4 ways to identify secure Web sites on the Internet

Total Internet Web pages, there are approximately more than 150 million active operation. As a result, it becomes a real challenge for users to identify secure Web sites that are reliable and reputed. Have you ever wondered to know the reputation of a Web site before placing the order? You need to know if a particular Web site is safe kid? Well, here are some ways to identify secure Web sites on the Web.

 

WOT is a great place to check the reputation of your favorite Web site. WOT provides real-time ratings for each Web site on the basis of the comments that it receives from millions of reliable users across the globe and trusted sources, such as blacklists of phishing and malware. Each domain name shall be evaluated on the basis of these data and ratings shall apply mutatis mutandis. A snapshot of the WOT gohacking.com rating is shown below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

As shown in the above screenshot, the reputation of each Web site is displayed by the view of 4 elements which means Green, yellow excellent warns users to be cautious and red indicates a potential danger.

 

Reliability indicates the overall security of the website. A poor rating may indicate that the site is associated with threats such as Internet fraud, phishing, identity theft and malware.

 

Supplier reliability tells you whether a given site is safe to proceed to buy and sell transactions. An excellent rating indicates higher customer satisfaction, while a bad rating indicates possible fraud or bad experience.

 

Privacy says about "how far the site respectful of the privacy of users and protects their personal identity and data.

 

Child safety indicates whether the content of a particular site is suitable for children. Site content such as erotic material, nudity and obscenity have a bad score child safety .

 

In most cases, the WOT ratings are found to be highly accurate. To check the reputation of any given Web site, just visit www.mywot.com press-in your favorite Web page address, and click check now. Only this tool can tell a lot about the integrity and the safety level of a Web site. However, in addition to this, I will give you another 3 useful tools to identify secure Web sites on the Web.

 

2. McCafee SiteAdvisor:

McCafee SiteAdvisor is a free tool which is available as a browser add-on. Adds safety ratings to your browser and search engine results. This can be downloaded from the www.siteadvisor.com.

 

3. StopBadware:

Using this tool, you can check if a given site is said to have participated in activity of malware in the past. To check this, go to http://www.stopbadware.org/home/reportsearch and enter the URL or domain name from a Web site and click "Search Clearinghouse". If your search does not return any results, this means that the site has never participated in any activity of malware in the past.

 

4. Google Pagerank:

Google PageRank is another great tool to test reputation and popularity of a website. The tool PageRank rates each Web page on a scale from 1 to 10, which indicates the Google view of the importance of the page. If a particular Web site has a PageRank of less than 3, then is said to be less popular among the other sites on the Internet.

 

However, PageRank will only tell you how popular a particular Web site is and has nothing to do with the security level of a Web site. Thus, only this tool cannot be used for the evaluation of the safety of the website and other factors.

 

The PageRank feature is available as part of the Google toolbar. You can install the Google Toolbar from http://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/toolbar/ie/index.html.

 

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TCP / IP packet attacks version 1.1

Let me start by saying the internet is full of wonderful tools and papers like this one. Alot of these things can help you
increase your knowledge, perhaps your job or more. But just as easily as you can learn from them, people read into them to
much and decide to harm other peoples work for no apparent reason. Let it be known that is in no way the purpose of this
paper. A true hacker is one who strives to attain the answers for themselves through curiosity. Its the path we take to
those answers that makes us hackers, not destruction of other peoples work. So with that said, please enjoy my work, as I
have enjoyed writing it.

The flow of data has always captured my interest. Just how does it work, how can we dissect it and use it to our advantage.
Well I have spent a long time studying all of this, and that is why I wrote this paper. It's a collection of run on s
entences on different packet attacks and how they work. Now we all know you can learn all you ever wanted to know about the
specifications of a protocol by reading its 30 page RFC document. But that is the protocol according to design, in the wild
its a different story all together. 'Packet Attacks' covers everything from basic DOS attacks to TCP/IP hijacking. Hence the
name "Packet Attacks". This paper also focuses not just on attacks but practical ways to prevent such attacks and ideas on
new methods to help us stop them and secure our networks.


Introduction:
TCP/IP Packet Switching Networks
OSI MODEL


---Chapter 1.---
Section a.
Introduction to DDOS/DOS & Packet Attacks
Section b.
How attacks are crafted

---Chapter 2.---
Section a. (attacks)
ICMP
Smurf
SYN/ACK
UDP
DNS
ARP
DrDOS
Special Bot / Trojans
Worm DOS
Unicode ping flood (new!)
Section b.
Phasing
Section c. (hacks)
TCP hijacking
Sniffing
Scans
Information gathering / Footprinting
Section d.
Defense against these attacks
Attack Detection
Intrusion Detection
Section e.
IPSEC
NAT as a means of security

---Chapter 3.---
Section a.
The future of TCP/IP as a means of using IPv6

---Chapter 4. ---
Section a.
New security application / protocol

-----
Introduction.

Well I assume most of you reading this paper already have a good understanding of TCP/IP and how it works so I wont get to
much into detail on that, but I will scrape the surface on the parts we NEED to discuss. The internet is a MASSIVE web of
machines all connected to one another through a series of hardware devices known as routers, switches, hubs, bridges and
lots more. All of these devices (although some are smarter then others) push along packets. Our operating systems and
applications craft these packets in order to send data to one another over the wire. Each packet, although varying in size,
carries a small bit of data to and from one host to another. Each packet must also carry its own personal information such
as where it came from and where its headed. Of course there is a lot more to a packet then just this information. But as far
as attacks go this is the crucial information we need to look at. Now there are many many different types of protocols that
craft many different types of packets. And they are all read differently when they are received at the other end. Where as
an ARP packet may tell a host who has this MAC address on this subnet, a TCP packet might transfer the last few bits in that
MP3 your downloading. Regardless the data, all of these packets use the same wire to move to and from locations. I couldn't
possibly discuss every protocol and packet structure in this one paper. The average end user takes for granted all of this
running in the background while they surf the net. Most people dont understand the complexity of this internet we are all so
familiar with, the chat rooms etc. But there are people who do, and there are people who take advantage of that. Reverse
engineering has led to the creation of attacks using the basic fundamentals these protocols rely on. And since TCP/IP is so
embedded in our infrastructure we must adapt and learn to defend each new attack.

OSI MODEL

Open Systems Interconnection model, is a seven layered networking design. Its an industry standard that defines exactly how
data is transffered between protocol to protocol. Not every protocol follows the OSI model exactly and some do. TCP the
internets main mode of data transport does not follow it exactly. Let me take you through a brief over view of the OSI model.

Layer Seven : Application Layer
This layer is obviously application specific, it provides everything from authentication to email to ftp and telnet, the
list goes on. Its specifically for end user processes, what we input into our applications we can see on our screens.

Layer Six : Presentation Layer
This layer changes and possibly encrypts the data so that the application layer can understand it. (you will understand what
this means in a few minutes)

Layer Five : Session Layer
Think of this layer as Establishment, Control and Termination of the sessions formed by the
application(client) to a remote host(server).

Layer Four : Transport Layer
This layer is responsible for the invisible transfer of data between host to host. It is there to ensure all data transfer
goes accordingly. The protocols used are, UDP and TCP.

Layer Three : Network Layer
This layer is for error correction, packet sequencing, and for transmitting data from node to node. Addressing is also
another function of this layer in inter-networking.

Layer Two : Data Link Layer
This layer decodes and encodes packets into bits so they are ready for the physical layer. It also handles error correction
in the physical layer. This layer is also divided into two different sub-layers. The LLC (logical link control) and MAC
(media access control) sub layers. The LLC sub layer provides control for frame synchronization and error checking. The MAC
sub layer controls how a computer on your network has access to data.

Layer One : Physical Layer
This layer is the actual movement of the data. Using electrical impulse or some other form of data movement is pushes the
bit stream towards the other host. This layer is the hardware level, the ethernet card, the wire etc. There are many
protocols within this layer.

You may ask yourself why I listed these from 7 to 1. Well I did to show you how the OSI model really works. Layer Seven
really comes first, the end user types something into his instant messenger (for example) and the data flows down through
the OSI model being encapsulated and changed at every level it has to be changed or corrected at. The data travels the wire
and at the other end it moves back up the OSI model all the way back up to layer seven where the other host can read it in
the original form it was sent. So theres a VERY basic understanding of the OSI model and how it works to transmit data from
host to host. There is alot more protocols and parts to the OSI model but this basic representation should provide a firm
understanding.

