Stop Firefox from redirecting mistyped domains to ask.com

Stop Firefox from redirecting mistyped domains to ask.com When I get a URL wrong at the top level (i.e. when DNS lookup returns NXDOMAIN), my Firefox browser redirects me to ask.com. How do I remove or customise this functionality? There's nothing obvious in the options dialogue and Google isn't being helpful—probably because I don't know the correct name for the error!
Asked by: Guest \| Views: 257

Total answers/comments: 2

Comments display order:

Guest [Entry]

"Type about:config in Firefox location bar and press Enter.
Type keyword in Filter textbox and you will see only the preference keyword.URL.
click keyword.enabaled to set it to false. This will disable the search functionality.
If you want to keep the search functionality but use another search engine then double-click on keyword.URL and change the value to say ""http://www.google.com/search?btnI=I%27m+Feeling+Lucky&q="" which is the firefox default."

Guest [Entry]

"As mentioned earlier, there's probably a ""helper"" program that came with the Ask Toolbar that is still resident. If its not in the Add/Remove programs, you may want to look at the list of services running as it may have placed itself there too.

Check your Proxy/DNS settings to see if the Ask Toolbar didn't set Ask as the DNS service. It may have changed it in the FireFox settings and/or it may have changed the global Internet Options in Windows.

In most cases, you can clean up a lot of junk left behind by applications by using tools like CCleaner."