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Advanced Network Error Search (ANES) opt out - resolved

ModTeam
Moderator
Moderator

We are aware some customers are unable to opt out of the Advanced Network Error Search (ANES) using the online option.

We are currently working to resolve this issue but in the meantime you can either contact Web Chat or call the our technical support team on 150 from a Virgin landline or alternatively 0345 454 1111.

If you'd prefer us to get this done for you please pop a post on this thread and one of the mod team will contact you as soon as we can.

This issue should now be resolved.

Please opt out using your home connection on this website https://my.virginmedia.com/advancederrorsearch/ and if you have any problems please let us know.

 

114 REPLIES 114


@BENWELL wrote:

How can I tell if I have this enabled?

 

What are you guys typing and where so I can see what it does.


No typing required, just an interminable telephone call to the VM helpline to request the ANES "service" be turned off. https://help.virginmedia.com/system/templates/selfservice/vm/help/customer/locale/en-GB/portal/20030...

Quote: To turn off Advanced Network Error Search, just give us a call on 150 from your Virgin Media phone or mobile, or 0345 454 1111* from any other phone, and select option 2.

It's likely that the operative will have no knowledge of the procedure and you can refer them to this link http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Forum-Archive/Advanced-Network-Error-Search-HTTP-Error/td-p/4509... - post number 17. As you can see from the date of this post, 20/10/2011, this is not a new problem.

If the agent claims not to know how to do this then just tell him/her that it's the tick box in the Service Details block in the HSD service entry in CDFE.

In the end you will probably have to wait for an official Forum staff member to pick up your post and action this on your behalf. Be aware that some posts are not being picked up for some time so you will have to be patient.

 




It's What I Do.
I Drink and I
Remember Things.

Only mark a post as helpful if your issue has been resolved.

BENWELL
On our wavelength

What I meant was what does that ANES exactly do. I don't think I've ever been re-directed or misspelled a word for it to re-direct somewhere.

ravenstar68
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

Lets start with a valid lookup

lets assume I go to www.google.com.

The first thing that happens is that the browser does a DNS lookup (assuming that there's not one cached that is).  Now if the DNS lookup is valid then ANES doesn't do anything, and the DNS lookup returns the correct result.  Notice as well we get a status value of NOERROR, meaning a successful lookup.

C:\Users\timdu>dig -4 www.google.com

; <<>> DiG 9.11.0-P3 <<>> -4 www.google.com
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 28545
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 512
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;www.google.com.                        IN      A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
www.google.com.         272     IN      A       216.58.206.100

;; Query time: 17 msec
;; SERVER: 194.168.4.100#53(194.168.4.100)
;; WHEN: Sat Aug 12 05:16:11 GMT Summer Time 2017
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 59

Now what happens if I make a mistake and put in www,google.com instead.

This time when the system does a DNS lookup it returns an NXDOMAIN error in the status section.

C:\Users\timdu>dig -4 www,google.com

; <<>> DiG 9.11.0-P3 <<>> -4 www,google.com
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NXDOMAIN, id: 36855
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 512
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;www,google.com.                        IN      A

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
com.                    900     IN      SOA     a.gtld-servers.net. nstld.verisign-grs.com. 1502511458 1800 900 604800 86400

;; Query time: 35 msec
;; SERVER: 194.168.4.100#53(194.168.4.100)
;; WHEN: Sat Aug 12 05:17:51 GMT Summer Time 2017
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 116

This is when tools like ANES kick in.  When a DNS server sends back an NXDOMAIN error the cache intercepts the lookup and returns the IP address for the ANES server.

Then when the browser connects and sends it's get message, the server sends back a redirect message specifying the URL of the ANES page including the original DNS lookup as a search term.  So the user ends up looking at a page of search results related to the DNS lookup.

With ANES switched off the Virgin's caching servers simply return the failed lookup instead.

So to sum up.

For a VALID lookup ANES doesn't to anything.
For an INVALID lookup ANES redirects the error message.

Of more concern is Virus Safe and Child Safe.

Depending on the setings these can redirect VALID DNS lookups to a proxy on the websafe platform, which will then go on to either connect the user to the original site via the proxy or instead serve an error page stating that the site has been blocked.

The problem is that these can and have caused issues for users of certain applications.

FTP
Mail servers
Because the proxy doesn't listen on those ports Websafe in effect ends up blocking traffic to those applications when it intercepts the DNS lookups.

Specialist software that detects the improper IP address (seen in a piece of rowing machine software, which reset the TCP connection when this happened).

So while Websafe was implemented with the best of intentions, it's use is more likely to break the internet than ANES IMHO.  However I run with ANES and Websafe turned off.

Tim

Note:  It seems that modern browsers can do their own version of ANES depending on the URL entered in the address bar.  For example if I deliberately misspell my domain name and simply enter www.timothyduttton.co.uk into the address bar in IE11 and Microsoft Edge, I end up on a Bing search page.  Although entering http://www.timothyduttton.co.uk does give me the error I am expecting.

 

 

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clennam62
Joining in

Hi

I need ANES turned off. I have tried phoning but no option seems to work, and live chat is unavailable/ too busy. Can you help please?

Midlandrover
Joining in
Hi

I'm having the same issues as others on this thread. I'm trying to be able to use my work laptop at home but am unable to connect.

I called the contact centre to resolve the issue but it I still have the same problem. Please can someone look into this for me?

Many thanks

Amazed2016
Tuning in

4 months later and the link is still broken. Virgin are THE worst customer service I have ever seen, I would be ashamed to work for them but clearly nobody is working anyway!

ravenstar68
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

@ModTeam

Can we find out why the ANES link is STILL broken?

Also I do have another concern.

People are reporting that they want to turn ANES off because it's interfering with their work connections.  However, I have a problem with this assumption.

ANES only affects NXDOMAIN responses.  Normal lookups are returned unchanged by ANES.  (While I personally have a problem with any company choosing to break the proper working of DNS (see next point), ANES should not affect a connection to the works network.

What's more likely to break work connections, as we've seen previously is Web Safe.  Why?  Because on occasion web safe redirects VALID DNS lookups, where they are deemed potentially unsafe and passes them through a proxy on the Web Safe platform.  This is a more direct violation of the DNS RFCs as you are purposefully redirecting lookups, with the attendant issues that doing this can cause.

For this reason, I do think that rather than just blindly accepting requests to turn off ANES (although these should be honoured as well), you need to be seeking more information about what exactly is happening to the connection in order to troubleshoot the problem effectively.

I do ask that @James_W or @Aarron_H respond with their thoughts on this point.  Note: We've already seen Web Safe break connections to mail and ftp servers in the past.  So I think what I am saying is not unreasonable.  While I understand the desires behind Web Safe, the fact is that changing the way DNS works unilaterally was NEVER going to end well for everyone, without proper design of the proxy platform.

Tim

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Killian
Tuning in

I'd like to de-activate this hopeless feature and apparently creating an account on this forum and waiting for a forum support member to see it and then do it on my behalf is the way to go.

This seems a laughably arcane way of doing things but it's not my place to question...

Many thanks in advance

K 🙂

ravenstar68
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

@Killian The forum team will pop on and assist, but as per my post above.  What exactly is your issue?

Tim

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klonowski
Settling in

ERR_SSL_PROTOCOL_ERROR