To understand all of this more in depth please get your hands on a few RFC (request for comment) documents and start reading.
Because it will take you a very long time to understand exactly how TCP/IP works. If your very knowledgeable in the way
TCP/IP works then this paper should make alot of sense to you, perhaps even bore you! :( On the other hand if you dont
understand TCP/IP as well as you would like to, you still might get something out of this. I try and explain all of the
technical writing as easily as I can. Feel free to email me if you have a question or comment. Thanks :)
Data_Clast

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 1.

Section a.

The most common attack on the internet today is a denial of service attack. There are many programs on the internet today
that will assist anyone in crafting one of these attacks. The sad part is for as easy as they are to make their power can be
destructive when used properly. No matter what kind of packet attack it may be most are based on the same principal, volume.
Thousand and thousands of spoofed packets will eat up network resources within minutes, choking and essentially 'killing'
any network. There are many types of packet attacks. Some are more sophisticated then others. I will also talk about TCP/IP
hijacking and your typical port and vulnerability scans among other things.

Why do people launch these attacks? How are they launched? How do they exactly (technically speaking) 'choke a network'?!
Hold tight im getting to that. The lower end of these attacks are usually launched by what the hacker community calls a
script kiddie. You see a hacker isnt a mindless web defacing juvenile (please see the mentors manifesto). A hacker is a
person of true intellect and would never craft such an attack for no reason. But these lower end attacks are usually
launched at peoples individual machines. Their IP address's may come from an IRC chat room, yahoo messenger, AOL, ICQ, or
whatever other messenger you might use. Although not as sophisticated, these 'lower end' attacks can still knock an
individual machine offline in minutes. The slightly more advanced attacks may be aimed at a business competitor in order to
slow their sales or disrupt their outgoing internet connection. Whatever the reason may be they are usually launched for a
reason. Attacking a box for no reason is typically useless and will only take up your own bandwidth.

The more sophisticated attacks are aimed at government and root points of the internet. Such as the attacks on the root DNS
servers in October of 2002. These attacks were sophisticated in the way they were crafted. The attacks lasted for over an
hour and successfully took out a few of the servers. If the attack had lasted just a few more minutes who knows the damage
it could have caused. The possibility of the authorities solving these attacks and apprehending the offenders is slim to
none because they are created and launched by skilled malicious individuals. They were also distributed denial of service
attacks. Which means the 'zombie' machines that attacked the servers were spread out all over the world. We will touch more
on that later though.

Section b.

You will learn more about how these individual attacks are crafted and how they work later in this paper but this is
small introduction so you can get a vague idea. Creating spoofed packets requires an open socket. This socket binds to an
IP and a port and allows you to inject a packet onto the wire or accept any incoming packets to that IP and port. *NIX
openly supports open socket programming (many tutorials on this type of programming). Which means you can code programs that
create packets and then inject them into the network with ease. An example of this would be a program called "SENDIP" which
allows you to create custom packets, and it supports many protocols (another good program is nemesis). I have written a few
tutorials using SENDIP, I think its a great program for both advanced and new network engineers to use. It will help you
learn about packet structure and the different protocols it supports. Microsoft is not an open source company, which pretty
much makes it even harder to find help in creating these sorts of programs for Windows. But it is possible to craft these
attacks from within a Windows environment. Its referred to 'Winsock' programming. Infact most of these DDOS attacks are
because of vulnerable Windows boxes out on the net. They are sitting ducks for trojan horses and other programs that craft
these attacks on servers when commanded from a client program to do so. Most end users do not understand security and how
easy it is to break into someones home computer, so they lack firewalls and virus scanners. This leads to many zombie
machines available to hackers disposal on the net. All one has to do is scan a class C subnet for open trojan ports and
hack their way into those trojans and use them as a backdoor, another zombie is created for attacking remote targets. Almost
every program that interacts with TCP/IP generates packets to and from places, this is valid traffic. As you read you will
distinguish the difference between valid and non valid, as it easy pretty easy to understand what I am explaining when I say
"attack". When creating an open socket and crafting spoofed packets these programs tell the kernel they are going to
construct their own IP headers. Usually this information is put on by the kernel before exiting the machine. But in this
instance we are telling the kernel we want to specify our own information. Not all operating systems will allow this. And
no I dont have a detailed list of which do and which dont. Most of the experiments I have conducted on my network used
different versions of RedHat Linux, Mandrake Linux, and Windows XP.


Chapter 2.

Section a.

There are several different types of packet attacks. Theres the simple brute flood of ICMP packets which floods a network
and eats up all the available bandwidth. And then there are more sophisticated attacks like the Smurf or SYN/ACK attack.
All of these attacks target different things. While the SMURF attack may target the general network its attacking, the
SYN/ACK attack targets a specific host or service running on a host. We also must take into consideration when a target is
attacked it may not be the only machine affected. There are many routers and other boxes transfering the data between point
A and point B. Other peoples legitimate data is flowing between them, and may be disrupted by the packet flood. Even a top
of the line router can only handle so much data. And unfortunately it is very easy to attain soure code for these attacks
all over the web. Lets take a more detailed look at each attack.


ICMP brute flood attack.

ICMP works on top of TCP. The ICMP protocol is simple yet very effective. Its used for error correcting and testing network
connectivity. Your average PING program uses ICMP packets to test network connectivity. By sending a small amount of
arbitrary data in an ECHO_REQUEST packet it waits for a reply from the target host, simple right? A typical ICMP packet is
called an ECHO_REQUEST. You send 4 or 5 of these at a target machine and when it arrives there it requests an ECHO_REPLY.
Thats when everything is done according to design. If you want more info on an ICMP packet and how it works then read my
tutorial on that!
http://www.theory-x.org/dataclast/_content/MPS.txt

In this attack the source IP address is spoofed. So now hundreds, thousands of ECHO_REQUEST packets rush towards their
destination. They reach point B, request an ECHO_REPLY for every ECHO_REQUEST sent. Point B says OK, reads the source IP.
The source IP ends up being unreachable. But point B is waiting a small amount of time (milliseconds) to determine that for
every packet thats hitting it. It will be a few more moments before the process relinquishes this small bit of memory back
to the system. This adds up to a great deal of packets and memory allocation building up. Now if these packets are coming
from multiple source zombies (DDOS) then this means there each coming from different routes. So even if one ISP stops one
attack, there are still many more zombie machines attacking the victim. All of this is eating up time and bandwidth, because
with every millisecond that passes more and more bandwidth is being taken up. Eventually point B can no longer keep up with
the ECHO_REQUESTS and his connection is completely flooded and of no use. On an unprotected system or router this attack
can be very consuming. This attack is also sometimes referred to a bandwidth attack. Even if the target is running an
advanced firewall it cannot protect the wire it connected to from being flooded with packets. There have been changes in
this attack as well. On the net there are what we call amplifiers. On every network there are the network and subnet
addresses. In many default configurations when you ping either one of these addresses they multiply the echo requests by 4
or more. So a zombie would attack a vulnerable network (.0) or subnet address (.255) with a spoofed source IP, being the
victims real IP. So even tho the traffic becomes valid as far as IP addresses go. The victim gets bombarded with massive
ECHO_REPLY packets. You will see more of this description in other attacks, as it works for some of those to.

[zombie machine] -->ICMP ECHO_REQUEST (source IP = 1.1.1.1) -->-->--> [target]
[??????????????] ICMP ECHO_REPLY (destination 1.1.1.1 ?)<-- [target]

Hopefully that simple drawing shows you exactly how this attack works. Its very very simple, massive ICMP packets with
spoofed address's taking up network resources. The simplest of attacks.


Smurf attack.

(first part is repeat from ICMP attack) There have been changes in the ICMP attack. On the net there are what we call
amplifiers. On every network there are the network and subnet addresses. In many default configurations when you ping either
one of these addresses they multiply the echo requests by 4 or more. So a zombie would attack a vulnerable network (.0) or
subnet address (.255) with a spoofed source IP, being the victims real IP. So even tho the traffic becomes valid as far as
IP addresses go. The victim gets bombarded with massive ECHO_REPLY packets. You will see more of this description in other
attacks, as it works for those to.

You can try this attack on your home network by simply opening a packet sniffer on each machine that is on. Pick a machine,
any machine and ping your broadcast address. Mine is 192.168.0.255 Immediately you see each machine receiving a broadcast
packet. Now imagine its several hundred and each one has a spoofed source IP address. Its a brute ICMP attack on a massive
scale, this possibilities to this attack are endless. You could easily implement this attack in anyway you chose. You could
spoof the victims real IP as your source IP and create massive volumes of legit ECHO_REPLY packets. Even though its valid
traffic, its 4x or more times the normal load of valid traffic. This consumes the connection and valid traffic cant pass,
or passes so slowly it makes no difference to the end user.

