"Hundreds of Thousands" May Lose Internet in July

[Baldr]

We already had a thread on this three days ago.
Escapist: the FEMA of internet news staffs.

Internet illiterate people have my pity. It is like sheep being released into the middle of a pack of hungry wolves.

Really they're probably better off without it. It's their kids who actually know how to use a computer that I feel sorry for.

I've always found it weird how escapist news staff never read their own forums. Most big news is on the forums way before a newspiece comes out and yet no one on the forums is ever credited, to which, I can only assume means they never bother reading the forums.

The staff reads and replies on the forums all the time, not just the news threads either.

 

[Alar]

They can basically inject any content they want, so they should just show a page explaining how to fix the problem instead of running normal DNS services.

Of course people wont fix it if they don't know something is wrong.

Indeed. This article comes off making them look like benevolent, generous watchdogs keeping an eye out for us, when really all they're doing is making it so they know everything that the people on their servers go to, are looking at, who they're talking to, etc.

It's kind of upsetting that they're not even (from what I can tell) going to tell the people who are infected that this is going to happen to them specifically.

 

[Baneat]

"The average user would open up Internet Explorer and get 'page not found' and think the internet is broken."

Pissed myself here - bear in mind who he's speaking to.

 

[Susan Arendt]

We already had a thread on this three days ago.
Escapist: the FEMA of internet news staffs.

Internet illiterate people have my pity. It is like sheep being released into the middle of a pack of hungry wolves.

Really they're probably better off without it. It's their kids who actually know how to use a computer that I feel sorry for.

If you see a good story on the forums and notice that we haven't covered it yet, you're certainly encouraged to send a news tip to newseditor@escapistmag.com. The many, many people of the forums, who are scanning the internet on a near constant basis, are naturally going to find many stories before our news team does. Passing on news tips would be a very helpful thing to do. Making snarky comments, less helpful.

Sorry Susan, I had just got off an argument with another member and was feeling a little grouchy.

I respect anyone who owns their actions. Apology accepted.

 

[Storax]

Lol, I'd love to see the Escapists reaction to that...

"Government creates computer virus to help fix your personal computer's problems for your own good!"

They'll take that opportunity to then infect the computer with "Anti Piracy" Spyware
Does this affect other countries?

 

[Evil Smurf]

"The average user would open up Internet Explorer and get 'page not found' and think the internet is broken."

Pissed myself here - bear in mind who he's speaking to.

is it bad that I laughed at the Internet explorer bit?

 

[ThunderCavalier]

...

I really hope people aren't reading this article and getting any ideas.

 

[synobal]

"if we just pulled the plug a lot of people would loose service" they make it sound like they kept it running out of the goodness of the heart. More likely it was a great chance for them to collect a lot of data on a fairly decent size of individuals. A fantastic opportunity to snoop for the FBI I bet they didn't pass it up.

 

[Saulkar]

Am I missing something? Are people in the comments saying that going onto the websites designated to check your computer for the server switching virus infecting your computer with its own government sanctioned virus?

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

And in the spirit of not making things worse, the agency is encouraging users to check out the DNS Changer Working Group website, which can detect and clean infected systems, at dcwg.org [http://www.dcwg.org/].

Why do I have the distinct feeling that somehow that link is going to make everything worse?

 

[darksakul]

I was reading until I saw this

Fox News

Now I think the Escapist is just posting this article to create drama and increased readers/ visitors to the site.

Also in other words, if your tech savy check your DNS, if your a dumb fuck call your ISP and update your anti-virus

 

[Strazdas]

People will not clean their systems until the thing stops working. that's the truth for 99% of internet users. Take it down faster and you will solve it faster.
Also, now i know what my antivirus was bocking in somones avatar......

 

[Grey Day for Elcia]

Why are people laughing and acting smug because they mentioned Internet Explorer? News flash, guys: the majority of people who use personal computers, use IE. It doesn't make you better, smarter, cooler, superior or "in" to not do so.

Consider your pedestal kicked.

(No, I don't use IE.)

 

[Thaliur]

At first I was like *gasp!!* then I saw "will open internet explorer" and lulz'd like ted bundy at a dead baby joke.

Well, the article said "the average user", and IE is still pretty big.

DNS is system-wide, though, so the browser doesn't matter.

Can't they make the temporary DNS servers add a small frame to webpages with a link to instructions on how to fix it? Or yould you need a proxy for that?.

 

[DiamanteGeeza]

They can basically inject any content they want, so they should just show a page explaining how to fix the problem instead of running normal DNS services.

Of course people wont fix it if they don't know something is wrong.

That was exactly my thought. I fear that this might be a case of common sense being trumped by the fear that the civil liberties whackos all start bumping their gums about the FBI spying on everyone:

"And while the FBI's tactic in this case is "unusual," the agency said it took the steps it did to avoid the appearance of government intrusion into private systems."

Could you imagine the self-righteous outrage (from a small and vocal few) if these 300k+ users opened up their browsers one day and found a message from the FBI instead of their homepage? Never mind that this would be a really quick way to solve the majority of people's problems and get them back onto the real internet, instead it would be an attack on your freedom... blah blah blah.

 

[Daaaah Whoosh]

What I want to know is if this actually affects me. Do people know if they've been redirected to a fake internet? Did the FBI tell the people, or are they just going to figure out who's been infected when their internet suddenly cuts out?

 

[Toothache of Sauron]

I guess those victims are all thos who past august were announcing the end of internet "in two weeks".