Author Topic: Proxies 101: How to protect your privacy  (Read 23755 times)

Offline RopeFiend

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Proxies 101: How to protect your privacy
« on: October 09, 2008, 01:40:38 AM »
<split off of another thread so that USEFUL info isn't corrupted with rants about another RC asshole>

I'm in full agreement with Emily... ANYONE and EVERYONE here is welcome to use a proxy, and you're encouraged to if you're in the UK or some other barbaric nation that forbids consensual BDSM play or fiction.  We don't want anyone to feel threatened by exploring a fantasy that's perfectly acceptable in most of the rest of the Educated World.  Nothing here WAS illegal in the UK before the 'anti violence' thing they passed several months ago, and as loosely as that crappy piece of legislation is worded several themes or topics here MAY be illegal in the UK now. 


I probably ought to do a 'Proxies 101' tutorial for our friends and less savvy guests in the UK that SHOULD be using a proxy when surfing RavishU or any of the 'forced' forums.  I'm not sure that we cross their fuzzy morality line, but I don't want any of you good folks to be the ones that find out otherwise when a Bobby knocks at your door.

Lydia, just as a suggestion: pick a different proxy than the one you're currently using.  If the English take it in their head to start tracking IPs to suspected 'morally offensive' sites, then the proxy needs to run a spoofed channel between you and itself, AND it needs to be located outside of the UK zone.  Your proxy is bound by UK law since the server for magiclema.com is in London.

I'm blocking a LOT of server farms that have attacked us, but I'm not intentionally blocking any proxies.  If I ever do accidentally shut down a proxy (it's quite possible) and anyone gets the dreaded 403 FORBIDDEN message, then kindly switch to a different proxy and let me know which one you were using, and I'll unblock it.  When I send an attack log to the abuse@ contact for a server that's attacking RU or Kristen's, I give them 2 weeks for a response.  If the attacks continue and I don't get a response, I block their entire network range.  I care about OUR security as much as I care about YOUR security.  I can unblock single IP addresses or ranges within a blocked network very easily if there's ever a problem.
« Last Edit: October 11, 2008, 10:39:50 AM by RopeFiend »

Offline SubJo

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Proxies 101: How to protect your privacy
« Reply #1 on: October 10, 2008, 11:33:15 AM »

Ummmm, Rope? That tutorial you mentioned, would you be kind enough to either post that information or maybe drop me a line and we could hook up YIM? I know just enough about computer to get myself in trouble if I go messing with stuff like that.  :]

Thanks!!
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Offline the_lecher

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Proxies 101: How to protect your privacy
« Reply #2 on: October 10, 2008, 11:54:00 AM »
Hey, Rope, there's some information on that in this thread: http://ravishu.com/forums/index.php?topic=11034.0

Unfortunately, I don't know enough on the subject to really be useful.  Maybe you could fill in the gaping holes I left over there?
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Offline RopeFiend

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Proxies 101: How to protect your privacy
« Reply #3 on: October 10, 2008, 12:11:00 PM »
I'll write it up and post it out in the open for everyone.  In this current environment of religious nutcases trying to censor the entire Internet, it's something a number of you might want or need.

 

Let's begin.  Run over to http://tools.rosinstrument.com/cgi-proxy.htm and play around with the tools they've kindly provided.

These are all 'anonymous' proxies at Rosinstrument.  The difference is that non-anonymous proxies MAY still include your IP address in one of the referrer headers.  With anonymous proxies that doesn't happen and you're at least somewhat hidden.  AOL and Hughes Networks hide ALL of their users behind anonymizing proxy servers, so folks on those networks don't have to worry as much unless they're hiding their surfing from their ISP or a packet/wifi sniffer.

