Comcast is injecting 400+ lines of JavaScript into web pages • Hacker News Board

Re: Comcast is injecting 400+ lines of JavaScript into web pages

#81

Post by oxymoran » Sun, Dec 10, 2017, 1:20 PM UTC

hardlianotion wrote: post #75

This is the bit I find amazing: > Comcast has my phone office number, my cell for texts, my email, and my home address, yet they choose to molest my requested web pages by injecting hundreds of lines of code. [JL] The notice is typically sent after a customer ignores several emails. Perhaps some of those ended up in your spam folder? So ignoring spam entitles you to this behaviour?

What he is saying is that they exhausted all other contact methods. If they stopped after the email and let the persons modem stop working, they would have likely been livid about that as well. Look, I don’t like Comcast any more than you do. But at some point, you need to recognize your biases when evaluating your enemy. I thought this was some nefarious attack based on the headline, but it’s just a critical system message that was thoroughly explained by an executive and you all are freaking out...

Re: Comcast is injecting 400+ lines of JavaScript into web pages

#82

Post by neonhomer » Sun, Dec 10, 2017, 1:20 PM UTC

cm2187 wrote: post #21

candiodari wrote: post #11

The thing that's so irritating about large telco's is not just that they're evil, but the casual stupidity of their actions, including their evil actions. I mean, look at the code. Look at the function of this code. Look at the business purpose of this code. Look at the security aspects of using this code. Look at the legal ramifications (why the hell is that LGPL thing up top there ?). Look at their internal communi…

I don’t think it is just telcos. It is amazing how scale, inertia, lack of accountability and bureaucracy dumbs down large corporations that mostly consist of smart educated people. A million Shakespeares typing on typewriters write no better than a monkey!

It's not just telcos. The second-hand details I hear from a major bank makes me cringe everyday. And the main issues tend to be laziness and selfishness.

Re: Comcast is injecting 400+ lines of JavaScript into web pages

#83

Post by pdkl95 » Sun, Dec 10, 2017, 1:23 PM UTC

Anybody want to sue them for copyright infringement? I doubt they acquired authorization to make derivative versions of your website.

Re: Comcast is injecting 400+ lines of JavaScript into web pages

#84

Post by kls » Sun, Dec 10, 2017, 1:23 PM UTC

BrandoElFollito wrote: post #66

When reading about Comcast I was always wondering why they have no competition when everyone who comments is complaining. I live in France and use Orange as my fibre provider. 1 Gbps/250 Mbps without constraints. I used to have Free which was great but did not offer fibre when fiber was installed. I switched to Orange in 5 min via a web page. I have another possibility (SFR) but they are despicable liars and for this…

In the US, two infrastructures evolved into internet infrastructure, one was the phone service (pretty much AT&T's long distance network and Ma Bell's local infrastructure). The other was the local Cable Companies, Cox, Bright house, Comcast et. al. So in most locations you have one of two choices, go with DSL and the phone company or Cable which in many areas is Comcast. AT&T just installed fiber here in the Florida Key's so alternatives are starting to pop up in more remote locations in the US, but it's still pretty much a go with the local phone company or local cable company monopoly decision.

Re: Comcast is injecting 400+ lines of JavaScript into web pages

#85

Post by pvsukale3 » Sun, Dec 10, 2017, 1:24 PM UTC

BSNL- The state-owned broadband provider here in India does this regularly. They intercept HTTP traffic and redirect it to their plans page. The saddest part is no one really cares about this here.

Re: Comcast is injecting 400+ lines of JavaScript into web pages

#86

Post by kw71 » Sun, Dec 10, 2017, 1:25 PM UTC

candiodari wrote: post #11

The thing that's so irritating about large telco's is not just that they're evil, but the casual stupidity of their actions, including their evil actions. I mean, look at the code. Look at the function of this code. Look at the business purpose of this code. Look at the security aspects of using this code. Look at the legal ramifications (why the hell is that LGPL thing up top there ?). Look at their internal communi…

I have a few years of experience inside Comcast and I've concluded that Comcast's executive management are the ones at fault here. Across several divisions, their engineers have been fantastic and a pleasure to work with. This all goes to shit when the businesspeople around the engineers are making terrible, selfish decisions and optimizing their hourly employees for numbers (call center I'm looking at YOU)

Re: Comcast is injecting 400+ lines of JavaScript into web pages

#87

Post by criddell » Sun, Dec 10, 2017, 1:27 PM UTC

BrandoElFollito wrote: post #66

When reading about Comcast I was always wondering why they have no competition when everyone who comments is complaining. I live in France and use Orange as my fibre provider. 1 Gbps/250 Mbps without constraints. I used to have Free which was great but did not offer fibre when fiber was installed. I switched to Orange in 5 min via a web page. I have another possibility (SFR) but they are despicable liars and for this…

A lot of cities grant exclusive agreements to these companies. Lately they are more competitive but historically one cable company would be granted the right to serve an entire city.

