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Proxy servers?

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Proxy servers?

Chas Uno

Chas Uno

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Can someone explain more to me about what proxy servers are and how to use them? I gather that they are some kind of buffer between your computer and the internet, and that they 'hide' your ISP address from scammers/ hackers/ bots/ harvesters?

Do they really make you anonymous and untraceable? If you use a web based email address is your computer ID and real ISP hidden when you send messages through a proxy server?

And lastly, are they recommended for use with all online activity?
 
1986Uno45S said:
Can someone explain more to me about what proxy servers are and how to use them? I gather that they are some kind of buffer between your computer and the internet, and that they 'hide' your ISP address from scammers/ hackers/ bots/ harvesters?

Do they really make you anonymous and untraceable? If you use a web based email address is your computer ID and real ISP hidden when you send messages through a proxy server?

And lastly, are they recommended for use with all online activity?
Click to expand...

Basically its a 'router' for HTTP/HTTPS(website) traffic. Your browser sends its website request to the 'proxy' it then fetches the webpage and passes it back to your browser.

As a result the webpage your visiting only recieves the IP address of the Proxy server your using and not your own IP address of the computer your using.

If your using an annoymous unmonitored proxy yes it would be very hard for someone to track your activity back to you. Another benefit is you can set a proxy server to recieve HTTP on a different port other than '80' which again increases security a tad.

Email is a different kettle of fish a normal proxy hasn't got anything to do with email. What you could do is setup / purchase a mail relay account with your own domain name which your email client sends email too and that redirects it to it recipient. The only way for scammers/bots/harvester not to get your email address is to not post it on the internet in plain txt i.e ([email protected]). I'd post chrisuk at mydomain dot com.

And yes due to my router constraints with the website filtering (only 1 LAN IP can be unrestricted) all my browsing goes through a proxy I have setup on a dedicated server in a data cantre and it works very well just as fast if not faster than direct access. This is because I have used 'Squid' proxy which caches commonly accessed pages and keeps it in RAM / SWAP.
 
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The usefulness of a proxy all comes down to the type of traffic you are passing though it. The question is why do you think you need a proxy? If you are trying to cover your tracks then read on. There is a technology called netflow which passes all the traffic that runs through routed connections to a netflow collector, that in turn shows the type of traffic running between hosts so if you are using peer to peer then it will show up like a fat man at the slimmers of the year award ceremony.

You get an IP address when connected to your ISP, it is recorded against your account details, they can see what traffic is flowing towards your router or proxy server.

Be wary the internet is not as anonymous as people think...
 
gregit said:
The usefulness of a proxy all comes down to the type of traffic you are passing though it. The question is why do you think you need a proxy? If you are trying to cover your tracks then read on. There is a technology called netflow which passes all the traffic that runs through routed connections to a netflow collector, that in turn shows the type of traffic running between hosts so if you are using peer to peer then it will show up like a fat man at the slimmers of the year award ceremony.

You get an IP address when connected to your ISP, it is recorded against your account details, they can see what traffic is flowing towards your router or proxy server.

Be wary the internet is not as anonymous as people think...
Click to expand...

Mine is a 'transparent' proxy. Traffic between my home IP and the server (located in a datacentre in france) is encrypted so yes they can monitor what I do as its passing through their network but they would have to decrypt it first.
 
This is all interesting stuff!

Part of my query was pure curiosity regarding the question "Is it possible to surf the 'net totally anonymously?" :chin: I'm a bit of a noob when it comes to modern day IT stuff (6502 and 68000 Assembly Language FTW! :p) so was wondering just how secure we are and how anonymously we can be when surfing.

Also, what about those spam emails with fake addresses and headers? Is it not possible at all to trace where they come from? How do they fake the email address and headers? And if you use a web based email such as Hotmail/ Yahoo etc. can your ISP still be identified from an email you send from it?
 
1986Uno45S said:
This is all interesting stuff!