If you're being tracked or blocked due to the URL or page content, an even better method is to use an HTTPS proxy (just check the box at Rosinstrument).  That encrypts the link between you and the proxy server, and all your ISP (or a packet sniffer / wifi sniffer) can see is a mess of encrypted packets, and they have NO easy way to see where you're surfing.  I'm sure the NSA has ways around HTTPS encryption, but you'd have to be doing something HORRIBLY illegal to get them interested in you.  HTTPS proxies are usually heavily loaded with school kids trying to get to MySpace or porn sites at school, so they're frequently slower than other proxies.  In general, most people probably don't need them.

A side benefit to using an HTTPS proxy is that NONE of the information is stored on your computer once you close your browser.  If you're surfing from work, they can't come along later and look at your browsing history or cache and see what you were looking at.  8)

For speed reasons, it's best to choose a proxy either in the country you live in, or where the site you're surfing is located.  You can use a proxy in a different country to get around a country block on your location, or to make it seem like you live somewhere else.  You shouldn't take for granted where a server is located, as some sites use stealthing services.  Rapeboard is a good example.  It *looks* like their server is located in Pennsylvania, but a traceroute tells a different story.  ;)   I ran a traceroute on them, and it hopped from the US to the Netherlands, then into Poland before suddenly hopping back to Pennsylvania.  Yeah, sure.  I'm almost certain they're hosted in Moscow, no matter what their stealthing server is reporting.

Here's what the page at Rosinstrument looks like.  It's a handy service that I use frequently, depending on what I'm surfing for.  Just enter your URL and surf away!  As you click around, it intercepts the clicks and routes all requests through the proxy server you're on, and Voila! you're hidden from normal sight.




Monty Python - H.M. Government Public Services film No. 42: How Not To Be Seen  :emot_rotf.gif:

« Last Edit: October 11, 2008, 10:44:31 AM by RopeFiend »

Offline Lois

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Proxies 101: How to protect your privacy
« Reply #4 on: October 10, 2008, 01:38:42 PM »
Great posts RF!  I've learned more about proxies than I knew before.
So much oppression in our culture is based on shame about sex: the oppression of women, of cultural minorities, oppression in the name of the (presumably asexual) family, oppression of sexual minorities. We are all oppressed. We have all been taught, one way or another, that our desires, our bodies, our sexualities, are shameful. What better way to defeat oppression than to get together in communities and celebrate the wonders of sex?
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Offline RopeFiend

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Re: Proxies 101: How to protect your privacy
« Reply #5 on: October 11, 2008, 12:25:01 AM »
Back to the Rosinstrument page!

One of the options is "increase anonymity by chaining CGI PROXY".  Leave it set at SINGLE.
What that does is to further obfuscate your tracks by going through 2 or more proxies.  The ONLY people that need that level of anonymity are baboons surfing for kiddie porn (say "Hi!", Jamie), people trying to hack into banks / Milnet, or similar highly illegal actions.  Surfing for 'rough sex' ain't even remotely in that ball park.  By using multiple proxies, you're hoping that at least one of them doesn't log accesses, so any vigorous attempt to back-track you will hit a dead-end.  Anyone going that route typically picks a series of proxies in several different countries to make it harder for the authorities to get warrants to view ALL of the server logs.

Again, leave 'chaining' at SINGLE.  Even if 'forced sex roleplay' is illegal in your country, it's a minor infraction, not worth spending the effort to find you past the first proxy server.  Chaining proxies also slows your surfing dramatically... it could take several seconds more per page hit, maybe much more.

-------------------------------------------------------

If you're using a single truly anonymous proxy, you're fine.  There's a couple of different ways that you can make sure the proxy is truly anonymous.  First, go to http://whatismyip.com and copy & paste that number (your IP address) into a notepad/Wordpad text file.  If you have photographic memory, skip that last step.

Next, hook up your proxy and go to one of the services that shows all of the request variables:
http://www.2privacy.com/www/IP_Check_IP_Address/Proxy_Judge_Test.html


If you don't see your IP address in there anywhere, then it's an anonymous proxy; you're good.  Here's an example, first surfing in the open, followed by surfing through a proxy:

 Ahhhh, sweet stealth!


