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CenturyLink is blocking customer internet, saying Utah legislators told them to

richsnapp.com

31–40 of 294 posts

Re: CenturyLink is blocking customer internet, saying Utah legislators told them to

#31

So what happens if a CenturyLink customer is not using their DNS, and using for example Google's DNS. They will suddenly have their internet disabled and will never see this page, where they have to click "OK" to reconnect their internet.

You could argue that they are failing to notify customers who do not use their DNS, and aren't complying with the law. Email or a notice on their invoice would not have had that problem.

Re: CenturyLink is blocking customer internet, saying Utah legislators told them to

#32

So what happens if a CenturyLink customer is not using their DNS, and using for example Google's DNS. They will suddenly have their internet disabled and will never see this page, where they have to click "OK" to reconnect their internet.

They will probably forward all DNS traffic to their own resolvers by just changing the destination IP of any UDP traffic to port 53.

This won't work with DNSSEC or encrypted DNS though.

Re: CenturyLink is blocking customer internet, saying Utah legislators told them to

#33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My ISP (Time Warner/Charter/Spectrum) DNS hijacked bing.com [0] and non-existent domains for their own "search page" [1]. Since then I've been sure to always configure my own DNS in my router. (Used Google's 8s for a while, now on Cloudflare's 1s.) It's unfortunate that I have to treat my ISP as hostile, but they are the only high speed provider to my address. I sadly can't even assume that there is anyone in managem…

That's horrible, did you call them up and ask why their DNS servers are fraudulently lying about IP addresses of certain high traffic domains?

I have the feeling they wouldn't get much past the overly scripted front line service, unfortunately.

Re: CenturyLink is blocking customer internet, saying Utah legislators told them to

#34
post #4

And here we see the disconnect between what politicians say, and what they write into law. The bill's sponsor's response to the blog authors query: SB134 did not require that ...They were only required to notify customers of options via email or with an invoice. And here is the text of the statute that was written: (ii) A service provider may provide the notice described in Subsection (2)(b)(i): (A) by electronic com…

At this point I wonder, did he write it? Or did CenturyLink?

Re: CenturyLink is blocking customer internet, saying Utah legislators told them to

#35
post #4

And here we see the disconnect between what politicians say, and what they write into law. The bill's sponsor's response to the blog authors query: SB134 did not require that ...They were only required to notify customers of options via email or with an invoice. And here is the text of the statute that was written: (ii) A service provider may provide the notice described in Subsection (2)(b)(i): (A) by electronic com…

Writing laws feels a bit like a monkey's paw. No matter how well written a law is they often have unintended consequences or are implemented manners that weren't imagined. I don't think the bill's author/sponsor is fully to blame (they aren't guiltless either). Centurylink certain did not have to implement this requirement in the way it was done. The most depressing aspect to this is the lack competition. The author…

Laws should be written specifically. It should be expected that they will go obsolete and it should be routine to expunge/replace laws as tech changes. If they meant email they should have put email.

Re: CenturyLink is blocking customer internet, saying Utah legislators told them to

#36
post #4

And here we see the disconnect between what politicians say, and what they write into law. The bill's sponsor's response to the blog authors query: SB134 did not require that ...They were only required to notify customers of options via email or with an invoice. And here is the text of the statute that was written: (ii) A service provider may provide the notice described in Subsection (2)(b)(i): (A) by electronic com…

"So, the fault here lies with the politician."

No. The fault lies with CenturyLink. They're the ones who decided to implement this in the most repulsive way allowed by law.

The law only required notification using normal communications methods, not disruption of services. CenturyLink is the one who chose disruption of services.

Re: CenturyLink is blocking customer internet, saying Utah legislators told them to

#37

Hmmm, so if I were on CenturyLink and in the "SOL" category the following could have happened. Attempting to email my state senators to express a political opinion? Freedom of speech: Blocked. Buying from a company online, located in another state? Interstate commerce: Blocked. Trying to run an online business? Blocked. Trying to contact my kids? Blocked. My elderly grandmother is dying and family was trying to Skype…

Your constitutional protections are protections from the government, not businesses.

Re: CenturyLink is blocking customer internet, saying Utah legislators told them to

#38
The original article title is more accurate. Replacing "CenturyLink" with "Utah ISP" as if they're some podunk lil' no-name ISP is misleading.

CenturyLink is a Tier 1 ISP, and 5th largest in the country by customer count. Maybe city folk haven't heard of CenturyLink but they have monopolies over vast swathes of rural copper networks.

Re: CenturyLink is blocking customer internet, saying Utah legislators told them to

#39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Writing laws feels a bit like a monkey's paw. No matter how well written a law is they often have unintended consequences or are implemented manners that weren't imagined. I don't think the bill's author/sponsor is fully to blame (they aren't guiltless either). Centurylink certain did not have to implement this requirement in the way it was done. The most depressing aspect to this is the lack competition. The author…

Laws should be written specifically. It should be expected that they will go obsolete and it should be routine to expunge/replace laws as tech changes. If they meant email they should have put email.

"If they meant email they should have put email."

If they put email, then that would have required the use of email. That's certainly more narrow than they intended, as it would exclude other acceptable methods such as sending a physical letter, including a notice with the invoice, etc.

This is 100% on CenturyLink.

Re: CenturyLink is blocking customer internet, saying Utah legislators told them to

#40
post #4

And here we see the disconnect between what politicians say, and what they write into law. The bill's sponsor's response to the blog authors query: SB134 did not require that ...They were only required to notify customers of options via email or with an invoice. And here is the text of the statute that was written: (ii) A service provider may provide the notice described in Subsection (2)(b)(i): (A) by electronic com…

Writing laws feels a bit like a monkey's paw. No matter how well written a law is they often have unintended consequences or are implemented manners that weren't imagined. I don't think the bill's author/sponsor is fully to blame (they aren't guiltless either). Centurylink certain did not have to implement this requirement in the way it was done. The most depressing aspect to this is the lack competition. The author…

However: This particular law was not well written.
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