Blocking Gov IP's, keep your pc secure now!

[SuperToker]

Try fedora or mandrake. both are free to download. all the *bsd's are more for servers and network oriented tasks, so leave those alone for now. you might try debian after you decide you like working with linux. i would look and see if there is a linux user group in your area, they would be able to help you get it installed and help you out.

 

[thecottonmouthk]

I have an XP desktop, but I visit here and places like it through a VNC session on my FC3 machine which SSHes into a shell account, and forwards a double-blind non-logging commercial anonymous proxy connection my way.

 

[Guest]

Linux IS NOT the be-all-end-all of OS's, and neither is Windows. I run windows and have run windows for 5 years: I've never had a virus (I use NOD32 AV and Sygate Pro Firewall, I don't use IE), I've never had "spyware", windows has never currupted or destroyed my data, and I've never had my computer "compromised by the government". Even if they did, I didn't know about it nor did they do anything because of it or didn't find my grow pics.


I don't run linux for a few good reasons:

1) No support for Adobe CS applications, or Macromedia applications. No support for many others applications which I don't have the time or memory to mention.

2) Slow GUI, (and don't tell me to install IceWM: that ISNT a GUI, or at least not in my book). The GUI doesn't come close to windows, and with a hacked uxtheme.dll, I have full 3rd party themes/skins support.

3) Installing and keeping track of your applications in most of the mainstream distros is very messy.

4) Murky hardware support, and not just drivers, I mean vendor support!

5) Security isn't any better than windows necessarily (as long as you use NTFS), it all depends on how you configure the OS. Besides, I've never had a security problem on windows.... and my firewall can block whole government IP ranges just like I can with /etc/hosts.



Those are my reasons, other people run linux because it suits their needs, and that is just fine, but I hate people telling me there is no "secure" option besides linux, give me a break!

And to top it all off, I've been using unliscensed copies of windows for a decade now, all connected to the internet practically 24/7, and I don't get any calls or knocks on my door from Microsoft or the FBI.

... but what do I know, Microsoft is tracking you!

 

[bartender187]

dreamdust- Yeah ive had alot of the same experience youve had. Runnin Nod32 with Sygate seems to prevent any and most attacks/virus'. Microsoft always tries to track my comp usage, but currently i have it blocked from accessing the internet. Granted... i i think XP takes longer to configure to get it to the point where its not absulute crapp OS, but once you tweak it a lil' it can be a rather decent OS.

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/OptimizeXP.html

Ive also used cracked copies of XP since its inception... never had any problems thus far.

me .02

 

[thecottonmouthk]

As a desktop OS, the windows GUI is far easier to use; back when I first used windows95, there was no learning curve for me: all pretty intuitive. It still has the best hardware support, and even the friendliest Linux distros don't even come close to usability by non Unix geeks. And now that windows is based on NT, it's far more secure than earlier versions.

As a serving OS, that's another story...

But as Linux gets easier to use becoming a viable threat to Microsoft's consumer market, its usage will go up (obviously) making for a larger target audience for script kiddies' attacks - rootkits will abound. Once the average user has Linux, what makes anyone think they won't be logged in as root all the time? Hey, they won't want to type a password every time they want to install software! I've seen many windows2000 workstations logged in as Administrator for public use - same will no doubt happen with Linux.

The security model of the OS makers should focus on tightening the holes that their users leave open, and to tighten the holes that they as OS designers leave open as well. But we, as users, can harden our own PCs. We can be one of the dumb 99% of the computer users or not windows or otherwise; due to our very presence here, we must not be.

 

[Cannabisourus]

They're all good except for Red Hat and Mandrake. FreeBSD is not linux though, it's unix. They're basically the same thing except for minute differences that most people won't understand (how kernel proccesses are handled, memory sharing, small differences in system libraries, etc.). I use Debian Linux because it's the best for my purposes. Slackware Linux is more suitible for the average user. There used to be a lot of choices for linux distros but most of them were ruined by greedy corporations like Novell.

Here's some links to help you decide:

http://www.debian.org
http://www.slackware.com

That's pretty much it. Gentoo is good, but it's for real hard core linux freaks that prefer compiling everything manually.

 

[thecottonmouthk]

They're all good except for Red Hat and Mandrake.

Yeah, but Mandrake and Red Hat/FCx are the best ones for the average user to use and install. Both Debian and Slackware don't offer an easy to use installer. FreeBSD semi easy to install, but forget sounds unless you recompile the kernel - it's mostly a server OS or uber-geek desktop.

For the average user: http://fedora.redhat.com/ is the best bet. It's pretty easy to install, use, update, and it's free.

 

[tiedye420]

hey is peer gaurdian one the same... Because i had it on this P.C. for months...
Works great as far as im concerned, Funny story about that As a.m.o.f.
I get into these brainstorming modes, and I was researching " metals in ferts." .
Well i kept trying to hit the WSDA website for info on metals, looking for the best formula for my babies (Pureblend original won that time) And i kept getting the website down page, you always get from (yeah i know it sucks) Windows...
I went to that site 2o times trying to connect- thought their server went down from storms, even wrote on a thread it was down a lot.
Then i realized it was washingtion state dept of ag, A Gov. site. I closed peer guardian and went on there instantly to WSDA SITE...
boy was I embarassed then....But I got my homework done after that...

