If you have an ISP that displays a ‘site not found’ page when ever you enter an incorrectly typed domain name in your address bar and it drives you nuts, then this post is for you.

My new ISP, WOW Internet (Wide Open West Cable), has their DNS servers configured to return a specific IP address when the queried domain name does not exist. It loads a splash page that contains the text of the address you just typed. This method of harvesting web surfers reached a head 2 years ago when VeriSign launched their Site Finder service. Read more here: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/tlds/sitefinder/ Other Other DNS services such as OpenDNS do the same thing. In OpenDNS.com case, the advertising displayed in the search results are how they make their money. For WOW Internet though, they are already getting my hard earned money and I see no reason for them to make additional money from me by directing me to their search pages. Not only that, but other TCP services now function incorrectly. If someone gives me a domain name that they are unsure about, my computer is going to return an IP address whether it is valid or not and the only way I know for certain is if I know that IP address is part of the WOW Internet Site Finder service or I type in the domain name in the address bar and view the WOW Internet Site Finder page. This also relegates client side Anti-SPAM software that use a common technique of looking up the DNS entry of the received messages ‘From’ address to verify the E-mail actually came from a registered domain name.

Solution
Configure your own local DNS server. There is a windows port of Bind, or if you are knowledgable of Linux, I recommend setting up your own local Linux DNS server. For those who run Windows and don’t want to learn how to setup Bind on Windows, there is another solution called TreeWalk. TreeWalk is already configured to not resolve a default address if the initially queried domain does not exist.

I installed TreeWalk on my main Windows machine in my home. Then I setup my routers DNS settings statically with the first DNS server ip the ip of my local windows machine on my network. Then the other 2 additional ip addresses for dns servers I set to my ISP’s DNS servers. The first DNS server is used by default unless it is inaccessible.

Don’t do business with Time Warner Cable.

When I canceled my account with Time Warner Cable (see previous blog post), they told me they will credit me $30 for the amount from my last payment up until the day I canceled service. Apparently words mean nothing to Time Warner Cable. They billed me twice and on the same day! It’s like they know they lost me as a customer and decided to f*%k me in the ass some more. For this extra hassle, I am going to go out of my way to get as many people who have Time Warner Service to switch.

If you live in Columbus, cancel your Time Warner Cable and sign up with WOW Internet and Cable or get DSL and Satellite. Unless you want to be f*%k in the ass like me, then sign up or stick with Time Warner Cable and enjoy getting screwed out of your time, your patience and your money!

Meet Ty,

We adopted him Saturday (February 3rd). He is a Border Collie mix.

I started working on wiring up the house. I don’t have much time lately to actually run the wiring, but I did get a couple hours last weekend to build a rack for my network cabling.

Directions
I got some wood at Lowes pre-cut. I got 2 1x10x48″ and 1 1x10x72″ lumber, 1 5/8″ drywall screws, and 6 bolts with nuts and washers. I cut drilled 3 holes 3/4″ from the top of each of the 48″ pieces. Each hole is 3″ apart with the center at the center of the lumber. I then cut the 72″ board 4 times giving me 4 pieces each 17-13/16″ in length (the width between the outsides of 2 joice. I drilled the same holes into the joice to mount the vertical portions of the shelf. Then I placed the smaller boards as shelves where I wanted them. I turned the 4th shelf into a backing between the 2nd and 3rd shelf so I had a surface to mount my mini patch panel.

So how does it look?