I'll continue with another important use of proxies in the next part of the tutorial.
« Last Edit: February 16, 2017, 07:53:34 PM by RopeFiend »

Offline RopeFiend

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Re: Proxies 101: How to protect your privacy
« Reply #6 on: October 11, 2008, 10:29:13 AM »
Quote
I was recently tracked down by someone I met on another site like this. We had been emailing fantasies to each other's Yahoo accounts. He was able to get my IP from my email and then found me in person. It was a terrible and scary experience. My question is this: how do you all email anonymously?

http://www.geobytes.com/iplocator.htm  << try this to see if your location is normally hidden by a proxy

ed. note: she lives in a small town, so it was easy to find her.  You're harder to track in a large metropolitan area

I'll show you the same simple trick here to hide your e-mail information.

First, you need to use a free web-based email account (Yahoo or Google's Gmail).  I can't recommend MSN/Hotmail due to the Microsoft Passport it requires to login.  Microsoft does everything in their power to VIOLATE your privacy, and I'm not sure how much info their Passport stores permanently or forwards to others.  Just consider Microsoft to be Big Brother.

 

When you SEND an email using one of these free services, make sure you've logged into your email account using one of the HTTPS proxies (see the previous post).  You have to check the HTTPS box because both Yahoo and Google have HTTPS-secure logins, and the non-HTTPS proxies will not allow you to login to your account.



Note: with Yahoo, you have to first log in normally at some point and turn off their glitzy new mail interface by clicking the CLASSIC MAIL link. I could *not* get anything to work through the proxy until I got rid of the new style.  Both versions of Gmail work fine through the proxies I've tried.

I'll show you a quick example, first logged in directly to Yahoo, then a second test logged in via a web proxy.



and after logging in through the proxy:



The pink box in the first test was my REAL IP address, included in the email header.  :o
The highlighted section in the second test is the address of the proxy server.  8)

End result: yes, you CAN send e-mail anonymously, as long as you're careful.  You don't have to mess with a proxy if you're just READING mail, only if you're SENDING it.  It's a bit of a pain in the ass initially, but once you've done it a few times and checked to make sure that your real IP address is hidden, you're safer.  Click on the FULL HEADERS at the lower-right of the message view pane at Yahoo so you can see the full message headers of your test email.  If you send a test message to your home email account (Outlook, Thunderbird or other email client) then you'll have to find the RAW HEADERS or FULL MESSAGE view for your client.

You don't need to mess with a proxy if you're just READING your web mail, only if you want to WRITE or REPLY to a message.

   Be safe, have fun!

Offline NathanL
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Re: Proxies 101: How to protect your privacy
« Reply #7 on: October 15, 2008, 11:37:48 PM »
Ok, what's the advantage to this over using something like the tor bundle (which I like because it picks out proxies for you)?
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Offline Catalina Cat

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Re: Proxies 101: How to protect your privacy
« Reply #8 on: October 16, 2008, 01:46:47 AM »
I've used the tor bundle but didn't like how it interfered with my computer's performance, plus I had to do a system restore back to factory specs to get it off my system!

Offline RopeFiend

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Re: Proxies 101: How to protect your privacy
« Reply #9 on: October 16, 2008, 08:12:34 AM »
I like simple and easy.  There's nothing to install and configure if you're using this proxy list.

You have a HIGH likelihood of winding up on various blacklists (if you configure it to include you in the relay network) since some of the slightly brighter script kiddies use Tor.  When you use the Tor network, you're using other people's PCs to surf and do 'stuff'; likewise they're using YOUR PC (if you're a relay point) to surf and do 'stuff'.  Some of it is just innocent surfing, desiring a bit of privacy / anonymity.  Some of it is script kiddies attacking web servers or spammers filling your mailbox with crap ads.  I know at least a handful of the blacklist services purposely include anyone in the Tor network, and you're guilty by association.

