Hi, I decided this forum would be the most appropriate place to place a post like this (I’m probably wrong).
Whenever I access http://www.straightdope.com/ on my iPad it redirects me to something else. I have tried several times and it has sent me to a porn site and to the app store page of some shady application. I am not sure what the porn site is actually called, but I believe it said ‘youporn’.
I just want some Straight Dope during lectures, rather than porn.
But doing some googling, it doesn’t seem like there’s any known malware for the iPad that can do this under normal circumstances, so it’s likely something going on with your DNS provider. Maybe try changing to OpenDNS or another alternative to your ISP’s DNS.
We’ve seen that happen to people in the past – they had picked up a bug elsewhere on the internet and the ad coding embedded in the Straight Dope page triggered it.
But that was before the rise of tablets and other devices and I have to admit I am unsure that these same circumstances are what’s going on with you.
So far this seems to be an isolated incident but I do note it’s a holiday weekend and so we are perhaps not roaring at full strength here. I am cautiously awaiting further development.
I’m sorry that this is happening to you – I promise you, it’s nothing we’re knowingly doing here.
Thanks for all the tips. I tried changing my DNS to 8.8.8.8, and it worked. I didn’t believe that was the real cause, so I changed it back… Apparently it only happens when I search The Straight Dope on google and click their link (but this doesn’t happen on my computer). Google’s trying to market their new porn site? Weirdly enough it only redirects me as soon as the full page has been loaded (maybe something ad-related? Which would be impossible since it only occurs when google links me to it.) I also noticed it is ‘porntube’ that it sends me to.
On a side note, loading the website on an iPad in portrait mode messes up the page.
P.S.: So far I have only experienced this with The Straight Dope; I don’t believe it has anything to do with my device.
Anyway, I just tried it on my iPad 2 using Safari, Atomic Web Browser, and Puffin Free Browser. None of them showed any odd behavior when going to Google, searching for “The Straight Dope”, and clicking the appropriate link.
I once made the mistake of typing “The Strait Dope” and was sent to a porn site. Is there any chance the OP is trying to use the word “The” in the address? Once I dropped “The” from the address I haven’t had that problem.
if you googling it (why?) then presumably your google has been hacked…
I would expect that the ipad has a HOSTS file. I don’t actually know that it does but given that iOS in general does I see no reason to be sure it doesn’t.
Actually I’ve been meaning to say something about this. It happens occasionally when I’m using the siteas well…I don’t know if this iswhy it’s happening but I have a bad habit of letting my finger trail on the screen of the iPad whle I’ m reading and I’m always accidently clicking on embedded links but on this site I’ll be reading and then suddenly I’m on a porn page. there’s no link and I can’t seem to recreate it on purpose. It doesn’t happen during a Google search…I use a bookmarked link.