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I'm lazy, so used to searching for things by typing the first name of a company into Firefox and getting redirected to Google on DNS failure. In order to make money out of this service provided by Google, my ISP - Virgin - have started redirecting DNS failures to their own search engine. So now I'm using OpenDNS.

Are there any alternative UK providers who don't do this who I can change to? (this is for political rather than technical reasons - changing to OpenDNS works, but does send a message to Virgin that DNS is not a marketing opportunity)

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Problem is: how to know which other provider won't play the same trick on you in the near future? Your current provider might act on complaints from customers? – Arjan Nov 14 '09 at 22:24
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closed as too localized by quack quixote Apr 21 '10 at 0:01

This question is unlikely to ever help any future visitors; it is only relevant to a small geographic area, a specific moment in time, or an extraordinarily narrow situation that is not generally applicable to the worldwide audience of the internet. See the FAQ for guidance on how to improve it.

4 Answers

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Zen don't seem to be doing anything silly with this either.

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I'm with PlusNet and they don't seem to do this. Typing "Sainsburys" (for example) results in the Bing search page in my case (I appear to have live.search set as the default for some strange reason).

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I use BE Broadband and am very happy. Unblocked ADSL 2+ Broadband... Some months I download over 1TB... although most of the time it is around (or less than) 20GB's.

Never had a complaint and recommended many people to them.

If you have an O2 mobile (I think even pay as you go), you can get O2 broadband at a reduced rate which is basically a subsidised version (O2 bought BE).

Ignore their rubbish redesigned website, the service is great

Be Broadband Link

Although, personally, I use OpenDNS!

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1TB? Blimey, BT's 'unlimited' package start complaining after 100gb! – Phoshi Nov 14 '09 at 22:28
FYI, I would not advertise here, but if anyone does decide to use BE, drop me an email (address in profile / wil@ezpcltd.com , they do recommend a friend where I get a free month and you get free installation plus a free month (I think... or something along those lines). I have used many ISP's over the years and BE is by far my favourite - until Virgin start 100% uncapped and unbanned or a VDSL provider comes out! – William Hilsum Nov 14 '09 at 22:45
opendns hijacks too – Journeyman Geek Nov 15 '09 at 0:24
I know - I just said personally, I use OpenDNS, however BE is unblocked on their own DNS server and do not do anything special. – William Hilsum Nov 15 '09 at 0:33
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why not just use an alternate DNS provider? While my current, non british ISP dosen't do DNS hijacks, the dns server they use is flaky, and i use 4.2.2.1 and its kin almost exclusively for dns.

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DNS is be part of the service an ISP offers. Would you go to a garage to service your car, but put the wrong oil in it, then go somewhere else to change the oil? – Pete Kirkham Nov 15 '09 at 13:06
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