[zombie machine] --> ICMP ECHO_REQUEST source ip = 10.2.2.2 --> to: broadcast router 4.1.0.255 (router multiplies the
ECHO_REPLY packets by 4x! --> --> --> --> [victim 10.2.2.2]


SYN/ACK attack.

The SYN/ACK attack is a very powerful attack. SYN/ACK packets are also used in TCP hijacking, and the TCP/IP three way
handshake. When an application wants to connect with a server somewhere over the net via a TCP connection (connection vs
connectionless data transfer (UDP)) it first sends a SYN packet. The SYN packet tells the target machine he wants to make
a connection on a certain specified port, and then send data. When the target machine read the SYN packet it replies to
the original host with a SYN packet of his own and an ACK (acknowledgement) packet with sequence and ack numbers. These SEQ
and ACK numbers are used to synchronize the data transfer, incase one or two packets gets lost or slowed down along its
route, it can be assembled again in the correct order. The orignal machine replies again with another SYN ACK packet
combination acknowledging the sequencing numbers and then it starts to send data. When it creates this connection a tiny
piece of memory is allocated to hold the connection while the packets are in route. Now a SYN/ACK attack would consist of
spoofing the source IP address on the original SYN packet. The target receives the request for a connection, reads the
spoofed source IP and tries to send its own SYN and ACK packet to a destination that does not exist. Most operating systems
will continue to send SYN/ACK packets if they dont receive a reply as a method of error correction and guaranteed data
delivery. Just like in the ICMP attack the machine has to wait a few milliseconds before abandoning all hope of reaching
the machine. So these tiny allocated spaces of memory are building up with every spoofed packet that arrives at the target.
This attack is very powerful and can disable a service running on the target machine in a matter of minutes. Not to mention
all the available bandwidth is eaten with thousands and thousands of spoofed packets. So there is the SYN/ACK attack in a
brief description.

[zombie machine] --> SYN packet (source IP 1.1.1.1, port = 23 telnet) (seq = 100) --> [target]
[??????????????] <-- SYN/ACK packets sent (seq = 300) (ack = 101) <-- [target]

As you can see from the simple drawing above the target machine has no idea who is sending the SYN packets and the telnet
server he is running on port 23 would most likely crash. At best the telnet daemon would not allow any other legitimate
traffic through, as it could not gather enough resources (memory, bandwidth) to make the connection due to all the spoofed
packets.

Another use of this attack is to disconnect a user from their current TCP session. By spoofing SYN/ACK packets to a server
a client is currently using. An attacker would place a "FIN" flag in the packets, this tells the server the client is done
sending data. Client uses his connection and attacker walks away undetected, because it only took one packet to accomplish
this.


UDP attack

UDP is a protocol that is used to transfer data. Short for USER DATAGRAM PROTOCOL. UDP offers very little error correction
and is used as an alternative means for data transfer. It doesn't require the 3 way handshake such as the SYN/ACK method,
so its initial attack may not take down a remote daemon as quickly. UDP is generally used to broadcast messages over a
network. A UDP attack would consist of spoofing the source IP addresses and specifying a port number like in the SYN attack
above. UDP packets are generally large because they are usually used on closed 100mb subnets (LANS). So an attack would set
flags in the packets and fragment them (break them up and flag where in the packet they broke, so they can be reassembled
on the receiving end). For example in Windows 2000 there was a remote UDP DOS exploit that used the IKE service running on
port 500. All an attacker had to do was connect to port 500 on a random machine with that port open. Start sending massive
UDP packets (above 500 bytes) to that service and the CPU usage would hit 99% and the machine would lock up. The typical
ports that accept UDP packets are 7, 13, 19 and 37 on a Windows box.

DNS attack

The DNS attack is a special one. Not as easily crafted as the others, there arent that many tools readily available to the
average script kiddie to construct such an attack. The DNS protocol is used for name resolution, 216.239.35.100 = google.com,
simple as that? Well not really. A DNS attack is based on the fact that a DNS query takes very little data and bandwidth to
create, but a DNS response is much bigger. So this is how a DNS attack would look like.

10.10.10.10 = victims IP

[dns query packet (who is google.com)] --> source IP is 10.10.10.10 --> [dns server]
[dns server] --> --> --> [dns response] [dns response] [dns response] --> [victim]

As you can see the attack is sort of relayed from a legitimate DNS server. Although the DNS response packets are 'legit'
there is a massive flood of them because the DNS server that is sending them is a very good machine on a very good
connection. The end user, most likely a home pc, gets flooded with these huge DNS response packets it never asked for.

ARP attack

The arp attack is a special one, it can be used to 'hijack' a tcp connection currently in session or it can be used to
sniff the legitimate traffic on a wire other then your own. Which is a very dangerous thing in the information world we
live in today. There are a few methods of this attack. Lets say person1, attacker, and server are all on the same subnet.
Person1 and server currently have an FTP session open. Attacker sends both server and person1 an ARP packet containing an
invalid MAC address. Now both of their arp tables are messed up for atleast 30 seconds. Server and person1 cant find that
invalid MAC address so they send their data to the IP its associated with, the attacker. So in this case the attacker has a
sniffer setup and hes collecting a ton of data. Now the attacker (an advanced one at that) can issue commands as person1 to
the server. This attack takes timing and skill to pull off on the internet, but on a LAN its very easy. It only allows for
maybe 30 or so seconds of sniffing, until their arp table is constructed properly again.

DRDOS attack

A DRDOS attack uses a little of other attacks to inflict damage. This attack spoofs the source IP address of SYN packets
to the IP of the victim. It requires a third party. This is the part of the attack that makes it so easy. All it needs is
some ftp, webserver, telnet.. ANY service that will reply with an ACK packet, anywhere on the internet. Could be angelfires
free ftp servers, could be your neighbors web server running off his 233mhz compaq with IIS 4.0. It doesn't matter! The SYN
packets are sent to that services IP address and they of course reply with a steady stream of SYN/ACK packets to the victim.
Most likely directed towards an open port on the victims machine, crashing that service and the system. These attacks are
near impossible to track down. This attack is quite possibly the strongest DOS attack in my opinion. For every SYN packet
you send the middle man, it sends out up to 4 SYN/ACK combinations to the victim. And each time the victim doesn't respond
the middle man sends even more (error correction). This allows the attacker to contruct a massive attack from just one
machine with a broadband connection. There are more dangers to this attack as well, there are hundreds of thousands of FTP,
webservers and many more services running on the net today that will deflect these SYN/ACK packets at the victim. So in
theory this attack could use any number of 'middle man' servers to bombard your network with packets.

Free dialup internet connection worldwide...

"Use FWD to make real, free phone calls using your favorite telephone, computer or PDA and any broadband connection. Call your neighbor or a relative, next door or in another country; all with the same ease, speed, and high quality." Thanks to Jeff Pulver and his crew!

Quick summary:

1 - First, got to http://www.freeworlddialup.com and sign up to get your FWD # and password.
2 - Download http://brands.xten.net/x-litefwd/download/X-LiteFWD_Install.exe FWD/X-Lite ("self-configures") program or go to http://www.myphonebooth.com/ to call any FWD # and U.S. toll free #s using Internet Explorer (Firefox not supported).

Quickstart Guide: http://www.freeworlddialup.com/support/quick_start_guide
FWD Xlite Configuration Guide: http://www.freeworlddialup.com/support/configuration_guide/configure_your_fwd_certified_phone/fwd_xlite/all
MS Windows Messenger Configuration Guide: http://pulver.com/fwd/fwd30news.html#messenger (FWD supports Windows Messenger 4.6/4.7 but not MSN Messenger 5.x.)

3 - To call a U.S. landline/cell #, dial *+arecode+7digit#. (This FWD feature is not listed on their website, but has been working for several months now.)

4 - To call a FWD # from a PSTN (your regular phone), click
http://www.dslreports.com/r0/download/476274~3ccc4c9edbe2a596714a4fd9da897204/fwdaccessnumbers.zip or after you've signed up go to FWD web page, click on "Features", "Access #s" for a list of FWD access numbers in your area. Available in several states in the U.S., UK, NL and DE at this time.

Packet8:
-- To call a P8 phone # from a FWD phone: Dial **898 + 1 + P8 number to be routed to P8 service.
-- To call a FWD # from a P8 phone:
*If the FWD # you are calling contains 5 digits, start to dial with the prefix 0351. For example: 035112345
*If the FWD # you are calling contains 6 digits, start to dial with the prefix 0451.

Call UK:
Get a UK telephone # that will call you on your FWD #. Register http://fwd.calluk.com.

