[ NNSquad ] Re: Google Hijacked

["Joshua Smith" <juicewvu@gmail.com>]

I think this all goes back to the uproar over the verisign site finder
a while back and more recently verizion's similar system.  It seems
that a lot of time service providers don't "realize" that the 'net is
used for more than just browsing the web when they introduce these
"features".

Thanks,
Josh


On Dec 9, 2007 11:03 PM, Mikus Grinbergs <mikus@bga.com> wrote:
> In the context of this discussion, let me mention an actual
> occurrence that a while ago had me completely confused:
>
> Linux distributions typically use the HTTP protocol to download
> software upgrades.  A friend uses a wireless modem (ISP supplied)
> with his DSL line.  I added a Linux system for his family members.
> At the time of this install, Linux upgrades worked fine.  At a later
> date, Linux upgrade attempts on this system started experiencing
> __consistent__ checksum errors.  Result -- unable to upgrade.
>
>
> Turned out the electric utility had had an outage, which *reset* the
> wireless modem.  And now, whenever the HTTP protocol was used, the
> modem was __inserting__ (hijacking??) a warning that the connection
> had failed, and that the user's browser needed to be restarted.
>
> Unfortunately, at that time the logic in the wireless modem that
> (when it thought the user had seen the warning) would remove this
> "helpful" added text worked only with Microsoft's HTTP sequences.
> [I am **not** kidding !!]  Since it did not "recognize" the HTTP
> sequences the Linux system was using, this wireless modem kept on
> inserting the warning text every time the Linux system tried HTTP.
> This added text caused the checksum on the received data to fail.
>
> [I ended up contacting 2-WIRE (the manufacturer of the wireless
> modem).  They guided me through upgrading the wireless modem to the
> latest firmware version.  With it installed, a modem reset would
> insert its warning text only one time, no matter what kind of HTTP
> sequence was being used.]
>
>
> Bottom line:  third-party changing of the content of transported
>                information can have unforeseen consequences.
>
> mikus
>