I recently have used a couple of anti spyware programs and found a
good bit of spyware and tracking cookies and such

Of course I can see where marketing companies such as Doubleclick and
others is where the cookie originated from but is there a way to tell
which website or individual is responsible for getting the spyware on
your network?

On 9 Apr 2005 08:00:47 -0700, marianelabama@bellsouth.net wrote:

It's been years since I've allowed a cookie to enter my machine but I
do remember opening them to see what was inside. Take a look.
donnie.

Jim Watt <jimwatt@aol.no_way> wrote:
Cookies are evil, period.
Good Website developers don't need them.

--
"The universe is quite robust in design and appears to be doing
just fine on its own, incompetent support staff notwithstanding."
-- the Dennis formerly known as (evil), MCFL

Jim Watt <jimwatt@aol.no_way> wrote:
WRONG. You can save state on the server side and in URLs. There is
absolutely no need for most Websites to require "cookies", except that
they hire incompetent programmers like you.

--
"The universe is quite robust in design and appears to be doing
just fine on its own, incompetent support staff notwithstanding."
-- the Dennis formerly known as (evil), MCFL

Mark Gibson wrote:

True, you do not need cookies (stored as a file) you can incorporate the
session cookie within the URL...

Cookies were not meant to be evil, just a way to save a state. They also
were used, for a time, to store your password. I can not think of a reason
to allow them anymore. Some sites force you to accept their (mostly because
the WANT you to have it) cookie or you can not gain access. However, this
is artificial.

Michael

--

"Microsoft isn't evil, they just make really crappy operating systems." -
Linus Torvald

Leythos wrote:

I think the point is that MOST sites actually do...

Michael
--

"Microsoft isn't evil, they just make really crappy operating systems." -
Linus Torvald

Jim Watt <jimwatt@aol.no_way> wrote:
Have you even considered the fact that many of us consider perservering
"cookies" to be an obnoxious intrusion on our privacy rights?

Regards,
Mark

--
"The universe is quite robust in design and appears to be doing
just fine on its own, incompetent support staff notwithstanding."
-- the Dennis formerly known as (evil), MCFL

Leythos <void@nowhere.lan> wrote:
I prefer disabling all but session cookies entirely, and I trash them
with a vengeance in most cases.


--
"The universe is quite robust in design and appears to be doing
just fine on its own, incompetent support staff notwithstanding."
-- the Dennis formerly known as (evil), MCFL

Whoa...While the philosophical discussion is...uh..riveting...let's
get back on target..my original question was...who...aside from the
marketing company is responsible for the cookie (be it good, bad,
evil, or double-double chocolate chip) or spyware for that matter...

Yes, Doubleclick or some Spyware product may be directly responsible
but who's putting them up to it? Or could it be a friend, relative,
lover, cat, or the lizard who has taken up residence on my front
porch? How can I find out?

Michael Pelletier wrote:
session and are very useful for dual key and navigation authentication.

Cookies by themselves are not bad, they have legitimate uses, just
99.99% of all sites do not utilize them for these reasons. Our sites
that use these mechanisms, we are not concerned if someone refuses them,
they just will not be allowed to use the applications they require
access to, not my problem.

That said, most sites have no legitimate reason to require a cookie. I
am amazed at site which require a cookie however when you feed garbage
out for their cookie requests (using promoxatron for example),
everything continues to work fine.

Our sites will kick you out to be re-authenticated if either the session
portion has expired, Public key segment, or the navigation key is
inappropriate. The key is queried every click, if things don't add up,
session terminated. The precludes a number of attack vectors and man in
middle attacks from working properly.

Winged.

marianelabama@bellsouth.net wrote:


Ye `Ol Greenbacks...MONEY! They get money from the advertising companies...

Michael
--

"Microsoft isn't evil, they just make really crappy operating systems." -
Linus Torvald

marianelabama@bellsouth.net wrote:
the http logs and look at the file creation times. The how can be more
difficult. The cookie could be stored as a legitimate mechanism or it
can be set via activeX controls (like AvenueA), flash or even quicktime.
Tracking down the specific mechanism can be problematic but usually
can be determined if one is persistent. Session cookies don't bother
me, they go poof when I close my browser. Persistent cookies I
eliminate with vengeance, usually prohibiting the site from any future
communication.

winged

Thanks, Winged.

Since I have gotten everyone's attention....maybe you can help me out
with a related problem...There seems to some garbage in the
communication between my mouse/keyboard and my computer. For
instance, everything will become ALL CAPS no matter what key I push,
or the mouse will "select all" for no apparent reason...making it
impossible to continue without re-booting....

I had initially thought that there might be some type of spyware or
adware causing the problem....which brought me to this board...

Everything appears to be updated...security, Windows, etc.

Any clues?

Thanks, Winged.

Since I have gotten everyone's attention....maybe you can help me out
with a related problem...There seems to some garbage in the
communication between my mouse/keyboard and my computer. For
instance, everything will become ALL CAPS no matter what key I push,
or the mouse will "select all" for no apparent reason...making it
impossible to continue without re-booting....

I had initially thought that there might be some type of spyware or
adware causing the problem....which brought me to this board...

Everything appears to be updated...security, Windows, etc.

Any clues?

marianelabama@bellsouth.net wrote:

It may be a device in conflict with the keyboard. I have seen some
older motherboards where the USB port could conflict with keyboard
operation. These were of Win 9x/Me generation motherboards that didn't
upgrade to win 2k or XP well. I have seen that generation motherboard
where USB didn't work, although the port existed. Have you plugged in
any new USB devices or USB hubs? I have seen some USB 2.0 only devices
that cause odd issues when plugged into older 1.0 USB ports. Not all
USB 2.0 devices auto adjust to 1.0 ports.

Under control panel/system/hardware do you see any conflicting devices?
I have seen "cheap" win modems that try to utilize the same address
space as the keyboard port inappropriately. Have you added any new
hardware about the time the problem started?

This "could" be a keyboard port failure (intermitant shorting) or a
motherboard failure however I would check the other potential problems
first as they are more probable. I expect it may be the keyboard.

Winged

"Leythos" <void@nowhere.lan> wrote in message
news:Nox6e.1044$Rd.245@tornado.ohiordc.rr.com...
When I delete all my cookies the auto login for many sites gets deleted,
passwords i've long forgotton. When I go there I can't get on because I
forgot the password. If I try to set up another account they say that my
user id or email address is already in use. Yes, I'm using it.
But I can't log in. So I say fuck you and move on.