iphone 5, redirects from safari links to app store

And it just happened on this link.

http://www.tzcases.com/tz-wine-bottle-cases.htm

Went to the home page for this site, clicked through to this, and bam. Some Hunger Games app in the App Store. I'm no techie at all, but I find it hard to believe it's not an issue with the device. But then again, it's happening to multiple devices in my house and on two different internet connections.

I guess I still have my health.....

I began experiencing the Safari redirects a few weeks back[iPhone 5/iPad]. Clicking URLs in Gmail and on Facebook. Many of them would end up at the App store. There was also some redirects that did not play nice such as:

Batterydoctor<dot>com [gave an iPhone 4s alert to secureandroid<dot]mobi]

Battery draining alert = click OK to download Battery Doctor from the app store.

Bad sites included:

b2jzz.playnow.dollfield<dot>eu [also wxpzz prefix]

candy-crush-saga.wikia<dot>com

a.ad.-sys<dot>com

mobipartner<dot>mobi

thefreecamsecret<dot>com

I am not sure about this but -> I sync both devices [locally] with a W7 laptop. I checked the router for DNS servers [Charter cable] and then checked my laptop and found a third DNS server that was not Charter cable. IP: 184.107.180.178 that resolves to adminmenu<dot>com

I then checked my laptop for malware and nothing was found. So, I switched from Charter cable DNS to OpenDNS on the router and set static DNS on the laptop. Since I made these DNS server changes - no more redirects or bad ads have appeared on my devices.

My problem turned out to be the Moon Worm with an older model of the Linksys router. All is good now.

Yep, that was my problem too. I have a Linksys E3200, purchased in late 2010, so not that old. Linksys advises a hard reset, which I did, twice, to no avail. Replaced it with an Almond and all is well.

had the mobipartner redirection since yesterday on tens of links, from browsers inside third party apps as well as safari , meaning a redirection to the App Store to get you download apps, and no way to access the original desired links. It acts like a loop. So ... I found that changing my internet provider's DNS servers to Google DNS solved the issue instantly. Mailed my provider a minute later, that's a shame.

Sounds like I spoke too fast, that's driving me crazy, all twitter links from Techcrunch, Engadget, TUAW and others to come I'm sure are redirected to mobpartner.com ...and in turn to the App Store ... tapping cancel in tweetbot for instance brings you a mobpartner page ... you just can't access the original article. Same from the official Twitter app, same from safari ... WHAT´S UP? There must be a way to stop that ... will try again tomorrow from my modem.

aside from changing the DNS on your modem - you also need to check your devices for a third rogue DNS setting on the wifi that you are using. Make sure that there is no third DNS entry under the DHCP tab. I used OpenDNS only.

Okay, I am confused. I've read all of these posts, and I don't understand how this is a router issue. This started happening to me when on a vacation router (at a private home), then traveling on the way home on Verizon network, and now it's still happening at home. Different routers and internet services, so is there some other internal internet setting that is NOT related to a router or internet access point that needs to be checked/changed?

Also, I have had this happen on multiple legit sites, such as Facebook, Shutterfly, news and common shopping sites. I am fairly wise about where I browse and what I click on and download, and to my knowledge there isn't anything I've done to download what I fear is malware/virus (pc or phone).

Further, this is happening on my non-Apple Windows 7 laptop that is "protected" (even if it is Norton software) and daily updated for Norton, Windows and Microsoft, as well as my iPhone 4S.

This is NOT happening on my husband's phone, pc, or our other devices connected to our Wi-Fi.

My fear is that it's now happening on my phone possibly because I plug it into a USB port on my PC to back it up, and either the pc shared it to my iPhone or vice versa.

Either way, it's on both, and I've spent since Sunday of this week (now Friday almost midnight.......) running scans from Norton, Microsoft Essentials, Windows Defender, MalwareBytes, Spybot, Adwcleaner, Hitman Pro, and Lavasoft Ad-Aware (currently running). They're not finding anything except ad tracking cookies, all of which I clean off. I've changed all my history and cookie and browsing data to delete upon app/browser close, and it's still not helping. I've deleted Facebook, Messenger and Pages (all FB related) off of my phone, including a few other social-based apps and anything else I thought might be a potential problem (kids' games, although they're paid for and researched as legit and safe but who knows maybe the kids' clicked on an ad or something...); AND I uninstalled Firefox from my PC to see if that would help. I haven't even bothered to reinstall it yet, not until Ad-Aware is finished scanning to see what results it has. So far I haven't had the redirect happen on Chrome, which I'm using now.

The reason that I downloaded Adwcleaner and Hitman Pro are because of an article that says to use them to remove a virus that causes link redirects and popups that state that I need to update an unnamed "media player". http://malwaretips.com/blogs/update-media-player-virus/ and http://www.pcthreat.com/parasitebyid-39391en.html

So, if that's a virus, then why isn't it considered a virus when it happens on my iPhone?

I have an iPhone 4S, fully updated. When I click on article links on Facebook, a search box in a shopping website, or browsing even support within Safari, if I click on a legit link it randomly redirects me to the App Store to a war-type game and I never get to the intended link. This has only been happening for about a full week now, but I've missed a full week of at-home paid work because I'm afraid I'm going to infect someone else or upload something with a bad link/virus to the website/Facebook pages that I do work for.

