help with proxy please

Why use a proxy at all?

Unless you're breaking laws, breaking rules, unethical or a hack, you really don't need a proxy - and it stands out in firewall logs like a hot poker.

some of us like privacy for the sake of privacy. and in addition, proxies protect us from unscrupulous people who have bad intentions such as blackmail, etc.

i bet you support the patriot act as well, bush-licker. post back when you get a f****ng clue.

And that's why you use a proxy which is then able to scan and collect all the information about you, your browsing behavior, etc. in a single place? If you set the proxy in your browser everything goes through that proxy. A proxy from which you have absolutely no way to decide how trustworthy it is.

If you don't install the Google Toolbar because you are afraid that Google collects all the web sites you have visited then I think you should never use any proxy unless you have set it up yourself...

A proxy won't protect you from blackmailing but allows however runs the proxy to collect first grade information to blackmail you...

You really have to work on your courtesy.

Gerald

apologies for my lack of courtesy. so, according to you.................................. proxies are useless, they dont make it ANY more difficult for some wannabe hacker to find out your personal info? is that what youre saying? any scumbag with internet access can get my personal info by just asking the proxy owner, right? i realize the alphabet agencies have this knowledge but thats not my concern. my concern is joe shmo with no "ins" being able to find out my identity. but you say they can, so why the heck do proxies even exist?

If you understood anything about networking you would know that a proxy doesn't really hid you, and you have no idea what the proxy service is doing with the information.

And I know you don't know anything about the Internet because your Usenet client is broken.

Privacy for the sake of Privacy - what a joke.

What makes you think the proxy owner is legit?

can you please tell me what the point is of using a proxy, if not to add a layer of protection? i'm admittedly naive about the subject but one would think that proxies are useful for something or else they wouldnt exist.

and i personally like using google to read NG's. i could use the many other apps but i choose not to.

i got off to a bad start with you guys here so im an asshole but i'd like to know why proxies are even used if not to help protect privacy.

its bad enough that big bro can tell what library books ive checked out and much much more, and altho im on the up and up, id still like an extra layer of privacy. call me paranoid. and asshole. new name is paranoid asshole who knows nothing about the internet. heh.

seriously though, why do people use proxies at all?

how would YOU go about trying to hide your location if there was someone with a vendetta against you?

what about this?????????????????????????????? emphasis on the part about unscrupulous website owners.

Why Should You Use Anonymous Proxy Servers?

Any web resource you access can gather personal information about you through your unique IP address =EF=BF=BD your ID in the Internet. They can monitor your reading interests, spy upon you and, according to some policies of the Internet resources, deny accessing any information you might need. You might become a target for many marketers and advertising agencies who, having information about your interests and knowing your IP address as well as your e-mail, will be able to send you regularly their spam and junk e-mails.

A web site can automatically exploit security holes in your system using not-very-complex, ready-made, free hacking programs. Some of such programs may just hang your machine, making you reboot it, but other, more powerful ones, can get access to the content of your hard drive or RAM. Everything a web site may need for that is only your IP address and some information about your operating system.

this was the first link when googling "why proxy"

Excellent data collection service.

In comapnies they are used to get control over communication of the employees. Go figure.

JAP or Tor. (be warned, some attacks with Tor Exit nodes do exist)

Cheers, Jens

Protection from what?

Do you really need protected if you're using a properly configured machine, behind a NAT device of some type, and not breaking any laws? No, you don't.

Yes, they are good for people want to do something that would get them in trouble, at least the type of proxy services you're talking about.

Using google to read is bad, it's a broken interface - as you can see where your's didn't snip my signature lines when you replied - I did it manually.

And it's said that you think you really need to hide what you're doing from anyone. There is no privacy, your ISP could be loggin all of your traffic, the proxy could be a government cover, or worse it could be a malicious proxy that is collecting all of your data....

To surf the web from work, to get to p*rn/gambling/other things they would be embarrassed to have people know they are doing, or to get access when a firewall is blocking them and is not properly configured...

LOL - Are you talking about Usenet? There are a LOT of Usenet providers that don't list your posting IP or real name, if that's what your worried about.

No. The personal info you give away is out there. It does not matter whether you do that through a proxy or not. Just the proxy makes it easier to collect the information as everything goes through the proxy and not directly to various internet servers where you have to aggregate the information (e.g. through ad banners).

