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Comcast is injecting 400+ lines of JavaScript into web pages

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

#461

Post by tapoxi »

skate22 wrote: post #453
phil21 wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Verizon is far and away the market leader in international roaming and it isn't even remotely close. At least in my experience. Source: Tried to get away from VZW for a decade now - international roaming always being the ultimate decider. Curious who you've found to be better. Verizon has always been that shit-tier company ran by borderline criminals which happens to have the far superior network and hard product.

With the highest priced international sprint service i had terrible connection in Paris several months ago. I would go 30 mins to an hour with no connection frequently. At home (Boston Ma) sprint is good enough to online game and stream at the same time. I lost my comcast connection for several hours recently, and tethering to my phone resulted in less latency... Edit: This is on Sprint's unlimited plan (around $50 a…

If RCN is available near you (I'm in Watertown), I highly recommend them. I was used to very frequent Comcast outages but haven't had a single issue with RCN after subscribing for almost two years.

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

#462

Post by nathan_long »

Imagine that you get a letter from a friend. In the middle of the letter is a strange paragraph praising the postal service's new product. You later learn that this was inserted by the postal service.

I'd argue that both you and your friend have been harmed by this and that the postal service should be punished. Their job is to deliver messages unmodified and uninspected.

Here, the friend is a web page and the postal service is the ISP. Same deal. Injecting content into a page defames (and possibly breaks) the site and deceives the requester.

(Yes, the site should use HTTPS to prevent this. And you should lock your house's door. But that doesn't excuse dishonest ISPs or burglars who take advantage when you don't.)

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

#463

Post by codycraven »

rietta wrote: post #306
jsmthrowaway wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Snailmail is fine; you try to upsell me constantly through that channel already. Implying you’d probably miss it and, if not you, the customers they’re trying to reach.

I am so sick and tired of xfinity mailings addressed to me or my wife or former residents of the home address asking us to switch to them for a two year discount that I know they won’t give us because we’re already a customer. They even just jacked my rates yet again.

As a Comcast customer until ~6 months ago, I brought in a cable box they forced upon me as part of a packaged rate (cheaper than internet alone) once my contract ended.

I had tried calling customer service to see if they'd give me a new bundle but they told me they were only for new customers, so I switched ISPs.

Anyways, when I went in store to return the equipment, the guy I spoke to told me to not bother with phone support but to instead come in store or call him directly (he gave me a business card) since he can get existing customers bundled rates that the phone reps can't.

While I had the choice of ISP many don't, I'd definitely recommend going to a store location where you can talk face to face with someone in your area and see if you can't get a contract at a better rate than you pay month to month.

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

#464

Post by craftyguy »

Steeeve wrote: post #340
timzentu wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FCC complaints are usually more effective, never dealt with one in the current shitty administration, but legally the FCC requires resolution within 7 business days, or at least a plan of action if resolution isn't possible for completion. I used to receive the emails and all the people on an FCC chain put pressure on the lower levels.

I can confirm that Comcast responds to FCC complaints effectively. I used that route when they were my provider after a series of unhelpful technical support requests.

I'm skepitcal that the current FCC would give a shit about this complaint since it reflects poorly on their supporter (an ISP.)

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

#466

Post by rietta »

codycraven wrote: post #463
rietta wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am so sick and tired of xfinity mailings addressed to me or my wife or former residents of the home address asking us to switch to them for a two year discount that I know they won’t give us because we’re already a customer. They even just jacked my rates yet again.

As a Comcast customer until ~6 months ago, I brought in a cable box they forced upon me as part of a packaged rate (cheaper than internet alone) once my contract ended. I had tried calling customer service to see if they'd give me a new bundle but they told me they were only for new customers, so I switched ISPs. Anyways, when I went in store to return the equipment, the guy I spoke to told me to not bother with phon…

That is worth a try! Thanks. There is an XFinity Store less than 2 miles away from me. Never thought to set foot there.

