Shaw: The proxy servers are out there...

Today (2004.08.17) we had an interesting experience with Shaw technical support. After recent events have unfolded about the local incumbant ADSL provider's "enhanced network security", (which effected 1000's of users, but was launched BEFORE it was announced), we investigated to determine "the truth" about Shaw's proxy server network.

...what the left hand is doing!

Today (2004.08.17) we had an interesting experience with Shaw technical support. After recent events have unfolded about the local incumbant ADSL provider's "enhanced network security", (which effected 1000's of users, but was launched BEFORE it was announced), we investigated to determine "the truth" about Shaw's proxy server network.

While diagnosing a problem with a client's Internet browsing, we noticed a connection was being proxied / cached by Shaw. The really interesting part is that our Shaw Technical Support representative stated "We don't run proxy or caching servers." This outright denial of what can easily be proven fact, was intriguing, so we continued through the support questionaire, and were escallated to "Second Level".

The technician, although quite polite, had no idea why our connection was being proxied, and continued to maintain that "We do not have proxy servers".

I identified the offending address (24.69.255.236), which resolves to a host name of px7wh.vc.XXXXcable.net. In any well organized network, the name for an IP usually bears some indication of it's purpose, so it is highly coincidental that something that appears to be a "proxy server" is associated with a name that starts with "px" isn't it?

The technician suggested perhaps it was a DNS server, which although possible would not display the symptoms we could see...

With a callback within 24 hours promised, we will see if Shaw can figure out it's own network.

In the end, we did receive a callback from someone who did acknowlege that there are in fact proxy servers on the network - read the notes if you want to learn how to avoid them. If they are heavily loaded, use of the proxy servers (normally a speed improvement) can really slow you down. Experiment. Your results may vary.

Notes:

An entire set of hosts seem to be configured under this naming scheme, and also operating as proxy servers:

px1wh.vc.shawcable.net  internet address = 24.69.255.202
px2wh.vc.shawcable.net  internet address = 24.69.255.203
px3wh.vc.shawcable.net  internet address = 24.69.255.204
px4wh.vc.shawcable.net  internet address = 24.69.255.205
px5wh.vc.shawcable.net  internet address = 64.59.144.74
px6wh.vc.shawcable.net  internet address = 64.59.144.75
px7wh.vc.shawcable.net  internet address = 24.69.255.236
px8wh.vc.shawcable.net  internet address = 24.69.255.237
px9wh.vc.shawcable.net  internet address = 24.69.255.242
px10wh.vc.shawcable.net internet address = 24.69.255.245
px11wh.vc.shawcable.net internet address = 24.69.255.246

A quick google reveals than many people are aware of and concerned about Shaw's proxy servers and their policy on them (which is hard to view when the staff don't seem to know about their existance!).

In the long run, the problem that lead us to this story seems to be a config problem in Internet Explorer - normally, the default value under "Tools - Internet Options - Connections - LAN Settings" is to "automatically detect settings". A bug in IE was not allowing this new UNCHECKED setting to properly ignore the network proxy servers. Windows update resolved that issue.

Important privacy concern:

The CHECKED setting seems to result in automatic use of Shaw's proxy servers. This happens even if you are behind a firewall. Although the rumours are that Shaw does not intend to use this information, the presence of a log of all your browing activities in someone elses hands could be a concern for anyone.

 

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