FWD Features: Some features like Voice email needs to be activated at http://www.fwdnet.net

Internet Calling
Call Waiting
CallerID
Missed Call notification
Call Forwarding
Call Transfer
Three Way Calling
Voice email
SoftPhone, IP Phones & *Web-based
Aliases
Whitepages directory
ENUM Entry
eDial SOAP
Conferencing
Instant Messaging
Web Calling/FWD-Talk
Corporate Cisco Call Manager Connection
Calling to Toll Free Numbers in the UK, US, NL, JP and FR TellMe Service (411).
-- NL Dial *31(800)... to reach Netherlands toll free #s.
-- UK Dial *44(800)... or *44(808)... or *44 (500) to reach UK toll free #s.
-- US Dial *1(8xx) xxx xxxx to reach United States toll free #s.
-- JP Dial *81 0120... to reach Japan toll free #s.

Frequently used numbers
613 Echo test
55555 Volunteer Welcome Line
514 FWD Coffee House
612 Time
411 TellMe Information
611 Part Time Technical support
511 FWD Conference Bridge

At the moment, I think this is way better than Skype, Yahoo IM voice chat, etc...I've been using FWD for over a year with my cable broadband service and didn't have to set up any port forwarding on my broadband router. Obviously you'ld need a mic/speakers connected to your PC.

You can also use your regular telephone via an adapter http://voipstore.pulver.com/product_info.php?products_id=32 and IP phone http://voipstore.pulver.com/product_info.php?products_id=33. Adapters and IP phones from different vendors like Cisco are available.

* Broadbandreports.com VoIP forum (formerly known as DSLReports.com)
-- If you have any questions or just curious about VoIP, visit the VoIP forum http://www.dslreports.com/forum/voip at DSLReports.com.

How To: Change Your Ip In Less Than 1 Minute

1. Click on "Start" in the bottom left hand corner of screen
2. Click on "Run"
3. Type in "command" and hit ok

You should now be at an MSDOS prompt screen.

4. Type "ipconfig /release" just like that, and hit "enter"
5. Type "exit" and leave the prompt
6. Right-click on "Network Places" or "My Network Places" on your desktop.
7. Click on "properties"


You should now be on a screen with something titled "Local Area Connection", or something close to that, and, if you have a network hooked up, all of your other networks.

8. Right click on "Local Area Connection" and click "properties"
9. Double-click on the "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)" from the list under the "General" tab
10. Click on "Use the following IP address" under the "General" tab
11. Create an IP address (It doesn't matter what it is. I just type 1 and 2 until i fill the area up).
12. Press "Tab" and it should automatically fill in the "Subnet Mask" section with default numbers.
13. Hit the "Ok" button here
14. Hit the "Ok" button again

You should now be back to the "Local Area Connection" screen.

15. Right-click back on "Local Area Connection" and go to properties again.
16. Go back to the "TCP/IP" settings
17. This time, select "Obtain an IP address automatically"
tongue.gif 18. Hit "Ok"
19. Hit "Ok" again
20. You now have a new IP address

With a little practice, you can easily get this process down to 15 seconds.

P.S:
This only changes your dynamic IP address, not your ISP/IP address. If you plan on hacking a website with this trick be extremely careful, because if they try a little, they can trace it back

Bit Torrent Tutorials

The first things you need to know about using Bit Torrent:
-- Bit Torrent is aimed at broadband users (or any connection better than dialup).
-- Sharing is highly appreciated, and sharing is what keeps bit torrent alive.
-- A bit torrent file (*.torrent) contains information about the piece structure of the download (more on this later)
-- The method of downloading is not your conventional type of download. Since downloads do not come in as one
big chunk, you are able to download from many people at once, increasing your download speeds. There may be
100 "pieces" to a file, or 20,000+ pieces, all depending on what you're downloading. Pieces are usually small (under 200kb)
-- The speeds are based upon people sharing as they download, and seeders. Seeders are people who constantly
share in order to keep torrents alive. Usually seeders are on fast connections (10mb or higher).


In this tutorial, I will be describing it all using a bit torrent client called Azureus. This client is used to decode the .torrent files into a useable format to download from other peers. From here on out, I will refer to Bit Torrent as BT.

Which BT client you use, is purely up to you. I have tried them all, and my personal favorite is Azureus for many reasons. A big problem with most BT clients out there, is that they are extremely CPU intensive, usually using 100% of your cpu power during the whole process. This is the number one reason I use Azureus. Another, is a recently released plug-in that enables you to browse all current files listed on suprnova.org (the #1 source for torrent downloads).

Before you use the plug-in, take a look at /http://www.suprnova.org, and browse the files. Hold your mouse over the links, and you'll notice every file ends in .torrent. This is the BT file extension. Usually, .torrent files are very small, under 200kb. They contain a wealth of information about the file you want to download. A .torrent file can contain just 1 single file, or a a directory full of files and more directories. But regardless, every download is split up into hundreds or thousands of pieces. The pieces make it much easier to download at higher speeds. Back to suprnova.org. Look at the columns:

Added | Name | Filesize | Seeds | DLs (and a few more which aren't very useful.)

I'll break this down.
Added: Self explanitory, its the date the torrent was added.
Name: Also self explanitory.
Filesize: Duh
Seeds: This is how many people are strictly UPLOADING, or sharing. These people are the ones that keep .torrent files alive. By "alive", I mean, if there's no one sharing the .torrent file, no one can download.
DLs: This is how many people currently downloading that particular torrent. They also help keep the torrent alive as they share while they download.

It's always best to download using a torrent that has a decent amount of seeders and downloaders, this way you can be assured there's a good chance your download will finish. The more the better.

Now that you should understand how torrent files work, and how to use them, on to Azureus!
First, get JAVA! You need this to run Azureus, as java is what powers it. Get Java here: /http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/download.html
Next, get Azureus at: /http://azureus.sourceforge.net
Next, get the Suprnovalister plugin from /http://s93732957.onlinehome.us/storage/suprnovalister.jar

Install Java JRE before you do ANYTHING.

Install Azureus, and then in the installation folder, create 2 more folders. ./Plugins/suprnovalister (For example, if you installed Azureus to C:\PROGRAM FILES\AZUREUS, create C:\PROGRAM FILES\AZUREUS\PLUGINS\SUPRNOVALISTER). Next, put the suprnovalister.jar file that you downloaded, in that folder.

Load up Azureus, and if you want, go through the settings and personalize it.

The tab labeled "My Torrents" is the section of Azureus you need the most often. That lists all your transfers, uploads and downloads. It shows every bit of information you could possibly want to know about torrents you download.

In the menu bar, go to View > Plugins > Suprnova Lister. This will open up a new tab in Azureus. Click on "Update Mirror". This will get a mirror site of suprnova.org containing all current torrent files available. Once a mirror is grabbed, choose a category from the drop-down box to the left and click "Update". Wah-lah, all the available downloads appear in the main chart above. Just double click a download you want, and bang its starting to download. Open the "My Torrents" tab again to view and make sure your download started.

After your download has finished, be nice, and leave the torrent transferring. So people can get pieces of the file from you, just as you got pieces from other people.

Alternatively, if you don't want to use the plugin... you can just head to suprnova.org and download files to any folder. Then go to File > Open > .torrent File in Azureus.

This should about wrap it up for the Bit Torrent Tutorial. If you guys think of anything I should add, or whatnot, just let me know and I'll check into it.

BandWidth Explained

Most hosting companies offer a variety of bandwidth options in their plans. So exactly what is bandwidth as it relates to web hosting? Put simply, bandwidth is the amount of traffic that is allowed to occur between your web site and the rest of the internet. The amount of bandwidth a hosting company can provide is determined by their network connections, both internal to their data center and external to the public internet.


Network Connectivity


The internet, in the most simplest of terms, is a group of millions of computers connected by networks. These connections within the internet can be large or small depending upon the cabling and equipment that is used at a particular internet location. It is the size of each network connection that determines how much bandwidth is available. For example, if you use a DSL connection to connect to the internet, you have 1.54 Mega bits (Mb) of bandwidth. Bandwidth therefore is measured in bits (a single 0 or 1). Bits are grouped in bytes which form words, text, and other information that is transferred between your computer and the internet.

If you have a DSL connection to the internet, you have dedicated bandwidth between your computer and your internet provider. But your internet provider may have thousands of DSL connections to their location. All of these connection aggregate at your internet provider who then has their own dedicated connection to the internet (or multiple connections) which is much larger than your single connection. They must have enough bandwidth to serve your computing needs as well as all of their other customers. So while you have a 1.54Mb connection to your internet provider, your internet provider may have a 255Mb connection to the internet so it can accommodate your needs and up to 166 other users (255/1.54).


