The Golden Age Of The Internet is over

gug · Post by **gug** » 17 Apr 2009, 19:46

Vortex wrote:Yep, AdBlock Plus is it.

You need to load the s/w and ALSO a 'ban list'. I chose the 'USA only' one as no UK variant seemed to be there.

There are about a zillion ways to protect your PC ... it's nuts!

alas, whilst you might not see any adverts, your browsing will still be snooped upon (by phorm).
(before anyone says it... yes i know its still snooped upon by the stasi too - but one could almost trick yourself into thinking this was almost ok. Having a third party corporation with whom you have no contract snooping on you is outrageous)

I'm moving to www.ukfsn.org

Vortex · Post by **Vortex** » 17 Apr 2009, 20:38

I'm moving to www.ukfsn.org

... but under RIPA if even THEY are forced to install a Government DPI email & web inspection box then they can do NOTHING to warn you of the snooping!

gug · Post by **gug** » 17 Apr 2009, 20:52

Vortex wrote:
I'm moving to www.ukfsn.org
... but under RIPA if even THEY are forced to install a Government DPI email & web inspection box then they can do NOTHING to warn you of the snooping!

As i said, wont save us from the stasi, but their policy on phorm and similar is on their homepage.

The daft thing is, its really easy to stop the cops snooping if you really wanted them to. But of course, RIPA was not put in place to worry about real criminals.

You could just setup a remote shell account in a different country with a prepay credit card and then proxy all your connections over ssh.

JohnB · Post by **JohnB** » 17 Apr 2009, 22:54

Vortex wrote:Following this discussion I have:

1. Installed AdBlock into Firefox ... to kill adverts and speed up page display.

2. Installed NoScript into Firefox ... to prevent scripts running ... although I'm not yet sure if this is worthwhile.

..............

On top of using Firefox with a paid AVG anti-virus package, using SpyBot now and then, and with Microsoft updates turned on I feel fairly safe ... (famous last words!)

I also have configured Firefox to delete all cookies at the end of a session.

I find that NoScript blocks enough adverts to keep me happy. I use it mainly to block unnecessary downloads that slow down my dialup speed mobile internet, but it obviously helps with security too.

What I do find with blocking JavaScript, is that many sites don't have a NoScript option. You can be viewing or clicking links on a page, and either nothing or the wrong thing happens. Then I turn on JavaScript and it works properly. Its incredible that the smart arse web designers that produce these flashy sites assume that everyone has high speed internet access and modern fast computers. A very amateur web designer like me can manage to create sites that work with JavaScript disabled

I've been using the paid Trend Internet Security (formerly Pc-cillin) for years, and haven't caught a virus yet.

I do keep cookies though.

I have several e-mail addresses, with separate accounts set up in Mozilla Thunderbird. I've set the account that gets most of the spam to download headers only, so the majority of spam e-mails don't even reach my computer. Thunderbird's junk filter is pretty accurate once it's learned to recognise my spam. I can download the message if I choose to. I'm now very careful with putting e-mail addresses on web sites. I use JavaScript to generate an e-mail (with a NoScript option

), and on the latest one I've added my e-mail address as an image. I hope that works!

As far as spying goes, I guess it doesn't work if you know someone is watching you!

I've just had to buy a new laptop, so I now have the old one free to experiment with Linux.

JohnB · Post by **JohnB** » 17 Apr 2009, 22:57

gug wrote:I'm moving to www.ukfsn.org

Do you know how good they are? I'm using Namesco for hosting, and find their domain renewals are a bit expensive, especially as two of them are paid by small local community organisations with little money.

gug · Post by **gug** » 17 Apr 2009, 23:21

JohnB wrote:
gug wrote:I'm moving to www.ukfsn.org
Do you know how good they are? I'm using Namesco for hosting, and find their domain renewals are a bit expensive, especially as two of them are paid by small local community organisations with little money.

i wont be using them for hosting (i pay 1k + month for a 1/4 rack already !
I'll just be switching my isp from BT.

If you're after cheap low bandwidth hosting for a small organisation, you could do worse than create an account with the good folks at freeshell.org

Sign up for an arpa account and go from there.
However, its quite technical. They're not a "company", they wont hold your hand. If its a non technical solution you're looking for or you're not at home at a shell prompt then freeshell.org is probably not for you.

Vortex · Post by **Vortex** » 18 Apr 2009, 09:32

JohnB wrote:
gug wrote:I'm moving to www.ukfsn.org
Do you know how good they are? I'm using Namesco for hosting, and find their domain renewals are a bit expensive, especially as two of them are paid by small local community organisations with little money.

I'm migrating my sites from Namesco to Heart Internet.

Reasons:

1. The stupidly expensive domain names renewal fees. Adds up when you have dozens of domains!

2. The fact that Namesco have been hit by hackers TWICE in the last year, who added Javascript to many of my sites ... and Namesco did NOT tell me of what happened nor did they fix it!

I only found the scripts when clients stared complaining about pop-up ads on my sites!

I assume Namesco are scared of legal action against them so they cover everything up. In fact many hosting providers seem to blame the USERS for having weak passwords when their hosting machines are hacked ... a dishonest attempt to avert damages claims.

I don't mind 'expensive' ... but ONLY if the level of service is 110% super.

Namesco have shown themselves to be both expensive and crap.

In fact I'm thinking of ordering a dedicated server: at least if anything goes wrong it will be down to me!

The hosting site will be able to throttle my bandwidth - but almost everything else will be under my control. My CPU power will be MINE ... and won't be shared with a heavy script user as can happen on a shared machine.

Vortex · Post by **Vortex** » 18 Apr 2009, 17:08

Golly gosh ... they are tracking us in yet ANOTHER way!

LSO ... special cookies dropped onto your PC when you use FLASH software.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_Shared_Object

I have now downloaded Firefox add-on BetterPrivacy .. it revealed my PC was INFESTED with these new 'super cookies'.

I have now set the add-on in auto-delete mode.

See: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6623

Andy_K · Post by **Andy_K** » 20 Apr 2009, 10:40

I'd rather have targetted ads that I have some small chance of being interested in, than completely irrelevant ones that I put up with merely because I know many of the free services I use need their income.

Vortex · Post by **Vortex** » 20 Apr 2009, 11:02

Andy_K wrote:I'd rather have targetted ads that I have some small chance of being interested in, than completely irrelevant ones that I put up with merely because I know many of the free services I use need their income.

True ... BUT ... the technolgies being put in place will/can be able to identify your political, sexual & other interests.

After 10 or so years of web browsing 'they' will know more about you than you do!

Targeted adverts are one thing ... but how about targetted news?

BNP fan? Perhaps you will only see news saying 'nice' things about foreigners?

Tory voter? Perhaps you will see mainly nice articles about Labour MPs, but only sleaze articles about other MPs?

Interested in radios & keeping fit? I wonder who will get the first call up papers for the Royal Signals in time of emergency?

Interested in Marxism & explosives? Meet Bubba, your new cell mate!

Social engineers must LOVE this new technology!