 

[KRS Juan]

The answer to everyone's question is Mac OS X. You get a full featured (user friendly and fast) desktop OS, plus a full BSD underbelly, complete with terminals and all, if thats your bag. Now that Apple is going to use Intel processors the hardware will be exactly what your used to (or soon at least).

-KRS Juan-

 

[Guest]

Hi, all. I DL that program and installed it. Am I missing something here? All it seams to do is block you from going to websites? How does this block my IP from being seen? Am I just confused at what this program does?? Thanks for any responce.

GGB

 

[SuperToker]

read the whole thread, the person who wrote it is a fool. i recommend you format your harddrive.

 

[Guest]

linux this and format your hard drive that is all great, but "secure" anonymous server's and all that supposedly are run by the gov.

i really have no clue, but 3 network admin's i know who've worked with the Fed's b4 (all for financial firm's, nothing too major, but there's always CC fraud) all say they own 99.9% of the anonymous server's people trade for free and the same % of anonymous proxy server's that people are using to go place's.

how about not making yourself worth busting? what's the point in showing everybody on the net your 5kw grow, or trading clone's with every tom, dick and harry that can find your user name? i don't grow, don't sell, don't do nothin' crazy, hardly even ingest personal usage, they know I'm not worth the time.

not to say proxy's are a bad idea - but try to know who you're using... and b aware of the fact that every 1 of those company's user agreement's has full permission for them to rat you out.

 

[70s_PotHead]

Let me ask a question, I've got 3 computors in the house thru 1 wireless router and modem. Correct me if i'm wrong, there is only 1 IP addy for the modem, if I protect my puter with a proxy or some IP hiding software that is being talked about here, will it make a differance since I may have 3 puters online at the same time but only one at a weed growing site? Does that make sense?? Also I started a thread up on the legal section of the site, maybe I should of put it down here, i've got lots of questions

70s

 

[sunnyside]

bump

 

[KRS Juan]

All 3 of your computers will have their own INTERNAL IP address, and they will share 1 EXTERNAL IP address. If only one of your computers is used for looking at private sites, then only that one needs to be protected.

-KRS Juan-

 

[70s_PotHead]

KRS, so what your saying is the site lets say this one will see my internal IP addy and not the external IP addy of the wireless modem? BTW, thanks for the link on my other thread.

70s

 

[Guest]

no; what he's saying is... well, let's not get techie,
think of it like this:

if you had a cell phone and came home and your 3 kids wanted cell phone's,
and you could just hand 'em to 'em and they got their own # that only you could call but anybody trying to call them had to call your phone 1st and any outgoing calls by them get processed by your phone to go out and get identified as your phone...

ya dig?

so basically, if you have 3 connections running @ once, that makes no diff. w/out URL encrypting b'cuz the respective ISP server is just going to log the times you asked for so and such pages - so comp. 1 may be pulling porn, comp. 2 may be pulling yahoo! news and comp. 3 may be pulling IC Mag, but the ISP will log all 3 as the same, just showing which pages you stack on top in time characteristics (i.e., you click on a subj. in IC then run to the other comp. and click on a certain news story, it'll still show both were pulled). so like KRS said, if you use a proxy service/whatever to make that 1 connection safe, it will leave your house a "safe", or hopefully URL encrypted and at least SSL'd, connection while the other one's are still "open" connections, that theoretically could be much more easily monitored.

it should be noted that with a wireless router you can say it was taken advantage of by some1 else if the ISP call's or whatever, but if they raid your house first then clearly you better not be in possession of anything illegal for this argument to fly.

 

[Babbabud]

I believe most of us have non static IP's so im not sure this has alot to do with most of us. Unless of course you have a static IP which i would have to pay extra for . Please correct me if im wrong ? So just reboot your dsl occasionally . Course im not sure how it works for cable ?

 

[Verite]

... I run windows and have run windows for 5 years: I've never had a virus (I use NOD32 AV and Sygate Pro Firewall, I don't use IE), I've never had "spyware", windows has never currupted or destroyed my data, and I've never had my computer "compromised by the government"...

What are you running? One of these?

 

[m.steelers]

While most wireless routers will use Network Address Translation, there is still going to be a dynamic public IP assigned to the modem itself. You need a public IP to surf the internet. You can reboot that modem to get a new IP, but I would think the provider keeps records of what accounts were assigned to given IPs at any time. I would like to know that for sure. So there would need to be a subpeona of the provider to get access to those customer records. I am not sure anyone could get that approved without some sort of probable cause. It could certainly be a nail in the coffin though.

I've download TOR but I'm not clear if you also need to use Privoxy or not. Can anyone shed light on that?

mS