Traffic

A very simple analogy to use to understand bandwidth and traffic is to think of highways and cars. Bandwidth is the number of lanes on the highway and traffic is the number of cars on the highway. If you are the only car on a highway, you can travel very quickly. If you are stuck in the middle of rush hour, you may travel very slowly since all of the lanes are being used up.

Traffic is simply the number of bits that are transferred on network connections. It is easiest to understand traffic using examples. One Gigabyte is 2 to the 30th power (1,073,741,824) bytes. One gigabyte is equal to 1,024 megabytes. To put this in perspective, it takes one byte to store one character. Imagine 100 file cabinets in a building, each of these cabinets holds 1000 folders. Each folder has 100 papers. Each paper contains 100 characters - A GB is all the characters in the building. An MP3 song is about 4MB, the same song in wav format is about 40MB, a full length movie can be 800MB to 1000MB (1000MB = 1GB).

If you were to transfer this MP3 song from a web site to your computer, you would create 4MB of traffic between the web site you are downloading from and your computer. Depending upon the network connection between the web site and the internet, the transfer may occur very quickly, or it could take time if other people are also downloading files at the same time. If, for example, the web site you download from has a 10MB connection to the internet, and you are the only person accessing that web site to download your MP3, your 4MB file will be the only traffic on that web site. However, if three people are all downloading that same MP at the same time, 12MB (3 x 4MB) of traffic has been created. Because in this example, the host only has 10MB of bandwidth, someone will have to wait. The network equipment at the hosting company will cycle through each person downloading the file and transfer a small portion at a time so each person's file transfer can take place, but the transfer for everyone downloading the file will be slower. If 100 people all came to the site and downloaded the MP3 at the same time, the transfers would be extremely slow. If the host wanted to decrease the time it took to download files simultaneously, it could increase the bandwidth of their internet connection (at a cost due to upgrading equipment).


Hosting Bandwidth

In the example above, we discussed traffic in terms of downloading an MP3 file. However, each time you visit a web site, you are creating traffic, because in order to view that web page on your computer, the web page is first downloaded to your computer (between the web site and you) which is then displayed using your browser software (Internet Explorer, Netscape, etc.) . The page itself is simply a file that creates traffic just like the MP3 file in the example above (however, a web page is usually much smaller than a music file).

A web page may be very small or large depending upon the amount of text and the number and quality of images integrated within the web page. For example, the home page for CNN.com is about 200KB (200 Kilobytes = 200,000 bytes = 1,600,000 bits). This is typically large for a web page. In comparison, Yahoo's home page is about 70KB.


How Much Bandwidth Is Enough?

It depends (don't you hate that answer). But in truth, it does. Since bandwidth is a significant determinant of hosting plan prices, you should take time to determine just how much is right for you. Almost all hosting plans have bandwidth requirements measured in months, so you need to estimate the amount of bandwidth that will be required by your site on a monthly basis

If you do not intend to provide file download capability from your site, the formula for calculating bandwidth is fairly straightforward:

Average Daily Visitors x Average Page Views x Average Page Size x 31 x Fudge Factor

If you intend to allow people to download files from your site, your bandwidth calculation should be:

[(Average Daily Visitors x Average Page Views x Average Page Size) +
(Average Daily File Downloads x Average File Size)] x 31 x Fudge Factor

Let us examine each item in the formula:

Average Daily Visitors - The number of people you expect to visit your site, on average, each day. Depending upon how you market your site, this number could be from 1 to 1,000,000.

Average Page Views - On average, the number of web pages you expect a person to view. If you have 50 web pages in your web site, an average person may only view 5 of those pages each time they visit.

Average Page Size - The average size of your web pages, in Kilobytes (KB). If you have already designed your site, you can calculate this directly.

Average Daily File Downloads - The number of downloads you expect to occur on your site. This is a function of the numbers of visitors and how many times a visitor downloads a file, on average, each day.

Average File Size - Average file size of files that are downloadable from your site. Similar to your web pages, if you already know which files can be downloaded, you can calculate this directly.

Fudge Factor - A number greater than 1. Using 1.5 would be safe, which assumes that your estimate is off by 50%. However, if you were very unsure, you could use 2 or 3 to ensure that your bandwidth requirements are more than met.

Usually, hosting plans offer bandwidth in terms of Gigabytes (GB) per month. This is why our formula takes daily averages and multiplies them by 31.


Summary

Most personal or small business sites will not need more than 1GB of bandwidth per month. If you have a web site that is composed of static web pages and you expect little traffic to your site on a daily basis, go with a low bandwidth plan. If you go over the amount of bandwidth allocated in your plan, your hosting company could charge you over usage fees, so if you think the traffic to your site will be significant, you may want to go through the calculations above to estimate the amount of bandwidth required in a hosting plan.

Backtracking EMAIL Messages

Tracking email back to its source: Twisted Evil
cause i hate spammers... Evil or Very Mad

Ask most people how they determine who sent them an email message and the response is almost universally, "By the From line." Unfortunately this symptomatic of the current confusion among internet users as to where particular messages come from and who is spreading spam and viruses. The "From" header is little more than a courtesy to the person receiving the message. People spreading spam and viruses are rarely courteous. In short, if there is any question about where a particular email message came from the safe bet is to assume the "From" header is forged.


So how do you determine where a message actually came from? You have to understand how email messages are put together in order to backtrack an email message. SMTP is a text based protocol for transferring messages across the internet. A series of headers are placed in front of the data portion of the message. By examining the headers you can usually backtrack a message to the source network, sometimes the source host. A more detailed essay on reading email headers can be found .

If you are using Outlook or Outlook Express you can view the headers by right clicking on the message and selecting properties or options.

Below are listed the headers of an actual spam message I received. I've changed my email address and the name of my server for obvious reasons. I've also double spaced the headers to make them more readable.


Return-Path:

X-Original-To: davar@example.com

Delivered-To: davar@example.com

Received: from 12-218-172-108.client.mchsi.com (12-218-172-108.client.mchsi.com [12.218.172.108])
by mailhost.example.com (Postfix) with SMTP id 1F9B8511C7
for ; Sun, 16 Nov 2003 09:50:37 -0800 (PST)

Received: from (HELO 0udjou) [193.12.169.0] by 12-218-172-108.client.mchsi.com with ESMTP id <536806-74276>; Sun, 16 Nov 2003 19:42:31 +0200

Message-ID:

From: "Maricela Paulson"

Reply-To: "Maricela Paulson"

To: davar@example.com

Subject: STOP-PAYING For Your PAY-PER-VIEW, Movie Channels, Mature Channels...isha

Date: Sun, 16 Nov 2003 19:42:31 +0200

X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21)

X-Priority: 3

MIME-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="MIMEStream=_0+211404_90873633350646_4032088448"


According to the From header this message is from Maricela Paulson at s359dyxxt@yahoo.com. I could just fire off a message to abuse@yahoo.com, but that would be waste of time. This message didn't come from yahoo's email service.

The header most likely to be useful in determining the actual source of an email message is the Received header. According to the top-most Received header this message was received from the host 12-218-172-108.client.mchsi.com with the ip address of 21.218.172.108 by my server mailhost.example.com. An important item to consider is at what point in the chain does the email system become untrusted? I consider anything beyond my own email server to be an unreliable source of information. Because this header was generated by my email server it is reasonable for me to accept it at face value.

The next Received header (which is chronologically the first) shows the remote email server accepting the message from the host 0udjou with the ip 193.12.169.0. Those of you who know anything about IP will realize that that is not a valid host IP address. In addition, any hostname that ends in client.mchsi.com is unlikely to be an authorized email server. This has every sign of being a cracked client system.


Here's is where we start digging. By default Windows is somewhat lacking in network diagnostic tools; however, you can use the tools at to do your own checking.

davar@nqh9k:[/home/davar] $whois 12.218.172.108

AT&T WorldNet Services ATT (NET-12-0-0-0-1)
12.0.0.0 - 12.255.255.255
Mediacom Communications Corp MEDIACOMCC-12-218-168-0-FLANDREAU-MN (NET-12-218-168-0-1)
12.218.168.0 - 12.218.175.255

# ARIN WHOIS database, last updated 2003-12-31 19:15
# Enter ? for additional hints on searching ARIN's WHOIS database.

I can also verify the hostname of the remote server by using nslookup, although in this particular instance, my email server has already provided both the IP address and the hostname.

davar@nqh9k:[/home/davar] $nslookup 12.218.172.108

Server: localhost
Address: 127.0.0.1

Name: 12-218-172-108.client.mchsi.com
Address: 12.218.172.108

Ok, whois shows that Mediacom Communications owns that netblock and nslookup confirms the address to hostname mapping of the remote server,12-218-172-108.client.mchsi.com. If I preface a www in front of the domain name portion and plug that into my web browser, http://www.mchsi.com, I get Mediacom's web site.

