Yesterday I was surfing on the net and when I opened a particular
website, I saw words to this effect: "my computer geek tells me that
you're visiting us from ---my city--, ---my state---.

I wasn't happy to see that. I'm wondering now, do all webpages that I
visit tell the owner or webmaster where I'm from?

If I only stay three seconds and then leave, does that information
remain on their record?

In article <ni5qn0t8lhfo5ennprd98bpbgfdcgisj4u@4ax.com>, on Mon, 25 Oct 2004 11:09:47 -0400, MOB
<mobrien11@comcast.net> wrote:

| Yesterday I was surfing on the net and when I opened a particular
| website, I saw words to this effect: "my computer geek tells me that
| you're visiting us from ---my city--, ---my state---.
|
| I wasn't happy to see that. I'm wondering now, do all webpages that I
| visit tell the owner or webmaster where I'm from?

No, probably not all, but...

If

The web servers in question are configured to have logging enabled
with the right options then one of the logged items can be the remote
ip address of whoever is making a request of the web server (ie you)

And

If your isp provides reverse dns for your internet connection in such a way
that your city, state can be figured out from your ip address

Then

If the owner/webmaster bothers to read the logs and does the reverse dns
lookup (which can be automated) he/she would know where you are from.

| If I only stay three seconds and then leave, does that information
| remain on their record?

Potentially, see above.

If you are really paranoid and don't want this information to be available
then use one of more anonymous proxies (more than one would need to be chained
together in some way.

If you are really, really paranoid then of course you would have to believe
that anonymous proxies are not really anonymous.

If you are really, really, really paranoid then don't have an internet connection
and remember to wear your tin foil hat (shiny side out)

Further reading:

Privacy and Anonymity

* https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/ehowes/www/main-nf.htm Eric Howes' Privacy & Security Page
* http://www.mailmsg.com/SPAM_munging.htm Munge your email address
* http://www.privacy.net All about privacy
* http://www.cotse.com Well known privacy/security portal
* http://www.stack.nl/~galactus/remailers Anonymity, privacy and security
* http://www.anonymizer.com Free, anonymous web surfing
* http://www.idzap.com IDSecure service
* http://www.privacy.org News, information and action
* http://www.samspade.org/t Sam Spade Tools
* http://www.pgpi.org International PGP homepage
* http://www.hushmail.com Encryptable web-mail
* http://www.skuz.net/potatoware Anonymity software
* http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs REALLY delete your data
* http://www.safeproxy.org Anonymous access
* http://www.rewebber.de Web privacy
* http://mikhed.narod.ru/en/free_proxy/cgi-proxy.htm Web anonymiser list
* http://www.proxyblind.org Proxy resource
* http://www.ziplip.com Encrypted web-mail and messaging

<davidp />

--
David Postill

MOB <mobrien11@comcast.net> wrote:

Anything that they can determine within the timeframe of your visit
CAN be 'On Record'. And YES, there is a way to determine the exact
location of a visitor within seconds of their arrival. This is how
on-line gaming hosts determine that you are allowed to play. There
are laws against gaming across state lines, therefore the gaming hosts
MUST know where you are located.

Further, this method of determining your whereabouts is limited. They
cannot determine your house address, nor what you are wearing

MOB wrote:

You mean like Nashua NH ?
I was in NH last year, in brookline, great location for a horror film :P

Anyway, yeah, its easier to tell with americans cuz like you IP reverses
to like blahblah.nashua.nh.comcast.net kinda thing :P

--
Mimic

"The voices have stopped now. But they had some good ideas."
"Pain is free and there to be enjoyed."
ZGF0YWZsZXhAY2FubmFiaXNtYWlsLmNvbQ== [ www.hidemyemail.net ]

Celtic Leroy wrote:

uh no, it doesnt work like that, the rdns shows you the location and
thats purely based on the way the provider displays the host addresses.
Gameservers decided if you can play or not based on a ping response so
you dont slow down their game if yours is too high.
The only way to give an exact location is to run a trace from the
telephone exchange which would give you the distance from the exchange,
however this would give you a big ol circle, and if youre in a built up
area it might take some time to locat eyour position, of course if youre
the only house on the line its easier hehe ;P

--
Mimic

"The voices have stopped now. But they had some good ideas."
"Pain is free and there to be enjoyed."
ZGF0YWZsZXhAY2FubmFiaXNtYWlsLmNvbQ== [ www.hidemyemail.net ]

You are not anonymous when you surf the net and sending e-mail is not
private communications. To be anonymous you need to connect through a proxy
and subscribe to a service which provides secure tunnelling.

To send private e-mail you need encryption. There are many levels of privacy
and encryption depending on your needs.

Checkout an informative faq by Dr Who at the alt.privacy.anon-server news
group.


MOB wrote:

Jim Watt wrote:

hehe makes a change from people assuming i have anything mor etha 4kb/s
download

Fucking BT, i hate them with a passion. And they will pay for their
bastardness

--
Mimic

"The voices have stopped now. But they had some good ideas."
"Pain is free and there to be enjoyed."
ZGF0YWZsZXhAY2FubmFiaXNtYWlsLmNvbQ== [ www.hidemyemail.net ]