Loading Profile...
Help get this topic noticed by sharing it on
Twitter,
Facebook, or email.
Twitter,
Facebook, or email.
cyclops.untd.com with Netzero, Safari, and iMac
Using Netzero as the ISP and Safari as the browser on an Intel iMac we have been having problems with a "Google redirect". So we loaded Ghostery to see if we could figure out what is going on. Now when we look at our browser history we see that http://cyclops.untd.com......... is in the list after virtually every Google search. This is not something I see in the Ghostery list. Can anyone tell us what cyclops is? Does it do any harm other than chock up the browser? Thank you.
-
CHAMP
1I always cringe when someone tells me they're using an ISP that wants you to install their "mystery meat" software in order to use it.
Please explain what you mean by "Google redirect."
Can you post a partial screen shot showing us what you see?
Is this something that happens only when you perform Google searches, or does it affect other activities as well?
When you do a Google search, are you using the search box in the upper right-hand corner of the Safari window, -or- are you opening a Google search page (such as www.google.com) and searching from there, -or- are you searching from a NetZero-branded page that says "powered by Google?"
Is this a "new" problem, or have you always had it?
I believe cyclops.untd.com/cyclops.prod.untd.com serves ad banners and invisible tracking beacons. I wouldn't expect to see it outside of a United Online portal page (such as my.netzero.net), or their "Message Center" (webmail.netzero.net).
Have you tried installing a different web browser (such as Firefox?) If so, does the problem occur in that browser as well?
When I looked at their portal using Firefox, they tried to entice me to install http://my.netzero.net/static/start/view/common/search/search-nz.xml (uh, no).
If you're feeling adventurous, you could experiment with setting up firewall rules to filter (i.e. block) outgoing connections to cyclops.dca.untd.com and cyclops.vgs.untd.com.
Comment -
-
Eric,
We started with Netzero years ago with dialup on an old Mac because it was one of the few available for Mac. This is a relatively new problem. A few months now.
It seems to primarily affect Google searches which we do from a new Tab in Safari. The redirect does not appear harmful, but it has sometimes prevented us from getting to a search at all. Other times the search will complete, but when we click on a result we get redirected (see attached png). Netzero email seemed to be affected in that it would slow down to nothing at times. That is when I started noticing that the Safari history would show line after line of the cyclops.untd.com. It does appear to be ad related, and will continue to accumulate even when nothing else is being touched in the computer. Prior to a few months ago this did not happen. The problem seemed to worsen with time, so I got MacScan and then ClamXav and even tried chkrootkill before upgrading to 10.6 with an erase of 10.5 as part of the process.
That seemed to eliminate much of the problem, or so we thought until we got another redirect like the attachment. Then we switched to Firefox with noscript and ghostery running. No problems since then, but that is only a few days. However, earlier the redirect would occur in both Safari and Firefox. More peculiar still was that when we used our laptop to connect we immediately got the redirect even though it had never had the problem and had not done anything in common with the problem machine. Suggests that Netzero is somehow the problem.
will -
-
I don't see the attachment.
Click the icon in the lower right-hand corner of the Reply box.
Click Browse..., select the screen shot image (it's probably on your Desktop), then click Upload. This will save a copy to Amazon S3 [Simple Storage Service], and insert a snippet of HTML code to reference it (do not delete this, or the image will not be visible in your reply).
— — — — — — —
A few ideas:
» See if the problem occurs when using a different user account (or a guest account).
- http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2542
- http://docs.info.apple.com/article.ht...
- http://support.apple.com/kb/VI32 [video]
» Try using Google's secure search page: https://encrypted.google.com/
» Test an alternative DNS service, such as OpenDNS, Google Public DNS, EasyDNS, or ClearCloud.
-
-
I tried to attach from Firefox but had script and cookies blocked, so couldn't get it to work. Now attaching from Safari. Looks like it worked.
I had tried changing DNS to Google and that helped for a while and then the redirect problem returned.
Thank you for helping.
-
-
Wow.
Just so this is clear for anyone else reading this: You're trying to open http://timesoftware.free.fr/timemachineeditor/, and expecting to see:
Instead, you're getting something that looks very much like www.netzerosearch.net.
I'm leaning toward DNS mischief as the most likely explanation. I suggest going with a non-NetZero DNS configuration (instructions in my previous reply).
Then, I'd like you to clear your browser cache (in Safari, choose Safari > Empty Cache).
If you're comfortable doing this, I'd like you to open Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app), and issue this command:
dscacheutil -flushcache
If not, just Quit all applications and Restart the computer.
If you're still having problems after that, then it's time to investigate improbable possibilities (strange proxy settings, etc.).
If you want to hard-block the NetZero search pages (N.B. this alone would not stop redirection attempts), you could set firewall rules to deny outbound tcp connections to search.dca.untd.com and search.vgs.untd.com.
One final thought: this is not a recommendation, but I'm going to mention it for completeness. There's a shareware product called Little Snitch that can help determine if something is "phoning home" without your knowledge. It has a fully-functional "demo mode" that will let you use it for free for three hours. If you like it enough to want to use it full-time, a single-user license costs $30 (quantity discounts are available).
There's no magic in this product; it's just something that's easy to use if you're trying to solve a problem and don't want to take the time to learn how the underlying mechanisms work.
-
