Resolving without TLD

[Joe Kattner]

I'm guessing that smdsolutions is the competitor? You're probably using IE,
if so this is being done by Microsoft. They pointed page not found errors in
IE to auto.search.msn.com and it appears rather than the standard page not
found error that msn usually gives, some are autocompleted and forwarded
(this is the first I've seen):

Entering smtnet in IE, the referral comes from:

http://auto.search.msn.com/results.asp?cfg=SMCINITIAL&srch=5&FORM=AS5&RS=CHE
CKED&v=1&q=smtnet

--Joe


-----Original Message-----
From: adambrower at yahoo.com [mailto:adambrower at yahoo.com]
Sent: Monday, October 22, 2001 12:27 PM
To: comp-protocols-dns-bind at moderators.isc.org
Subject: Resolving without TLD



I sincerely hope I have chosen the correct NG for this question.

Background: when Northpoint went in the tank and some customers were
transferred to Telocity, I was trying to go to the Northpoint website
for news. Without autocomplete on, I typed just "northpoint" in the
address bar on IE. Lo and behold, I wound up at an unsecured database
front end (url: http://northpoint/) being run by Telocity, with all
the customers' data on display: cc numbers, addresses, etc! After a
quick call to a friend at the Telocity noc, they frantically closed
the security hole. I never got around to asking how "northpoint"
(*without* any tld...not "northpoint.com") could resolve to an IP! Now
the issue has arisen again. A client owns "smtnet.com" but finds that
just "smtnet" resolves to a competitor's site.

How is this done? I will happily read and swallow all "flames for
newbies" if just one person will at least point me in the right
direction to solve this.