There are few things more embarrassing to me than firing off an angry message to someone who is supposedly responsible for a problem, and being wrong. By double checking who owns the remote host's IP address using two different tools (whois and nslookup) I minimize the chance of making myself look like an idiot.

A quick glance at the web site and it appears they are an ISP. Now if I copy the entire message including the headers into a new email message and send it to abuse@mchsi.com with a short message explaining the situation, they may do something about it.

But what about Maricela Paulson? There really is no way to determine who sent a message, the best you can hope for is to find out what host sent it. Even in the case of a PGP signed messages there is no guarantee that one particular person actually pressed the send button. Obviously determining who the actual sender of an email message is much more involved than reading the From header. Hopefully this example may be of some use to other forum regulars.

How to hack anti leech

I was just asking to know if there is some audiance before
here is my methode
for hacking anti leech
we gona use a soft calde proxo mitron
proxomitron is an anti bull script web proxy it' works buy applying some rules to elliuminte pop up and many other thing but for our cas we need to desactive all this filtring first goto
w-w.proxomitron.info
download a copy of the soft
then you need to unselect all the option of the soft
and clik on log window
no go to a anti leech web site
use the plug in and not netpumper
in the plugin
add a proxy
you must put this proxy adress
127.0.0.1 8080 for http
the same for ftp


now select the file to download a click download
watch in proximitron log winodws you will see many internal forwarding
if the file are located in a ftp server
proximitron dont handel them
and you will find an error
in a ftp adress
if it's a http adress
you will find some thing like
get /blablalma/bla/file
site tr.com
and you have foudn the adress
it' tr.com/blabla/file

Anonymity

I can see you hiding in the shadows over there and so can the logs of all the web sites, FTP servers and other nooks and crannies you visit on the web. The sort of information gathered by these logs and which is available to the webmasters of the sites you visit include the address of the previous site you visited, your IP address, your computer's ID name, your physical location and the name of your ISP along with less personal details such as the operating system you're using and your screen resolution. If someone was snooping through your dustbin to gather information on consumer trends or tracking your every move to see where it is you go everyday you wouldn't be too chuffed would you. Well the web is no different, it's still an invasion of privacy and a threat to security and you don't have to put up with it.


Proxy servers:
Every time you visit a web site, detailed information about your system is automatically provided to the webmaster. This information can be used by hackers to exploit your computer or can be forwarded to the market research departments of consumer corporations who by tracking your activities on the internet are better equipped to direct more relevant spam at you. Your best defence against this is to use what is known as a proxy server, which will hide revealing information from the web sites you visit, allowing you to surf the web anonymously. These work by altering the way in which your browser retrieves web pages or connects to remote servers. With a proxy server set up, whenever you 'ask' IE or Netscape to look at a web page, the request is first sent through an external server which is completely independent of your ISP's servers. This third party server then does the requesting on your behalf so that it appears that the request came from them rather than you and your real IP address is never disclosed to the sites you visit. There is nothing to download and the whole process takes less than a minute.

There are two different ways to use proxy servers and both have their advantages and disadvantages. The first method is to use a web based service. What this involves is visiting the proxy's home page each time you want to browse a web site anonymously. The core component of such a system is the dialog box where you enter the address of the web site you want to visit. Each time you enter the URL of the site you want to browse via the proxy into this box, your personal information, IP address and so on is first encrypted before being sent to the site allowing you to maintain your anonymity. Two of the best examples of this type of web based proxy service are Code:
hxxp://www.rewebber.com/
and hxxp://www.anonymizer.com/.

Obviously one disadvantage of using a web based service like Rewebber or Anonymizer, however, is that you have to visit the proxies home page each time you want to surf anonymously. You could choose to select this page as your default home page, but it's still quite awkward if you're forever site hopping at the speed of light. The second main 'con' is that you often have to put up with extra adverts on the pages you visit. These are automatically inserted into the pages by the proxy - they have to pay for service somehow. More sophisticated and convenient solutions are also on offer yet they come with a price tag.

The second method you can use to protect your privacy via a proxy server involves adjusting the settings of your web browser so that you can surf anonymously without having to visit the home page of your proxy each time. To do this you will first need to know the name of your proxy server and the port number it uses. This information can be gleaned from either a public proxy server list or the FAQ referring to a private subscription based service. Once you have the name of the proxy server you wish to use, select 'Internet Options' from the 'Tools' menu of your browser. Now select 'Connections' followed by 'Settings' and tick the 'use a proxy server' check box. To finish the job all you have to do now is enter the name of the server in the 'address' box, the port which it uses in the 'port' box and go forth and surf anonymously.

Free, manual proxy servers as advertised on anonymity sites, if you can find one at all, are likely to be highly oversubscribed, and as a result the speed at which they retrieve web pages can deteriorate. In which case you can go in pursuit of a public proxy server list and select an alternative from it, which can then be set up manually. To locate such a list you can investigate sites such as Code:
hxxp://www.proxys4all.com/

however, this method isn't problem free either, so before you get too carried away and go jumping on the anonymity bandwagon there are a few things you should be aware of. It's very easy to use proxies to protect your privacy, but often the disadvantages of using them far out weigh the benefits. You see, the problem is that, like the proxy servers provided Rewebber et al, free, public proxies are nearly all over subscribed and so they can slow down web browsing considerably. Digging out fast reliable proxy servers is an art form in itself and is a skill which takes considerable practice. You could find a list of public proxy servers and then experiment with each one until you find one that runs at a reasonable speed, but this can be very time consuming and frustrating. Instead, your search would be much more efficient if you got a dedicated program to carry out this task for you. There are literally dozens of proxy seeking programs around which can do just that, and many of them are available as freeware. What these do is scan the internet for public proxy servers. These servers are then tested for speed and anonymity (not all of them are truly anonymous, even if they claim to be!) and once you find one which suits your requirements you can select it as your default proxy with the click of a button.

One of the most significant advantages of using an automated tool to locate proxy servers is that you do not have to keep editing your proxy settings manually each time you wish to try out a new one. Instead, what you do is enter 'localhost' or '127.0.0.1' into the 'address' box and '8088' into the 'port' box of your browser's proxy settings menu and then forget about it. All future proxy switching is then orchestrated from within your proxy seeking software, which subsequently relays the information to your browser or whatever type of application you are attempting to make anonymous. For those of you who are curious 'localhost' and the IP address '127.0.0.1' are the names by which every computer on the internet refers to itself.
Here's a good selection of links, which should help you to get started - Code:
hxxp://www.a4proxy.com/ Anonymity 4 Proxy
hxxp://www.helgasoft.com/hiproxy/ Hi Proxy
hxxp://www.proxy-verifier.com/ Proxy Verifier
hxxp://www.photono-software.de/ Stealther.

You may find that even when using these programs you have difficulty finding good proxy servers. It is for this reason that many people choose only to use proxy servers temporarily whilst doing something which may land them in trouble with their ISP, or in a worst case scenario with the law. The most obvious example of a situation in which you would want to cover your tracks is when scanning for public FTP servers and subsequently uploading to them. Most other net activities are unlikely to incur serious consequences so under these circumstances you can safely surf the web without a proxy. If you're really serious about protecting your privacy, however, your best bet is probably to invest in a dedicated, stable proxy such as the ones offered by Code:
hxxp://www.ultimate-anonymity.com/ Ultimate Anonymity


These aren't free, but may be worth the expense if you aren't keen on continuously switching proxy servers.

Before splashing out though it may be worth checking if your current ISP has a proxy server of its own which you can use. These aren't there to help you to commit cyber crimes and get away with it, they actually have a legitimate purpose as well - otherwise they wouldn't exist. You see, proxy servers were originally designed to help speed up web page loading times. Proxy servers contain a cache of all the web pages which have been requested via the browsers of the people using the proxy. When someone surfs the web using a proxy, the proxy first checks to see if it already has a copy of the web page stored in its cache. If this version of the page is bang up to date, it is sent to your computer and appears in your browser. If the page found in the cache of the proxy server is older than the one stored on the server hosting the page, a new request to the web server is made and the page is updated in the cache of the proxy before being sent to you. Because these servers use very fast internet connections they can retrieve web pages at much greater speeds than you can via your modest home setup. If these servers are located physically nearer to your home than the web host servers you wish to retrieve web pages from, the speed at which you browse the web will be accelerated.


