Belkin Routers Route Users to Censorware Ad 805
The Register has a story today about
Belkin routers redirecting their users' network traffic.
To me, this seems like the logical next step after top-level domain name servers piping ads to your browser. Now the routers themselves hijack the traffic they are supposed to, uh, route -- and you'll love where they send you instead. But it's OK because you can opt out. Incidentally, the Crystal Ball Award goes to Seth Finkelstein, who in 2001 quoted John Gilmore's famous aphorism about the internet, and asked "What if censorship is in the router?"
pffft ... Belkin Products (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Some other ideas... (Score:4, Funny)
Oh, this is bad (Score:3, Funny)
Everyone at Belkin should be ashamed of themselves. How could an engineer do this? He should be flogged with a cat-o-nine tails of twisted pair wire... this is evil, evil, evil.
Oh, and to the Belkin Marketing Department: Kill yourselves. Suck a tailpipe, hang yourself, borrow a gun... rid the world of your evil machinations. [ Just planting seeds [billhicks.com] ]
Re:Redirect hardcoded? (Score:1, Funny)
Coming soon to a Belkin product near you! (Score:5, Funny)
USB mass-storage devices that randomly delete files and replace them with
PC Speakers that say "Shop at Belkin!" every couple of minutes.
etc...
Thank you Belkin. (Score:5, Funny)
It's comforting to to know that Belkin has recognized my problem, and has stepped forward in an effort to solve it. They make it so much easier by saying...
"If It's Belkin, You Don't Want It!"(tm)
Thank you Belkin. With your new forward-thinking "Don't Buy Our Stuff" policy, I will be sure to stay on the lookout for other products that you offer, so that they can assist me in making difficult purchasing choices even easier.
Clearly... (Score:1, Funny)
Let me imagine this... (Score:4, Funny)
_Might_ PO some people????? (Score:3, Funny)
Oh please.
[grabs crotch] Remedy this!
Re:Please... (Score:1, Funny)
Re:MOD PARENT UP (Score:5, Funny)
no it won't. this is slashdot.
You may wonder how this happened: A Story. (Score:5, Funny)
One day, Belkin's router project manager Eric Deming was sitting around thinking, "How can we get $5,000,000 worth of bad publicity for free, and sink the company in an afternoon?"
Then he had an idea: "That's it! We'll abuse the trust of our customers, and get a story on Slashdot!
In related news... (Score:5, Funny)
During the operation, the heart monitor seemed to have contracted a strange glitch; every 100th heartbeat a message about "Herbal Penis Enlargements" would pop up, blocking the stats"
Belkin belongs on fuckedcompany.
Re:Some other ideas... (Score:5, Funny)
Come to WA state: it appears that most drivers here are already using them, if their apparent road-sense is anything to go by...
Re:_Might_ PO some people????? (Score:5, Funny)
Snip.
Re:In case Belkin, Linksys, D-Link et al is listen (Score:3, Funny)
Comment removed (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Some other ideas... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:One word: Cisco (Score:3, Funny)
Belkin support (Score:5, Funny)
"My router every once in a while replaces my URL with one for Belkin parental controls."
"That's correct."
"But I just spent half an hour filling out the web form, and it doesn't cache, so I have to do it all again."
"You can turn off parental controls by clicking on 'No thanks!'"
"So this is intentional?"
"Yes sir, it's a service to you, provided at no extra cost. It also comes with a free 6 month trial."
"But a router is supposed to ROUTE."
"It can do that, if you change the configuration."
"So, it comes intentionally misconfigured to fail once every eight hours?"
"It's not failing, it's offering a service."
"So it's spamming me."
"It's not spam."
"Why not?"
"Because we're offering you a service you might not know about."
"So it's intentionally misconfigured to send me spam on something I didn't request any information for, dropping my URL and information in the process?"
"Well, yes."
"You should really just kill yourself."
"You're right. Goodbye."
*BANG*
"Dang, should of told him to kill the marketting department first. Well, I can always call back..."
=Blue(23)
Re:Some other ideas... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Some other ideas... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Some other ideas... (Score:3, Funny)
dreams?
Leela: Of course!
Fry: But how is that possible?
Prof.: It's very simple. The ad gets into your brain, just like this
liquid gets into this egg.
% Farnsworth holds up an egg, and injects a needle (filled with yellow
% fluid) into it. That very second, the egg explodes, pelting everyone
% at the table with egg-yolk.
Prof.: [unphased] Although, in reality it's not liquid, but gamma
radiation.
Fry: That's awful. It's like brainwashing.
Leela: Didn't you have ads in the 20th century?
Fry: Well, sure, but not in our dreams. Only on TV and radio. And
in magazines. And movies. And at ball games
milk cartons and t-shirts and bananas and written on the sky
Bender: Quit squawking, fleshwad. Nobody's _forcing_ you to buy
anything.
Amy: Yeah, I mean, we all had commercials in our dreams, but you
don't see us running out to buy brand-name merchandise at low,
low prices.
% Amy's comment leaves the crew pondering for a minute. They all burst
% out of their seats at once, and out of the room. Later, at the "Alien
% Overlord & Taylor" mall...
Fake? (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Here's the angle I would take... (Score:5, Funny)
there are other wireless routers (Score:4, Funny)
Oh wait..we hate them too.
Two words: software updates (Score:3, Funny)
Did they even consider the potential liability issues when they came up with this scheme, or did they just say, "hey, let's roll with it"?
Re:Exactly (Score:5, Funny)
Customer: "Great! I'd like a cup of the soup please."
[Waiter takes out a hammer, thwaps customer on skull]
Customer: "WTF was that for?"
Waiter: "Sir, I'll stop thwapping you on the head as soon as you TELL me to stop."
Customer: "Why the hell would I have to TELL you to stop?"
[Waiter thwaps customer once more]
Customer: "GOD DAMMIT!"
Waiter: "Just say 'Stop,' sir, and this will all be over..."