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BRussell · Jan 28, 2007, 01:06 PM

I never used to have to do it. So if I wanted to go to apple.com, I'd just type apple in the address field, press return, and it would got to apple.com. It worked for any url ending with .com. Better yet, entering apple/iphone would go to apple.com/iphone. [borat]Very nice.[/borat]

However, in the last week or so, I've noticed that, regardless of browser, it now goes to my ISP's home page. Quite annoying. Has my ISP changed that in order to direct more traffic to their site? It never even occurred to me that this was controlled by the ISP, I thought it was in the browser. What does your ISP do?

TETENAL · Jan 28, 2007, 01:26 PM

Your browser does the autocompletion if it can not find a server. If your ISP redirects to his homepage then of course the browser did find a server and doesn't have to autocomplete any more.

No, my ISP does not do that. That would be extremely annoying.

andreas_g4 · Jan 28, 2007, 01:32 PM

I'm using the internet for almost 10 years now, and I did not know that this works. Bummer.

Jan 28, 2007, 01:54 PM

Yeah, it sounds like your ISP's DNS server doing that. You could ask them to stop, but I doubt they will. You could put your favourite ones in a hosts file to at least minimize it.

Slightly off-topic: I hate when I tell someone a URL, and they don't understand that .com is assumed. I say "go to apple/iphone" and they say something like "is that .com, .org, etc.". I just repeat "just type apple/iphone"

KeriVit · Jan 28, 2007, 01:56 PM

Mine doesn't do that. Still works like you said.

Millennium · Jan 28, 2007, 01:58 PM

A few years ago, Verisign tried something like this on the A server, which affected the entire Internet. There was such an unbelievable stink about it that they took it down after about a week.

In any case, yes, your ISP can do this. I'm afraid your only recourse is to complain to them.

macroy · Jan 28, 2007, 01:59 PM

its usually based on your DNS server I believe. I know for the most part, if you just type in a word - the DNS server should do a search in its own domain. And if it does not find it, then it will forward it to its name server.

So i.e. if I had a server on my network called "Apple". It should automatically give me the address of that box as opposed to apple.com. I'd find it annoying if my browser appended a .com automatically (unless it received an error first).

Although here at home.. just typing apple does take me to apple.com. and apple/ipod takes me to the correct area.... but that's only on the Mac (Camino). FF on the PC only goes as far as the apple main site.

Philip J. Fry · Jan 28, 2007, 02:59 PM

Originally Posted by macroy

its usually based on your DNS server I believe. I know for the most part, if you just type in a word - the DNS server should do a search in its own domain. And if it does not find it, then it will forward it to its name server.

So i.e. if I had a server on my network called "Apple". It should automatically give me the address of that box as opposed to apple.com. I'd find it annoying if my browser appended a .com automatically (unless it received an error first).

Although here at home.. just typing apple does take me to apple.com. and apple/ipod takes me to the correct area.... but that's only on the Mac (Camino). FF on the PC only goes as far as the apple main site.

For me, Safari and Camino do this perfectly for me no matter where I am. Firefox on the other results in a Google search if it can't find the server.

turtle777 · Jan 28, 2007, 03:14 PM

The auto-completion is a DNS server feature.

You can use OpenDNS if your ISP has changed things.

208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

-t

awaspaas · Jan 28, 2007, 09:19 PM

OpenDNS auto-completes some domains and not others. I find that even more annoying.

turtle777 · Jan 28, 2007, 09:35 PM

Originally Posted by awaspaas

OpenDNS auto-completes some domains and not others. I find that even more annoying.

I haven't noticed that, but I also don't use the auto-complete very often.

OpenDNS is good for the built-in phishing protection.

-t

awaspaas · Jan 28, 2007, 10:17 PM

Originally Posted by turtle777

I haven't noticed that, but I also don't use the auto-complete very often.

OpenDNS is good for the built-in phishing protection.

-t

See for yourself! Type apple in the field - apple.com comes up. Type kraft in the field, and the OpenDNS search engine comes up.

turtle777 · Jan 28, 2007, 10:25 PM

Originally Posted by awaspaas

See for yourself! Type apple in the field - apple.com comes up. Type kraft in the field, and the OpenDNS search engine comes up.

I don't doubt you.

For that purpose, I use Google and "I'm feeling lucky".

-t

awaspaas · Jan 29, 2007, 01:15 AM

I just wish OpenDNS had a setting to at least do an "I'm feeling lucky" or to just not resolve words given without a tld.

Kerrigan · Jan 29, 2007, 01:22 AM

i hate it when i'm redirected to MSN search results (note, this never happens on my computers, but it does on friends' pcs or at the library)

awaspaas · Feb 19, 2007, 01:04 AM

Just an update - I now find that by disabling OpenDNS's "Typo correction" feature, I'm not thrown to a search page when a domain doesn't resolve. Dot-com-less days are here again! I now even more strongly recommend OpenDNS - hopefully it doesn't go under!