Check your IP here to see if you've been blacklisted (again, you can get your IP from http://whatismyip.com):

http://isc.sans.org/ipinfo.html?ip=ww.xx.yy.zz   << checks for anyone attacking the Internet
and
http://openrbl.org/client/?query=ww.xx.yy.zz  << combined info from 51 different blacklists / blocklists

(obviously replacing the ww.xx.yy.zz with your actual IP address)

If you're certain you'd never allowed Tor to include you in the relay, you don't need to worry about being blacklisted.  I highly approve of the Tor principles, but it does slow your surfing down quite a bit.

http://www.torproject.org/overview.html.en
« Last Edit: October 16, 2008, 11:34:47 AM by RopeFiend »

Offline RopeFiend

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Re: Proxies 101: How to protect your privacy
« Reply #10 on: October 16, 2008, 11:01:57 AM »
Since we're getting a bit deeper into How Not To Be Seen, some quick definitions are needed so we don't confuse the good folks out there in InternetLand.

There are three basic methods of anonymously surfing the Internet, ordered by ease-of-use:

1) Web-based proxy services

2) client software

3) direct proxy configuration


The first method is really easy, you just bookmark a site and then surf using one of the web sites they link to.  No software to install and maintain, it's all click-and-go.  That's what I'd recommended with Rosinstrument and other fine sites like them.  If you don't want to mess with Yet Another Piece of balky software or Internet problems, that's the way to go.  However, it may not work for you if you're trying to surf from work or school, as a lot of places have started blocking access to the web-based proxies.  Gee, some employers or schools don't want you surfing MySpace or porn!  How annoying!  ;)  If you're at home, that's not an issue.

The second method requires you to install a piece of software that handles all of the ugly network settings for you, somewhat automatically.  There are pros and cons to this method.  Some of the software only works with the most popular applications like Internet Explorer and Outlook Express, and may not work with more obscure browsers and mail clients.  Some tools are free, some are shareware, some are commercial products (buy it before you try it <puke>).  Here's a handful of different client packages:
Privoxy  http://www.privoxy.org/  (free)
Tor  http://www.torproject.org/  (free)
UltraSurf  http://www.ultrareach.com/  (free)
FreeProxy  http://www.handcraftedsoftware.org/  (free)
Elite Proxy Switcher  http://www.eliteproxyswitcher.com/  (free and Pro versions)
Proxy Switcher  http://www.proxyswitcher.com/  (free and Pro versions)
Ninja Surfing  http://www.ninjasurfing.com/  (free registration required)
(there's literally hundreds of different clients, some are toolbars for IE or Firefox)

Cons to the client software - nearly all of these are using a list of different proxy servers that people have found or identified.  Proxies come and go all the time, so one day your surfing may run REALLY slowly or it may just die with the dreaded UNABLE TO RESOLVE HOST or TIMEOUT error messages, and you have to go hunting a new proxy server.  Also, since you don't know anything about the proxies you're using, you don't know whether they're monitoring what you're doing.  Do you trust an unknown server with the login to your bank?  I certainly don't!  In cases like that, you need a quick and easy switch to turn the proxies off so that you can securely login to banks / PayPal, etc.  That's easy with some clients, harder with others.

The third method is only for geeks.  You can MANUALLY change the network settings for your browser / email / IRC client / etc and use whatever proxy server address and port you choose.  Port??  Isn't that a wine?  Wait, I screwed up and can't get to ANYTHING now!  Oops. 

Yeah, I don't recommend the third method for normal people.  < propeller beanie hats ONLY >

----------------------

If you start playing with the second or third option, you'll come across the ANONYMOUS PROXY LEVEL.  That's a measure of how anonymous the proxy is.  There are 5 levels, with Level 1 being the most anonymous and Level 5 being the least anonymous.  For the most part, you don't need to worry at all as long as it's ANY of the 5 levels.  All of them hide your IP address, the more 'secure' ones just hide additional info like your browser type or operating system.  Then there are transparent proxies, which do NOT hide your IP address.  Obviously, these are a complete waste of time.  With any of the manual or client solutions, you need to periodically check your anonymity to make sure that your IP address is still hidden.

