[awaspaas]

It used to be, in my browser, I'd type in macnn, and Safari would first try http://macnn/, that would fail so it would try http://www.macnn.com and the page would load in a second.

Now when I type macnn, or really any single word in my address bar, a webpage loads! It's actually resolving http://macnn/ - I get a page that is full of ads. http://slashdot/ opens buydomains.com, http://amazon/ opens up novaone.net, and so on.

What the heck is going on? My ISP is comcast so are they doing something weird? I assume this isn't happening with everybody.

[oscar]

i think it must be comcast try dns server 4.2.2.4

[ghporter]

For many "common" destinations, some ISPs tweak their own DNS servers to resolve to the correct address from a single word. For example, you might type "apple" in the address bar and wind up at Apple's web site. Not all ISPs do this, and the ones that do are inconsistent in what "single words" or common destinations they support.

NOW, to the meat of your problem. You may have visited a site that hijacked your DNS settings or your DNS cache. It either replaced resolved addresses in the cache with the bogus ones you have seen, or it actually changed your DNS server settings. Someone else reported this here a few weeks ago.

There's a simple way to flush your cache, but you need to do it in a specific way to keep any false data from a rogue DNS server you might have had set for you from poisoning the cache again. First, open Terminal and enter 'ifconfig eth0 -delete' without quotes, and replacing "eth0" if the connection you're using is not eth0 (on our iBook, eth0 is theh built in ethernet port, and eth1 is the AirPort card).

Next, still in Terminal, enter 'lookupd -flushcache' (without the quotes, of course). This actually flushes your DNS cache. The cache is helpful but not essential; it will be rebuilt as you use the computer, but you may notice that it takes a bit longer for the browser to resolve addresses, at least for a while.

Finally, open Network Preferences, select the TCP/IP tab, and click on the "Renew DHCP lease" button. That will get you a new IP address-along with all the other data a DHCP server provides, including the DNS server addresses you got from your ISP or manually entered in your router.

Good luck with this.

[awaspaas]

Isn't it en0 and en1?

[awaspaas]

Oh, and where did you say somebody else is reporting this? I can't seem to find it.

[ghporter]

Uh...yeah, you're right, it's "en0 and en1." Oops-I was looking at the wrong stuff when I wrote that...

Anyway, I'll see if I can dig up the other thread, and post a link here. The procedure I gave above fixed the guy's problem 100%.

Edit to add: Here it is.

[awaspaas]

Okay I did all the flushing etc, changed the DNS to 4.2.2.4, I even restarted! It's still weird!

Here's some new ones (with what I type in the address bar before the colon)
nbc: afternic.com
titantv: domain 4sale!
here's an interesting one: homestarrunner: this brings up homestarrunner.net!

Is it calling up the .net and not telling me about it? The address bar changes to http://homestarrunner/

[awaspaas]

Huh sure enough - try nbc.net, titantv.net - those were the pages I saw after just typing the single word.