[DNS] Telstra DNS redirection

[DNS] Telstra DNS redirection

From: Anand Kumria <wildfire§progsoc.uts.edu.au>
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:38:28 +0000
Hi Brett,

On Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 12:40 AM, Brett Fenton
<brett.fenton&#167;netregistry.com.au> wrote:
>
> Like most product changes you make, it's not opt-in, you make the change and
> publicize, it's a far more normal way for things to occur. I can't think of a
> product mod we've ever done at NR where we've asked for opt-in acceptance, nor
> as a customer of tech services have I ever been asked to opt-in to
> modification to a product.

Actually 'opt-in' is the norm for technical products.

What version of Word / Windows / Safari / Mac OS X / Linux (as
appropriate) are you using?

If it is not the latest the greatest, then why didn't you 'opt-in' to that?

You may be thinking of websites, such as google / gmail / etc. But
they are wholly different.

> As a direct comparison, did ISP's ask end users for opt-in when they blocked
> Port 25 to remote mail servers? No, but from a technical point of view I

That's a good point. And I'm sure some people were nodding along in agreement.

But let's look deeper. What happens when a user find that they can no
longer send email directly from their on port 25? They have to modify
their behaviour to send out via their ISP or their own/companies MTA.

That is a net benefit to the Internet.

What happens when a Telstra user mis-types a domain? They get
presented with a webpage offering them a correction.

They "learn" that even if they mistype, they can still get where they are going.

Extrapolate that out and, they will also learn that behaviour when
they are on another network, visiting potentially unsafe sites.

That is a serious drawback.

I do not believe that helping users to learn to blindly trust returned
results is beneficial to the rest of the network long-term.

> I don't see it as a 'good thing'. I'm actually pretty neutral to it. A
> journalist called me, asked questions for 2 minutes and I explained what I

>From what was written, it sounded like you were smacking yourself for
not being thinking of/doing this before.

> because they are essentially monetizing failed searches, much like while I've
> never used a sponsored link on a monetized domain I've ended up on, I don't

Hello? We are both technical people -- we are both probably able to
diagnose why a https:// connection is failing.

The vast majority of people who use the Internet never will. They see
"broken padlock", but it looks like paypa1 and assume it is good.

Helping them learn behaviours that is ultimately to their detriment is
not a useful goal.

Cheers,
Anand
Received on Thu Nov 19 2009 - 17:38:28 UTC

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