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

#467

Post by cookiecaper »

TheRealDunkirk wrote: post #460
cookiecaper wrote: post #440

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is really a critical thing to get integrated into the American public dialogue. Pro-business and pro-competition does not mean zero governmental oversight or regulation. My opinion is that if there isn't substantial churn or upheaval in the market at least a couple of times per decade, there is something broken in the market, and we should be looking at what kind of actions would be useful to allow fresh…

You correctly call out "copyright" as a problem in the free market, then go on to blame Republicans for the status quo, when it was the entertainment industry and THEIR captured legislators -- the Democrats -- which gave us the DMCA, which has been used as one of the biggest hammers to prevent competition ever conceived. So please don't single out conservatives for giving us the monopolized internet we have now. Both…

I'm not trying to blame anyone specifically. This is just a major rhetorical exploit that works on Republican-leaning voters. I know because I and many of my associates are Republican-leaning and very conservative, at least by HN standards. We need to call out these divisive rhetorical exploits because they're used by nefarious groups to subvert actual dialogue and keep people at the extremes.

By no means do I believe that Democrats or liberals have clean hands on this. All sides deliberately ignore and subvert intellectual property matters because it is so dang profitable, and this affects "liberal" industries much more deeply than "conservative" ones. Copyright is fundamentally "big government", which more conservatives would recognize if the narrative around this issue wasn't so tightly controlled. And that's not to say that copyright doesn't serve a useful purpose at all, just that we should be cautious and wary about it.

Since bad political actors and profiteers actively and successfully cultivate tribal dynamics for their benefit, the tribal context and instinct can't be ignored. It must be worked within. Approaching a tribe as an outsider just causes them to raise their shields and ignore anything you say.

Good principles and values drive most actors on both sides of the aisle. Political alignment basically seems to just come down to which principles we prefer to favor/bias. Under that context, the need for balanced, inclusive dialogue is clear, and we should all be grateful for the diversity of opinion that keeps everything in balance.

Maintaining that diversity means working within the structures of human association to create authentic, grateful alliances built on that recognized need, instead of allowing others to abuse those same structures to provoke destructive animosities.

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

#468

Post by lakechfoma »

jlivingood wrote: post #125
mseebach wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They could, but they don't. Until they do, or imply in any way that they might, let's stick to the facts and leave wild, flailing speculation to reddit. Regardless of what an ISP might do, HTTPS everywhere is excellent advice.

> HTTPS everywhere is excellent advice I couldn't agree more! That's one of the reasons for example we have supported groups like Let's Encrypt ( http://labs.comcast.com/innovation-fund-spotlight-lets-encry... ) and CrypTech ( https://cryptech.is/ ).

Please dont let "support" become "influence". The web needs less influence from Comcast and ISPs. Your business practices are cancer of the internet.

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

#469

Post by Crespyl »

markbnj wrote: post #255
shrimp_emoji wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Use HTTPSEverywhere on your browsers, and then enjoy the "You're close to your monthly limit!" pop-up on the Steam Store!

Um, I assume the code for that pop-up is rendered into the page on the web server that produced the page, before being returned to the browser.

That is precisely the problem. If the notification were rendered as part of the page by the web server, no one would have issue with it (though it would likely be blocked by adblockers anyway).

It's the fact that the ISP is modifying traffic in-route, to inject something that was never intended to be part of the page, that is the problem.

I expect my ISP to be a neutral carrier of messages, not meddling and altering my mail to add whatever they happen to feel like adding today.

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

#470

Post by ruffrey »

dang wrote: post #376
ruffrey wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All that may be true. There is no ethical excuse to ever inject code into a webpage. Your own argument about it being critical is false or sophistry. If there were wildfires coming to burn someone's house down..that might qualify as critical. Not this, and deep down you know it. You should be embarrassed to attach your name to such an obviously poor decision.

Treating anyone this rudely is a bannable offence on Hacker News. Please take the civility requirement more deeply to heart ( https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html ), and please don't do this again. If a fellow community member has a first-hand involvement with a situation under discussion, such as working for a company that some people are mad at or does some wrong thing, we're all responsible for reactin…

Ok. You're right, that last line was not necessary.
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