Offline Lois

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Re: Proxies 101: How to protect your privacy
« Reply #11 on: October 16, 2008, 12:32:22 PM »
My favorite proxy server allowed you to pick your IP from a list.  The list included City, State and Country associations.  Unfortuantely it was a pay service and I didnt see the need to continue it when there are so many free services out there.  Still there are advantages to using the same IP everytime you surf certain sites.
So much oppression in our culture is based on shame about sex: the oppression of women, of cultural minorities, oppression in the name of the (presumably asexual) family, oppression of sexual minorities. We are all oppressed. We have all been taught, one way or another, that our desires, our bodies, our sexualities, are shameful. What better way to defeat oppression than to get together in communities and celebrate the wonders of sex?
The Ethical Slut: A Guide to Infinite Sexual Possibilities

Offline bassaholix

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Re: Proxies 101: How to protect your privacy
« Reply #12 on: October 17, 2008, 02:03:52 AM »
I recommend GPass... :)

Offline RopeFiend

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Re: Proxies 101: How to protect your privacy
« Reply #13 on: October 17, 2008, 05:03:34 AM »
Yep, that's one of the 5 tools recommended by the Global Internet Freedom Consortium,
http://www.internetfreedom.org/        http://www.internetfreedom.org/Products-and-Services.html  << edit 2017:  mostly dead links here

I haven't tried all 5 tools yet, but that one looks dead easy to use, AND it works on some of the IM / IRC clients.
It runs a secure tunnel to their proxy servers so that your ISP / school / workplace / totalitarian firewall can't see what you're browsing.

The current version should NOT trip any anti-virus false alarms.  It looks like earlier versions of GPass did.  :P

http://gpass1.com/gpass/  << edit 2017 - looks like GPass is dead, I can't get their site to do anything.


« Last Edit: February 16, 2017, 07:55:17 PM by RopeFiend »

Offline RopeFiend

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Re: Proxies 101: How to protect your privacy
« Reply #14 on: October 20, 2008, 11:09:11 PM »
I don't use IM much, so I hadn't looked at it's privacy.  Turns out it's easy to get someone's IP address with most of the clients, all you have to do is SEND them a file.  Whether they accept or refuse it, you still get their IP address.  That's fucked up.

Several of us probably ought to download GPass and see if it effectively hides the most popular IM clients in that situation.  The only one I have here is Trillian, and I've already hacked it last year so that it won't respond to file sending or sharing.  Don't remember where I found the hack or what it was, but I'm outta luck in the testing part.  I hate the Yahoo client, and I'll eat shit and die before I'll install MSN on any of *my* PCs.  And of course you'll NEVER find AIM on anything I own.


Here's what the kiddies are doing to get your IP address:
(hey, THEY already know this stuff, it's only fair that YOU know it, too!)

The first method to get their IP is:-

Get IP via Command Prompt:

1. Goto Start > Run type cmd and open.. or goto Start > Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt and click it.

2. type netstat and hit enter

3. connect to he person (direct connect) with the chat program of your choice. MSN, yahoo, AIM, etc.. This can be done simply by opening a conversation with the target or sending them any file.

4. type netstat again in the command prompt.

collective data should appear in the command box: (infomation censored) (I'll see if I can get ya a screencap later)



The second method is:-

Get IP via MSN logging:

You will need to go into Tools > Options > Connections > Advanced settings and click the Connection Logging checkbox..
open up a Conversation with the target..
Send them like a blank notepad or any file..
Wait for them to cancel it or accept it, either works..

After you've done that go back and turn off your logs or else they will constantly update while you're on MSN..

then goto My Documents > Received files > MsnMsgr (text file), open it with Notepad or Wordpad
Search (ctrl+f) for “Connecttoip” and you will see your selected items..
click the 'Find Next' button until you find the IP address..

Voila! You have the IP address to whomever you attempted to send the file to. Whether they cancel or accept the file doesn't matter because it still logs the IP.  They have to either accept OR deny it; if it just sits there you won't see the IP.