I don't know exactly what you have in mind when you write "personal info" but basically yes. You don't know whether the proxy provider is the "scumbag". You don't know about the security of their service, i.e. whether it has been/can be hacked or not. You don't know whether or how well they really do the service, i.e. if they really anonymize anything at all or really at all times. You rely on the full trustworthiness of a single proxy service.

Now without proxy the basic information like which pages you have browsed to is still available. However, the information is distributed on various servers. Some of that may have been matched due to some ad banner or similar. But visiting a different web site using a different ad company would not be able to match it with the other site unless they work together. It is not impossible to aggregate all this information but it is definitively harder then having a single proxy server and all that information readily available at a single place.

Thus, unless you are 200% sure about the trustworthiness of the proxy service or you have set it up yourself (and of course you should set up multiple proxy servers at different locations) I would not want to rely on a proxy server...

Finding out your identity per se is only possible if you reveal your identity somewhere and you leave a trace between that point and some other point. Thus, don't reveal your identity and noone knows it. If you reveal your identity and later visit a web site you don't what to be able to link to the previous one, clear all your cookies, make sure you get a different IP address from your ISP or better use a second different ISP, maybe even use a different browser on a different OS in a different language. Of course your ISP may be able to track you. Don't use them if you don't trust them. But at least you have some control about what you do.

Why do people buy software firewalls which "stealths" their computer? Because it sounds great and people want to believe it does miraculous things, fully automated, allowing them to do what they want without having to think about things like computer security.

You use an anonymous proxy and immediately you surf the net anonymously. Sounds great. Just use the proxy and you are secure. You don't have to worry about it or know how to protect your privacy. People want this. They believe in this. They get it. Just like with so many other things which people strongly believe they need. As long as it is possible to get some money out of it someone will be there to provide it to you even if it is just a placebo...

My 5 cent...

Gerald

Correct. So can the proxy provider. Thus, the best thing you can do to avoid this is to disconnect from the internet and reconnect to get a different IP address. Then you know that you have a different IP address.

The IP address does not identify YOU unless you identify yourself while running with this IP address. If you have dynamic changing IP addresses from your ISP only your ISP is directly able to link the IP address to your person and identity.

Correct. Any web site is able to find out what you read.

They can only spy on you if you let them. If your proxy prevents spying on you by removing JavaScript you can disable that in your browser as well. If your proxy prevents spying by clearing any cookies you can set your browser not to use cookies. ...

For that you must have used your e-mail address with this IP address. And it should be a fixed IP address to be of real benefit.

That has little to do with proxy services.

A web site could automatically exploit security holes in the proxy. And you should protect your computer against exploitation anyway.

What a nonsense. The IP address does not make a difference here. The only thing that really matters in this respect is that you run a vulnerable computer. Knowing your IP address does not make you vulnerable. Knowing some additional mysterious information about your operating system won't help them much either except maybe reducing the number of vulnerabilities to check for.

To me this text you have quoted sounds like so many other texts trying you to sell some completely useless service and thus has to exaggerate every detail to the limits...

Gerald

Since when has a proxy something to do with privacy? I'd say routing all your HTTP traffic over one single machine instead through a network roughly reduces privacy.

Nonsense, see above. Routing your traffic through one single machine gives its owner all your information at once.

thanks to all. i read it and i understand now. happy festivus!!!!

snipped-for-privacy@hushmail.com wrote in news:f37f2ae4-adc9-4b3e-b09e- snipped-for-privacy@x69g2000hsx.googlegroups.com:

I support the Patriot Act, and Guantanamo! In fact, I'm all for doubling the size of Guantanamo AND doubling the number of Jihadis to receive waterboarding.

As far as proxies go, if I were the CIA-NSA, I'd be setting up proxy services by the dozen. All the better to trap jihadis AND morons like you!

We already do, and so does the RIAA.

There is ONE other reason to use a proxy. The OP may be wanting to circumvent geographic restrictions. Pandora, for example, restricts its streams to U.S. IP addresses, but someone using a proxy in the United States could circumvent the geographic filters, and be able to listen. I use it to listen to Pandora when I am outside the United States, and also listen to Capital FM in London, forced to restrict its streams to U.K. listeners. Circumventing geographic filtering is a LEGAL and LEGIMTATE use of proxies.

X-No-Archive: yes

However, if the proxy it outside the United Stats, it is beyond the jurisdiction of the United States.

Why is that so?