Anonymity - Cookies
One last important point you need to be aware of before jumping in with both feet is that different programs have to be setup in different ways before being able to make external connections via a proxy server. For example, you can surf the web anonymously by modifying the settings in Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator as explained earlier in this tutorial, but this will only affect your browser. If you then used Flash FXP to copy a batch of 0-day releases from one FTP server to another, this isn't going to protect you in the slightest. What you have to do is enter the name of the proxy server into each application you wish to make anonymous before making any external connections. This can usually be done by browsing through the preferences of your program to see if there is a 'use proxy server' option available. If there is, make sure you use it!


Cookies:
You have little to fear from the edible variety, but the digital ones can be a major threat to your security and privacy. A cookie is a tiny text file (usually less than 1kb in size), which is created and stored on your hard drive whenever you visit a dynamic (or an interactive if you like) web site. These are used to log your personal details so that you can access members only areas of web sites without having to type in a password every time, or to retain your customised settings so that they are available the next time you visit. If you're using a shared computer, anyone who visits the same site that you have previously logged in to can access your accounts. This is particularly worrying if you have entered your credit card details into a form on an e-commerce site. If your browser is set to automatically fill in these details whenever you
return to a previously visited site, this information could be clearly visible - you don't need me to explain the problems this could entail.

The solution to this problem is to delete any cookies which contain sensitive data once you have completed your transactions. Your cookies will be stored in a different place depending on which operating system you are using so you will have to use your detective skills to find them. As an example, in Windows XP they are located in your 'c:\Documents and Settings\Kylie Minogue\Cookies' directory (that is if your name is Kylie Minogue. Mine isn't in case you're wondering!). If you look in this directory, in some cases it is easy to identify which cookie is associated with which web site, but in other cases it's not so obvious. The cookie which was created when you visited Yahoo.com to check your email may be called kylie minogue@yahoo.txt for example. Unfortunately some cookies refer to the IP address of the site you visited and so look more like kylie minogue@145.147.25.21. These cookies can be selectively deleted one at a time if it's obvious which ones are causing a threat to your security, or you can just wipe out the whole lot in one fell swoop and have them recreated as and when they are required. However, if
you're really struggling to find your cookie jar, you could delete your cookies via your browser's tool bar instead. In Internet Explorer this can be done through the 'Tools' > 'Internet Options' menu items.

If all this sounds like too much hassle, you can always find a labour saving program which will be happy to take the job off your hands. These 'cookie crunching' programs allow you to be more selective when editing, viewing and deleting cookies from your system, and some of them will even prevent cookies from being created in the first place. Yes, I know you're hungry for links so I won't deprive you. Have a look here - Code:
hxxp://www.rbaworld.com/Programs/CookieCruncher/ Cookie
Cruncher
hxxp://www.thelimitsoft.com/ Cookie Crusher
hxxp://www.angove.com/ Cookie Killer
hxxp://www.kburra.com/ Cookie Pal
and
hxxp://www.cookiecentral.com/ Cookie Web Kit.

Anonymity of Proxy

The exchange of information in Internet is made by the "client - server" model. A client sends a request (what files he needs) and a server sends a reply (required files). For close cooperation (full understanding) between a client and a server the client sends additional information about itself: a version and a name of an operating system, configuration of a browser (including its name and version) etc. This information can be necessary for the server in order to know which web-page should be given (open) to the client. There are different variants of web-pages for different configurations of browsers. However, as long as web-pages do not usually depend on browsers, it makes sense to hide this information from the web-server.

What your browser transmits to a web-server:
a name and a version of an operating system
a name and a version of a browser
configuration of a browser (display resolution, color depth, java / javascript support, ...)
IP-address of a client
Other information


The most important part of such information (and absolutely needless for a web-server) is information about IP-address. Using your IP it is possible to know about you the following:
a country where you are from
a city
your provider?s name and e-mail
your physical address

Information, transmitted by a client to a server is available (accessible) for a server as environment variables. Every information unit is a value of some variable. If any information unit is not transmitted, then corresponding variable will be empty (its value will be undetermined).

These are some environment variables:

REMOTE_ADDR ? IP address of a client

HTTP_VIA ? if it is not empty, then a proxy is used. Value is an address (or several addresses) of a proxy server, this variable is added by a proxy server itself if you use one.

HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR ? if it is not empty, then a proxy is used. Value is a real IP address of a client (your IP), this variable is also added by a proxy server if you use one.

HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE ? what language is used in browser (what language a page should be displayed in)

HTTP_USER_AGENT ? so called "a user?s agent". For all browsers this is Mozilla. Furthermore, browser?s name and version (e.g. MSIE 5.5) and an operating system (e.g. Windows 98) is also mentioned here.

HTTP_HOST ? is a web server?s name

This is a small part of environment variables. In fact there are much more of them (DOCUMENT_ROOT, HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING, HTTP_CACHE_CONTROL, HTTP_CONNECTION, SERVER_ADDR, SERVER_SOFTWARE, SERVER_PROTOCOL, ...). Their quantity can depend on settings of both a server and a client.

These are examples of variable values:

REMOTE_ADDR = 194.85.1.1
HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE = ru
HTTP_USER_AGENT = Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.0; Windows 98)
HTTP_HOST = www.webserver.ru
HTTP_VIA = 194.85.1.1 (Squid/2.4.STABLE7)
HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR = 194.115.5.5

Anonymity at work in Internet is determined by what environment variables "hide" from a web-server.

If a proxy server is not used, then environment variables look in the following way:

REMOTE_ADDR = your IP
HTTP_VIA = not determined
HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR = not determined

According to how environment variables "hided" by proxy servers, there are several types of proxies
Transparent Proxies

They do not hide information about your IP address:

REMOTE_ADDR = proxy IP
HTTP_VIA = proxy IP
HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR = your IP

The function of such proxy servers is not the improvement of your anonymity in Internet. Their purpose is information cashing, organization of joint access to Internet of several computers, etc.
Anonymous Proxies

All proxy servers, that hide a client?s IP address in any way are called anonymous proxies

Simple Anonymous Proxies

These proxy servers do not hide a fact that a proxy is used, however they replace your IP with its own:
REMOTE_ADDR = proxy IP
HTTP_VIA = proxy IP
HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR = proxy IP

These proxies are the most widespread among other anonymous proxy servers.

Distorting Proxies

As well as simple anonymous proxy servers these proxies do not hide the fact that a proxy server is used. However a client?s IP address (your IP address) is replaced with another (arbitrary, random) IP:

REMOTE_ADDR = proxy IP
HTTP_VIA = proxy IP
HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR = random IP address
High Anonymity Proxies

These proxy servers are also called "high anonymity proxy". In contrast to other types of anonymity proxy servers they hide a fact of using a proxy:

REMOTE_ADDR = proxy IP
HTTP_VIA = not determined
HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR = not determined

That means that values of variables are the same as if proxy is not used, with the exception of one very important thing ? proxy IP is used instead of your IP address.
Summary

Depending on purposes there are transparent and anonymity proxies. However, remember, using proxy servers you hide only your IP from a web-server, but other information (about browser configuration) is accessible!

Accessing The Entire Internet On Your 3 Phone

If you have a phone thats with the provider 3 theres a simple trick to allow you to access the entire internet on its browser without having to go through 3 services and only what they want to allow you access to view.

Simply do the following.

Menu - 9 (for settings) - 5 (for access points) - Edit the 3 Services
Change the APN (down the bottom) from 3services to 3netaccess
Restart the phone
And you can now access the entire internet through your phones browser.

Remember you'll have to change it back if you want to access 3 services.
Changing it in the browser doesn't seem to work.

I have tried this on my U8110 and it worked perfectly


Things to note:

* Remember that you are charged for all downloads (.4c per kb on most plans) so if your cautious about your phone bill id advise staying away from sites with loads of pictures.
* Also, some people have had trouble where they have accessed a site with too much information on it and the phone has either froze or reset. The phone is not harmed by this but its advisable you dont go to large sites on it for this or the above reason. If your phone freezes and you cant turn it off simply take the battery out and put it back in.

A Basic Guide to the Internet

The Internet is a computer network made up of thousands of networks worldwide. No one knows exactly how many computers are connected to the Internet. It is certain, however, that these number in the millions.

No one is in charge of the Internet. There are organizations which develop technical aspects of this network and set standards for creating applications on it, but no governing body is in control. The Internet backbone, through which Internet traffic flows, is owned by private companies.

All computers on the Internet communicate with one another using the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol suite, abbreviated to TCP/IP. Computers on the Internet use a client/server architecture. This means that the remote server machine provides files and services to the user's local client machine. Software can be installed on a client computer to take advantage of the latest access technology.


An Internet user has access to a wide variety of services: electronic mail, file transfer, vast information resources, interest group membership, interactive collaboration, multimedia displays, real-time broadcasting, shopping opportunities, breaking news, and much more.

