China hijacks Google's domain name

Sumner Lemon, IDG News Service   Today’s Top Stories   or  Other Networking and Internet Stories  

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September 10, 2002 (IDG News Service) -- Users trying to access Google Inc.'s search engine from inside China are finding there's a good chance they'll instead be sent to Tianwang Search, a search engine operated by China's prestigious Peking University.
Internet users are being sent to Tianwang and other sites like it since Internet service providers in China hijacked the domain name of the Mountain View, Calif., Internet search company.
The frequency with which Chinese users have been rerouted depends on the Internet service provider (ISP) and the location where the user is accessing the Internet. That indicates traffic to Google isn't being rerouted at a national level, according to Duncan Clark, managing director at telecommunication market research company BDA China Ltd.
Domain names and Web addresses are matched to IP addresses using Domain Name System (DNS) software. When an Internet user types www.google.com or any other address into a browser, a query is sent to the ISP's name server, which returns an IP address for the site. ISPs in Beijing and Shanghai have apparently altered those addresses, redirecting traffic to Chinese search sites, Clark said.
"It's not possible for someone else to do this," he said.
The Chinese government has sought to block access to undesirable Web sites using IP filters since commercial Internet access first became available here in 1995. Search engines Google and AltaVista Co. are the two latest Web sites to find themselves blocked in China. But this is the first time censors have hijacked a domain name and rerouted traffic to another Web site, Clark said.
China frequently clamps down on foreign media in the run-up to politically sensitive dates and events. With Chinese President Jiang Zemin expected to hand power to a successor at the upcoming Communist Party congress, Internet censors may be trying to tighten control over information available on the Internet.
"It is in violation of the universal approach, changing the DNS system. When you type in a URL, from anywhere in the world, you expect to get to that address," said Bruce Tonkin, chief technology officer at Melbourne IT Ltd. and chairman of the Names Council of the Domain Name Supporting Organization at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
For Chinese users and Google alike, there may be little recourse available, however. "China has not signed any agreement [not to tinker with the DNS system inside China]. No government has. There is no legislation, no mechanism to stop them," Tonkin said.
David Legard of the IDG News Service contributed to this report.

Reprinted with permission from

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