Internet users don’t really understand how to change DNS servers or know where to go to opt out, they are pretty much stuck with it.
This blogger’s currently uses National DNS Servers provided by Level 3 networks. If your sick of DNs redirects, then simply change your DNS servers to these listed below.
Primary DNS: 4.2.2.1
Secondary DNS: 4.2.2.2
Happy Thanksgiving!