Part of my query was pure curiosity regarding the question "Is it possible to surf the 'net totally anonymously?" :chin: I'm a bit of a noob when it comes to modern day IT stuff (6502 and 68000 Assembly Language FTW! :p) so was wondering just how secure we are and how anonymously we can be when surfing.

Also, what about those spam emails with fake addresses and headers? Is it not possible at all to trace where they come from? How do they fake the email address and headers? And if you use a web based email such as Hotmail/ Yahoo etc. can your ISP still be identified from an email you send from it?
Click to expand...

Chas,

in short the answer would be 'no' you cannot trace who sent the email, the reason is as chris mentioned earlier relay servers are used. these are more than likely ones that have seen setup by ISP's or individuals and have left open access for anyone to use.

in the picture below i have done a simple test to see if a mail server has been left open.

connected.jpg


to do this i opened a command prompt and entered:

Code: 
telnet smtp.blueyonder.co.uk 25

this is simply establishing a telnet session with the server on port 25 which is used for SMTP :)

i then used a few simple commands to send some emails to my gmail account

mail.jpg


you'll notice that the sender information is missing from them all, i was trying to have it read '[email protected]' but some some unknown reason the server wasnt having any of it.

this is just a simple example, there are much better ways to do it but i hope it kinda explains what happens and allows spammers to do this sort of stuff.

it would be quite easy to configure a mail client to send via this server with any settings you like.

Thanks,
Ry
 
further to the above i decided to setup an example for you.

here i have setup a mail client to communicate with the relay server and spoofed my details.

banned.JPG


take note of the highlighted area on the message properties, this does show my IP address and my computers hostname.

this is fairly useless if you are trying to trace someone or if you wanted to email them back but it does atleast give some info, to stop this you would send the mail via a proxy server so you cannot be traced :)

i also found out a few interesting things about fiatforum while i was looking but i dont think ben would appreciate me posting :D

Enjoy and use responsibly :p

Ry
 
1986Uno45S said:
Do they really make you anonymous and untraceable?
Click to expand...
not even a little bit

1986Uno45S said:
"Is it possible to surf the 'net totally anonymously?"
Click to expand...
you're asking the wrong question, and looking at this 'problem' backwards. all you need to do is think like a reg plate cloner and get some credentials that can not be traced back to you. the easiest method is cracking next door's wireless key. i do all my illegal/immoral stuff using someone else's internet connection, i even bother to use a seperate laptop especially for this type of activity. if you dont do anything dodgy then there really is no need to bother hiding, but if you want to do it 'just coz for' then simply use a connection that can not be traced back to you, there are plenty of free ones, such as in any mcdonalds carpark (altho all the useful posts are blocked if you want to do 'that stuff').

if you want to sit at home while you "surf in disguise" then you need to crack a neighbour's wireless connection.
 
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Savage said:
where do people get that sort of software and how easy is it to use
Click to expand...

quite hard.

you need to find a signal Get IV's then dump them into a "cracking" software which will then use the IV's to crack the code.

then roberts your father brother you had free t'internet.

this requires using a few programmes though. there might be a retard friendly thing released though(y)
 
Savage said:
where do people get that sort of software and how easy is it to use
Click to expand...
At least one of your neighbours must have a unsecure wireless connection.

Last time I checked at my house there where 18 In range and 12 of these where unsecure.

A friend of mine lives near a lawyers office and they had unsecure wireless. He could ready all the case files and every document they had. Shocking!
 
when i just had my laptop with wireless ability there was only three which asked for the key once you tried to connect.

when i get my new computer with my usb or PCI adaptor i might be able to see more. i might be able to see more but doubt it.
 
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Savage said:
when i just had my laptop with wireless ability there was only three which asked for the key once you tried to connect.

when i get my new computer with my usb or PCI adaptor i might be able to see more. i might be able to see more but doubt it.
Click to expand...

make your signal better and you find more.

cut a hole in a siv then fit it around your USB dongle and it boost the signal believe it or not(y)
 
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