I know it’s an old subject, but I just ran into it. If you’re with Suddenlink, and your browser goes to the search when you type in a known good url, or goes to a search when you hit a “Next Page” inside a news site or something similar, here’s how you fix it:
The Suddenlink redirect page is a function of the DNS servers. Essentially, when an “invalid” URL is placed into the address bar, before it would return a page that stated “this is an incorrect address”. Since Suddenlink updated the DNS server so that whenever an Invalid URL is placed into the address bar, it returns search results to help you better get to where you needed to go. It is the results being sent back to your computer from the Suddenlink DNS server. For more information on how DNS servers work, please refer to this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Domain_Name_System
Most browsers have a bypass option that would automatically do a web search instead of just saying “this page is not available”, essentially in this same function as stated above with the Suddenlink default search, which is what sounds like you want to get back to using. In most cases, you should be able to click on the link in the upper right-hand corner of the Suddenlink default search redirect page that says “Preferences” or “Why am I here”. Once you click on that, you should be able to “opt out” of the service, which will disable that function of the DNS server, essentially reverting it back to the way it was before.
If this does not work, then most likely there is a communication error, usually because the web browser you are using has stored information for this search setting. As far as clearing that setting, I have seen a full reset on the browser clear whatever is stored, then after selecting “disabled” from the preferences page, it stuck. But what specific change needs to be made, I unfortunately am not aware. If all else fails, since this is controlled through the DNS servers, you can always change what DNS servers you wish to go through. There are a few that are free of charge, and you are completely allowed to use them. The most popular ones that I know of are going to be at these links:
http://www.opendns.com/
http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/
Both of these sites have instructions on how to set this up. Unfortunately, this is out of our scope of support when it comes helping set up, so from this point forward, you will need to consult these websites with setup and troubleshooting if any issues were to arise in the process or afterwards.
I personally find it deplorable that they do this when you know you have a good link. If it was just a search engine for broken links, ok, but it’s not. Suddenlink should cease this practice.
