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Belkin Routers Route Users to Censorware Ad
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?"
Keyboards that occasionally type "www.belkin.com" when they detect you're typing a URL. (But you know, not more than once every eight hours, so it's OK.)
.jpgs of happy people using Belkin products.
USB mass-storage devices that randomly delete files and replace them with
PC Speakers that say "Shop at Belkin!" every couple of minutes.
etc...
With the dizzying array of routers available for purchase, I've often been befuddled by the sheer number of choices that I have when buying new equipment. Which one is better? Why is this router $10 less than this other one when they appear to do the same thing? Which manufacturer should I trust with my data? With razon thin profit margins, and fierce competition in the IT hardware industry, such choices have become extremely difficult.
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.
no it won't. this is slashdot.
sulli
RTFJ.
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!
After a 18 hour operation, a router was removed from a belkin representative's rectum. When asked how the hardware device got there, all the man could say was "No. More. Spam. I. Promise...."
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.
I'm looking forward to to car that randomly turns left when you turn the steering wheel to the right.
Come to WA state: it appears that most drivers here are already using them, if their apparent road-sense is anything to go by...
Call me old fashioned, but I like a dump to be as memorable as it is devastating - Bender
[grabs crotch] Remedy this!
Snip.
Judging from the general mood of this formerly great nation, far more likely, I think, that there'd be a car that steers to the right even though you're trying deperately to bear left.
Cantankerous old coot since 1957.
"Belkin support, how can I help you?"
"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)
LITTLE GIRL: But which cookie will you eat FIRST? C. MONSTER: Me think you have misconception of cookie-eating process.
I heard Diebold already has a patent on that.
ericd@belkin.com enjoys his peace and quiet. ericd@belkin.com does not like unsolicited email. People should not send messages to ericd@belkin.com unless they are personally affected by the issue. Spammers should not illegally harvest the email address ericd@belkin.com.
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..."