EarthLink
computing: internet service providers: EarthLink
Overview
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Reference
Dead Domain Handling Incident
In late August or early September, Earthlink apparently changed the way they handle unresolved domain names so that web browsers attempting to load such pages would be redirected to a "search help" page on one of Earthlink's servers rather than simply returning a "site not found" message. This new feature was widely criticized, and caused at least one well-documented loss of time and productivity.
- 2006-09-16 More Info On Dead Domain Handling
- 2006-09-07 Update on Dead Domain Handling
- 2006-09-03 EarthLink Establishes Their Own "Site Finder"
Notes
From Aero:
aero@lionheart:~$ host heywoozlethisdomaindoesnotexist.com Host heywoozlethisdomaindoesnotexist.com not found: 3(NXDOMAIN) aero@lionheart:~$ host heywoozlethisdomaindoesnotexist.com heywoozlethisdomaindoesnotexist.com has address 209.86.66.91 heywoozlethisdomaindoesnotexist.com has address 209.86.66.92 heywoozlethisdomaindoesnotexist.com has address 209.86.66.93 heywoozlethisdomaindoesnotexist.com has address 209.86.66.94 heywoozlethisdomaindoesnotexist.com has address 209.86.66.95 heywoozlethisdomaindoesnotexist.com has address 209.86.66.90 aero@lionheart:~$ host heywoozlethisdomaindoesnotexist.com Host heywoozlethisdomaindoesnotexist.com not found: 3(NXDOMAIN) aero@lionheart:~$
Woozle has more fun with EarthLink
Many years ago, I got an EarthLink dial-up account for Anna to use. Recently her mom has upgraded to DSL, so the dial-up is no longer needed; I suspect that it hasn't been used for many months, due to problems with the laptop on which I had set up the connection.
So it happens that the check card I've been using to pay for this account expired, and I got a notice from EarthLink that I owe them $21.95 for one month's service. Being too busy to deal with it immediately, I shove it in my pile. "That's as big as it'll get," I think, "because surely they'll cancel the account... or at least they can't charge me for something when I haven't been using it."
Time goes by, and I get another notice; I now owe $43.90. "Okay," I think this time, "I guess I'd better log on to my account and cancel the damn thing, or they're just going to keep racking these charges up until it's large enough to hand over to a collection agency."
But guess what! I can't remember my EarthLink email address which I never used, and neither of the notices show what it is! They show my account number, but I can't log in with that!
So I've scrawled a note on the latest invoice saying, essentially, I wanted to cancel this ages ago, and I haven't used it in months; please cancel it now and I don't owe you anything.
We'll have to see how far they're willing to take this. If I know big corporations, though, they'll hand it over to a collector and pursue it ruthlessly, even for a measly $44.
Which I am not paying, dammit!
--Woozle 16:17, 22 March 2007 (EDT)