I am scheduled to visit the Apple Store tomorrow, so hopefully they don't blow me off, and hopefully someone has dealt with this before and can provide a solution. I am willing to do a full restore on my phone to get back to normal functionality...and even doing a full restore on my laptop. Won't describe how intensely angering this is to have to deal with, especially on my iPhone which I bought to avoid this type of issue.

it doesn't have much to do with modem itself, except that you can attempt to block the malicious sites from it ... anyway the issue is web site hijacking through a DNS rerouting ... no idea how far the web sites themselves are responsible when they let it happen. It just stopped happening in my case here, on the iPhone. Interesting to note that while, as long it happened, Safari and all in app browsers couldn't do anything against it, Google Chrome for iOS mysteriously could 🙂

I am almost 100% certain this was the cause of redirects on my home router. Removing the static DNS entries of

107.170.189.30

64.251.13.6

resetting the router's password and then power-cycling it seemed to immediately clear up this issue on my iPhone 5 and a couple PCs. On the one PC I was getting obvious scamware popups for "Google Chrome" as well as "Adobe Flash." This particular PC was a brand new Windows 8.1 HP with all available MS updates (minus Bing) installed. It had an active and up to date anti-virus installed as well. In addition, the popups received on both PCs (the other a few year old Windows 7 rig also with an up to date AV) were very similar.

In addition to the steps I took above, I also made sure my router had the latest firmware installed.

OK, let's not all lose our heads here.

First of all, Thomas is right. . .redirecting from a web page to the app store is NOT a virus or malware. Period. You may hate it (as do I. Very much), but that doesn't make it malware.

That being said, the CONSTANT *unintended* redirects shouldn't be classified as 'intended behavior'. The only one intending the behavior are the shady ad companies driving you to their clients. They're EXPLOITING a feature much like constant pop-up ads were in their hey day.

There would be an EASY way to fix this problem by Apple (and yes, it most certainly is a problem. It greatly reduces the user experience). Just like everyone and their brother has a pop-up blocker setting, Apple should allow you to selectively block web addresses while allowing everything else.

Unfortunately, in the most current version of iOS you can't do this. The only way you can selectively block a single web address is to go to Settings > General > Restrictions > Websites > Limit Adult Content. THEN and only then can enter a singe website in the 'Never Allow' section. However, now your overall browsing experience will be changed because many websites fall into a gray area as far as adult content goes and Safari will block you when you try to go there. You can click thru by putting in your restriction pass code, but again, it's a greatly reduced user experience.

I suggest that everyone with this problem make a suggestion to Apple to allow selective URL blocking in general.

Here's the link to submit feedback for your particular device.

https://www.apple.com/feedback/

Here's what I submitted to Apple. Feel free to cut and paste mine:

"The suggestion is to allow selective blocking of web addresses without having to turn on 'Limit Adult Content' in website restrictions. There seem to be many ad networks that will unintentionally redirect users from a web page in Safari to an app in the App Store. This is annoying and GREATLY REDUCES THE USER EXPERIENCE. It would be nice to selectively block these ad URLs while allowing everything else."

<http://www.tuaw.com/2014/06/18/ios-8-safari-can-block-ads-from-automatically-red irecting-to-the/>

As I responded earlier: We had the same problem. My iPhone, my husband's iPhone, his iPad -- all began redirecting to websites and the App Store. Super annoying. Read here how it was a hacked router. Disbelieved.

Eventually checked the Linsksys website. Linksys freely admits its routers were hacked and recommends hard reset, firmware update, etc. I did that. Did not solve the problem. (NB: I did not check for unwanted DNS entries as has been suggested here -- this may be KEY! So, check....)

Separate from this problem had ordered a WiFi extender. When it arrived, after hard resetting the Linksys router TWICE, tried out the "extender" as the substitute router for our Linksys, instead of using it as the extender. PROBLEM SOLVED.

So, I still don't know or understand whether Apple can do anything to prevent router hack issues. But I do know it was a router hack issue. And I also know that as soon as I accepted that premise, I was able to fix the problem and start surfing the web on my iDevices without hassle.

Good luck!

In response to the latest post, I will update and say thank you for verifying that there is a Linksys issue. We have a Cisco router and after changing DNS settings on my PC, iPhone, new Mac laptop, and inside the router settings, I have been able to resolve the issue. I tend to agree that it's the ISP DNS settings, not just the router. Does that make sense? Is it possible for there to be a delay in the redirect showing up, and it actually started on our home router? My only other thought with that is that I was at my sister's apt in another state before we went to another state for vacation, two different routers (with security) other than my home router (also secured). Just musing...I'm just glad it's resolved.

This "feature" drives me nuts on my iPad Air running the latest OS. It isn't confined to shady sites. The Seattle Times seems to be the worst offender and their webmaster directed me to this discussion. There is nothing the Times can do, and it sounds like Apple will do nothing, even though they could. This is Microsoft 1998 arrogant.