For an example, here's the page for Portland's agreements:

https://www.portlandoregon.gov/revenue/58882

Re: Comcast is injecting 400+ lines of JavaScript into web pages

#88

Post by tankenmate » Sun, Dec 10, 2017, 1:28 PM UTC

Chriky wrote: post #70

BrandoElFollito wrote: post #66

When reading about Comcast I was always wondering why they have no competition when everyone who comments is complaining. I live in France and use Orange as my fibre provider. 1 Gbps/250 Mbps without constraints. I used to have Free which was great but did not offer fibre when fiber was installed. I switched to Orange in 5 min via a web page. I have another possibility (SFR) but they are despicable liars and for this…

In a natural monopoly regulation /increases/ competition and freedom for the consumer. The BBC had an article about this a few years ago [0]. Basically the highly regulated countries had cheaper and faster internet. > Rick Karr, who made a PBS documentary in which he travelled to the UK to find out why prices were lower, says that the critical moment came when the British regulator Ofcom forced British Telecom to all…

This UK model is closely related to how roads are funded, as mostly govt funded monopoly on infrastructure (with occasional public private financing, which comes with its own issues, toll roads etc) and common access paid for by users (fuel tax, road tax, etc).

The US model is closer to US railroads model, although not entirely accurate, analogy; largely privately owned with some govt owned, funded by large infrastructure companies that charge customers for usage and also due to infrastructure costs are rarely duplicated in close proximity. It's had issues with off and on regulation, profitability, localised monopolies that have a tendency to over charge when they can get away with it.

Re: Comcast is injecting 400+ lines of JavaScript into web pages

#89

Post by taf2 » Sun, Dec 10, 2017, 1:33 PM UTC

kw71 wrote: post #86

candiodari wrote: post #11

The thing that's so irritating about large telco's is not just that they're evil, but the casual stupidity of their actions, including their evil actions. I mean, look at the code. Look at the function of this code. Look at the business purpose of this code. Look at the security aspects of using this code. Look at the legal ramifications (why the hell is that LGPL thing up top there ?). Look at their internal communi…

I have a few years of experience inside Comcast and I've concluded that Comcast's executive management are the ones at fault here. Across several divisions, their engineers have been fantastic and a pleasure to work with. This all goes to shit when the businesspeople around the engineers are making terrible, selfish decisions and optimizing their hourly employees for numbers (call center I'm looking at YOU)

If more people blew up the call center like the guy in the posted forum.. they would notice. But very few people notice

Re: Comcast is injecting 400+ lines of JavaScript into web pages

#90

Post by vidarh » Sun, Dec 10, 2017, 1:34 PM UTC

Sharlin wrote: post #37

candiodari wrote: post #11

The thing that's so irritating about large telco's is not just that they're evil, but the casual stupidity of their actions, including their evil actions. I mean, look at the code. Look at the function of this code. Look at the business purpose of this code. Look at the security aspects of using this code. Look at the legal ramifications (why the hell is that LGPL thing up top there ?). Look at their internal communi…

> I mean, I know the answer is "government" and government making them a monopoly, but still. WTF. Eh, telco infrastructure is a natural monopoly. No government needed for that.

No, but government could easily have opted for a regulatory regime that prevented it from being a problem, instead of allowing them to continue milking their situation.

The EU member states implementation of deregulation of the telecoms sector is far from perfect, but most of them have ended with something that works reasonably well.

E.g. in the UK, while the cable operator (there's only one of note left standing) has mostly escaped regulation, but BT had it's last-mile infrastructure subjected to heavy regulation to the point where it's been split out into its own company (OpenReach) that maintains the network and is legally obliged to resell access to anyone at the same terms.

You can even get the prices to terminate an IP connection with a subscriber on their website.

ISPs can put equipment in the BT exchanges and get a raw connection, or can pay for "backhaul" to a set of central locations.

I know the US also has a form of local-loop unbundling, but it's clearly not working very well given the level of complaints people have about these services in the US. Possibly because of the price-setting mechanism?

As a result there's a lot of competition in the ISP space in the UK (as there is elsewhere in the EU).

(Where it's not perfect is that the way the regulations have been set up gives too few incentives for BT to invest and innovate in the last mile network and is often accused of milking OpenReach for profit; two ways of improving on that would be to restrict how much profit they could take out as dividends to a proportion of how much they reinvest in network improvements and/or split maintenance/operation into regional franchises and force companies like OpenReach to bid for it on a franchise basis; though the latter is hard to get the evaluation-criteria right for)