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Qwest hijacking 404 and error search traffic

by Josh Anderson
3 replies
Qwest has started redirecting traffic to their new service called "web help" when it appears the internet user has mistyped a url or that the url does not exist. Traditionally firefox would either show 404 or redirect to google search.

They have a FAQ that apparently tells you how to "opt out" of the service...

But here is a quote from the "web help" page they show when the hijack you:

The Qwest Web.Help search page may impact applications that rely on an error message being returned and override similar browser-based search result pages.
#404 #error #hijacking #qwest #search #traffic
  • Profile picture of the author Emailrevealer
    Even if you opt out it comes back a few weeks later.
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  • Profile picture of the author Suthan M
    How does this happen.

    I tried to check this out by typing in a made up URL and all i got is Page load error in firefox/
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    Whats the latest movie you watched? Anything good?

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  • Profile picture of the author LB
    Lots of ISPs are doing this now. Mine does as well.

    You can switch to something like openDNS which does not affect 404 pages but will show you a different page if the URL doesn't exist.
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