[Gllug] Need fix for local network problems caused by Tiscali

[John G Walker]

On Tue, 24 Jul 2007 18:38:44 +0100 Ian Norton-Badrul
<bredroll at darkspace.org.uk> wrote:

> bredroll at raptor:~$ host 195.238.237.143
> 143.237.238.195.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer
> wr.eu.barefruit.co.uk.

This turned out to more relevant than I first thought. My first
reaction was that the IP address was something random, that had got
stuck in the works by accident.

It now turns out that this company (barefruit) is being used by Tiscali
as a proxy, in order that Tiscali can slip adverts into its customers'
browsing
(http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/07/11/tiscali_dns_hijacking/). And I
can make my local area network work by unplugging the router from the
phone line. Not a useful workaround, but serves to prove what's going
on.

I've requested that my account be removed from this “Enhanced DNS Error
Handling”
service(http://www.tiscali.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=131522, for
those similarly affected). This should, i'm informed, take effect
within the next 24 hours.

But it occurs to me that I must have something configured wrongly
somewhere for the hijacking to have had an effect. There is absolutely
no reason why a request for a local IP address should be sent to a DNS
server. And presumably the Windows 98SE PC is making its address
request in such a way that the router isn't forwarding it on.

So, the question now becomes one of how I configure my SuSE PCs (10.0,
10.1 *and 10.2) to not go to the internet for a local address. Possibly
just an order of parameters in a config file somewhere?

-- 
 All the best,
 John
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