Tuesday Links On Wednesday: Coverage from the NetQoS/Cisco WAAS announcement, and other stuff.

First, here's what people are saying about yesterday's NetQoS/Cisco announcement:

• ZDNet UK: IT pros get to grips with WAN reports
• EWeek: Cisco, NetQOS Prove WAN Optimization Gains
• Network World: Cisco adds security, monitoring to WAN optimization gear
• Search Networking: Cisco adds monitoring to WAAS
• Network Computing: Cisco and NetQoS Partner for WAN Optimization and Performance Monitoring
• Techworld.com UK: WAN optimisation breaking app monitoring

And… some other things may have happened…

Wired - 27B Stroke 6: ISP Seen Breaking Internet Protocol to Fight Zombie Computers

ISPs, taking action against botnets on IRC, have been redirecting attempts to reach certain online IRC channels. The plus side: It does take care of some bots. The downside - breaking the DNS protocol prohibits access for all users.

"Specifically, Cox's DNS server is responding to a domain name request for an Internet Relay Chat server. Instead of responding with the correct IP address for the server, Cox sends the IP address of its own IRC server (70.168.70.4). That server then sends commands to the computer that attempt to remove malware."

What I'm worried about is the legal aspects - if ISPs can "edit" the type of material passing through the network by breaking DNS, do they lose a common carrier legal status? That is, of course, assuming this type of redirection is even legal.

In related news, some ISPs have been inserting advertisements into web pages - this site from the University of Washington and the International Computer Science Institute should help you determine if that's the case on your network.