The Internet consists primarily of a variety of access protocols. Many of these protocols feature programs that allow users to search for and retrieve material made available by the protocol.


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COMPONENTS OF THE INTERNET

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WORLD WIDE WEB
The World Wide Web (abbreviated as the Web or WWW) is a system of Internet servers that supports hypertext to access several Internet protocols on a single interface. Almost every protocol type available on the Internet is accessible on the Web. This includes e-mail, FTP, Telnet, and Usenet News. In addition to these, the World Wide Web has its own protocol: HyperText Transfer Protocol, or HTTP. These protocols will be explained later in this document.

The World Wide Web provides a single interface for accessing all these protocols. This creates a convenient and user-friendly environment. It is no longer necessary to be conversant in these protocols within separate, command-level environments. The Web gathers together these protocols into a single system. Because of this feature, and because of the Web's ability to work with multimedia and advanced programming languages, the Web is the fastest-growing component of the Internet.

The operation of the Web relies primarily on hypertext as its means of information retrieval. HyperText is a document containing words that connect to other documents. These words are called links and are selectable by the user. A single hypertext document can contain links to many documents. In the context of the Web, words or graphics may serve as links to other documents, images, video, and sound. Links may or may not follow a logical path, as each connection is programmed by the creator of the source document. Overall, the Web contains a complex virtual web of connections among a vast number of documents, graphics, videos, and sounds.

Producing hypertext for the Web is accomplished by creating documents with a language called HyperText Markup Language, or HTML. With HTML, tags are placed within the text to accomplish document formatting, visual features such as font size, italics and bold, and the creation of hypertext links. Graphics and multimedia may also be incorporated into an HTML document. HTML is an evolving language, with new tags being added as each upgrade of the language is developed and released. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), led by Web founder Tim Berners-Lee, coordinates the efforts of standardizing HTML. The W3C now calls the language XHTML and considers it to be an application of the XML language standard.

The World Wide Web consists of files, called pages or home pages, containing links to documents and resources throughout the Internet.

The Web provides a vast array of experiences including multimedia presentations, real-time collaboration, interactive pages, radio and television broadcasts, and the automatic "push" of information to a client computer. Programming languages such as Java, JavaScript, Visual Basic, Cold Fusion and XML are extending the capabilities of the Web. A growing amount of information on the Web is served dynamically from content stored in databases. The Web is therefore not a fixed entity, but one that is in a constant state of development and flux.

For more complete information about the World Wide Web, see Understanding The World Wide Web.

E-MAIL
Electronic mail, or e-mail, allows computer users locally and worldwide to exchange messages. Each user of e-mail has a mailbox address to which messages are sent. Messages sent through e-mail can arrive within a matter of seconds.

A powerful aspect of e-mail is the option to send electronic files to a person's e-mail address. Non-ASCII files, known as binary files, may be attached to e-mail messages. These files are referred to as MIME attachments.MIME stands for Multimedia Internet Mail Extension, and was developed to help e-mail software handle a variety of file types. For example, a document created in Microsoft Word can be attached to an e-mail message and retrieved by the recipient with the appropriate e-mail program. Many e-mail programs, including Eudora, Netscape Messenger, and Microsoft Outlook, offer the ability to read files written in HTML, which is itself a MIME type.

TELNET
Telnet is a program that allows you to log into computers on the Internet and use online databases, library catalogs, chat services, and more. There are no graphics in Telnet sessions, just text. To Telnet to a computer, you must know its address. This can consist of words (locis.loc.gov) or numbers (140.147.254.3). Some services require you to connect to a specific port on the remote computer. In this case, type the port number after the Internet address. Example: telnet nri.reston.va.us 185.

Telnet is available on the World Wide Web. Probably the most common Web-based resources available through Telnet have been library catalogs, though most catalogs have since migrated to the Web. A link to a Telnet resource may look like any other link, but it will launch a Telnet session to make the connection. A Telnet program must be installed on your local computer and configured to your Web browser in order to work.

With the increasing popularity of the Web, Telnet has become less frequently used as a means of access to information on the Internet.

FTP
FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. This is both a program and the method used to transfer files between computers. Anonymous FTP is an option that allows users to transfer files from thousands of host computers on the Internet to their personal computer account. FTP sites contain books, articles, software, games, images, sounds, multimedia, course work, data sets, and more.

If your computer is directly connected to the Internet via an Ethernet cable, you can use one of several PC software programs, such as WS_FTP for Windows, to conduct a file transfer.

FTP transfers can be performed on the World Wide Web without the need for special software. In this case, the Web browser will suffice. Whenever you download software from a Web site to your local machine, you are using FTP. You can also retrieve FTP files via search engines such as FtpFind, located at /http://www.ftpfind.com/. This option is easiest because you do not need to know FTP program commands.

E-MAIL DISCUSSION GROUPS
One of the benefits of the Internet is the opportunity it offers to people worldwide to communicate via e-mail. The Internet is home to a large community of individuals who carry out active discussions organized around topic-oriented forums distributed by e-mail. These are administered by software programs. Probably the most common program is the listserv.

A great variety of topics are covered by listservs, many of them academic in nature. When you subscribe to a listserv, messages from other subscribers are automatically sent to your electronic mailbox. You subscribe to a listserv by sending an e-mail message to a computer program called a listserver. Listservers are located on computer networks throughout the world. This program handles subscription information and distributes messages to and from subscribers. You must have a e-mail account to participate in a listserv discussion group. Visit Tile.net at /http://tile.net/ to see an example of a site that offers a searchablecollection of e-mail discussion groups.

Majordomo and Listproc are two other programs that administer e-mail discussion groups. The commands for subscribing to and managing your list memberships are similar to those of listserv.

USENET NEWS
Usenet News is a global electronic bulletin board system in which millions of computer users exchange information on a vast range of topics. The major difference between Usenet News and e-mail discussion groups is the fact that Usenet messages are stored on central computers, and users must connect to these computers to read or download the messages posted to these groups. This is distinct from e-mail distribution, in which messages arrive in the electronic mailboxes of each list member.

Usenet itself is a set of machines that exchanges messages, or articles, from Usenet discussion forums, called newsgroups. Usenet administrators control their own sites, and decide which (if any) newsgroups to sponsor and which remote newsgroups to allow into the system.

There are thousands of Usenet newsgroups in existence. While many are academic in nature, numerous newsgroups are organized around recreational topics. Much serious computer-related work takes place in Usenet discussions. A small number of e-mail discussion groups also exist as Usenet newsgroups.

The Usenet newsfeed can be read by a variety of newsreader software programs. For example, the Netscape suite comes with a newsreader program called Messenger. Newsreaders are also available as standalone products.

FAQ, RFC, FYI
FAQ stands for Frequently Asked Questions. These are periodic postings to Usenet newsgroups that contain a wealth of information related to the topic of the newsgroup. Many FAQs are quite extensive. FAQs are available by subscribing to individual Usenet newsgroups. A Web-based collection of FAQ resources has been collected by The Internet FAQ Consortium and is available at /http://www.faqs.org/.

RFC stands for Request for Comments. These are documents created by and distributed to the Internet community to help define the nuts and bolts of the Internet. They contain both technical specifications and general information.

FYI stands for For Your Information. These notes are a subset of RFCs and contain information of interest to new Internet users.

Links to indexes of all three of these information resources are available on the University Libraries Web site at /http://library.albany.edu/reference/faqs.html.

CHAT & INSTANT MESSENGING
Chat programs allow users on the Internet to communicate with each other by typing in real time. They are sometimes included as a feature of a Web site, where users can log into the "chat room" to exchange comments and information about the topics addressed on the site. Chat may take other, more wide-ranging forms. For example, America Online is well known for sponsoring a number of topical chat rooms.

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a service through which participants can communicate to each other on hundreds of channels. These channels are usually based on specific topics. While many topics are frivolous, substantive conversations are also taking place. To access IRC, you must use an IRC software program.

A variation of chat is the phenomenon of instant messenging. With instant messenging, a user on the Web can contact another user currently logged in and type a conversation. Most famous is America Online's Instant Messenger. ICQ, MSN and Yahoo are other commonly-used chat programs.

Other types of real-time communication are addressed in the tutorial Understanding the World Wide Web.

MUD/MUSH/MOO/MUCK/DUM/MUSE
MUD stands for Multi User Dimension. MUDs, and their variations listed above, are multi-user virtual reality games based on simulated worlds. Traditionally text based, graphical MUDs now exist. There are MUDs of all kinds on the Internet, and many can be joined free of charge. For more information, read one of the FAQs devoted to MUDs available at the FAQ site at