Not sure if I can go ahead and name names,, so here--namelessly--is what I'm running into, to considerable frustration : using Firefox, when I proceed the web (URL)navigation box to begin to type in the part of the URL that I think will be enough for FF fill in the rest to bring up the website, no longer does the site come up. Instead I end up on my (major DSL provider's Yahoo-affiliated version site that they call a "search" site. This site, apparently named "{Dsl Provider name} Search" if I'm lucky, may contain somewhere well down the list, the logical site that was originally wanted, but most all the sites seem usually very commercial ones with wares to sell.

Example:
: typed in "mp3" in URL box.
-{Instead of Firefox most likely readily filling in the rest of even such partial url entries, other stuff now most of the time comes about:
the appearance of just a (DSL provider)/Yahoo search result page not even containing mp3.com!
Just things like mp3 download places, Microsoft's Zune player, a dating service and a store selling diamonds!

And going to these search results, reveals that the pages' URLs upon getting there aren't even normal ones, but are ones including the dsl provider within the URl!

to be very clear what's happening here: this is the URL entry box I speak of, not the search box way to the right in Firefox...so it's the basic navigation, and Firefox,
that really are being messed with here.

So: level of outrage you would see in this? (really am wondering others' take on this--am feeling too stunned and annoyed myself so far, but maybe I "surf" much more than most and so get bothered and disrupted some unusual amount by this...)

OS: Linspire 5.
browser: Firefox 1.5

Funny you should mention this. I recently noticed that Time Warner Cable is now doing that with Road Runner in my area. They do offer an "opt out" link to turn it off, but still....

This isn't a new trick by any means. I read about companies doing this years ago. Basically, they've just set up their DNS servers to automatically redirect requests to any unknown domain to this "search" page. This breaks browser auto-correct because the browser first has to check if the domain exists, and this redirect means that every domain comes back as "existing."

Personally, I don't get too excited about this sort of thing. For one, there may be some non-technical people who actually find this thing helpful. Or, at the very least, I can imagine some executive at the service provider honestly thinking people will find it helpful. So, while it is pretty lame, I don't think it's necessarily malicious.

But mostly this doesn't bother me because I simply never browse the web that way. If I go to a site a lot, I bookmark it and set an alias. For example, to get to this site, I just type "lq" into Opera's address bar. For other sites, I either remember the entire domain or, more often, just run it through Google. In fact, I often find myself using Google even when I remember the whole domain. I have a search alias for Google defined in all my browsers, so I often reflexively type something like "g php.net" rather than just going straight to the PHP site.

But if this really bothers you, remember that you don't have to use your ISP's DNS. You can always try a third-party like OpenDNS.

Exactly right. Where I work IE does the same thing by showing an msn.com search page. I also noticed it on my father's computer after he signed up with Cavtel. I think Verizon does, too, but I've never tried autofill so I don't know for sure. I assume it's for convenience to new users, particularly the non-tech-savvy types, but I can't help suspect that the ISPs also get some sort of extra "bonus" from the affiliated site. (I just have difficulty trusting certain big companies) I, too, use a Google or Yahoo search rather than typing addresses because it's shorter and faster, and keeps my browser's address bar list clean. To answer the original question, though, I would recommend the alternative DNS solution. I've been tempted to try it myself to compare performance but keep forgetting.

QUOTE: "...Time Warner Cable is now doing that with Road Runner in my area. They do offer an "opt out" link to turn it off, but still...."

If the ISP I'm dealing with (which, since names seem to be out in the open now here, I may as well name: Verizon) offered an opt out, I would surely grab it in two seconds! A separate matter earlier this week found me in a phone consult with them, rarely though that be now if only because their phone system seems to now be a nearly totally automated one, and unsurprisingly their rep knew nothing about this.
The reason I liked the Firefox auto-fill-find-go or whatever it would be called, is that it seemed to succeed pretty nearly all the time, and so collectively the need for quite a bit of typing, as well as for a further step, would usually be obviated.

OpenDns, yes will look in that one. Actually I went there for an initial look already, and if I hadn't thought (or guessed) trying to set it up might risk adding to the recent run of crashes and jams lately challenging me (the Linux super novice),I probably would have (tried to) jump right in.

Glad to hear that some have surfing habits happening to tend to neutralize the situation, practically speaking.