NOTICE: To users of my free proxy service.

[benburch]

Hey, folks,

those of you who have been using the anonymous proxy I have provided at 66.92.134.175 since 1999, will have to look elsewhere after right now. Somebody (and as I keep no records I don't know who) was using the proxy to share a pirated copy of a movie, and I got a warning from my ISP.

Just like in Kindergarten; One of you was bad, and so now the rest of you will not get your recess.

I provided this service so that politically active people could do whistleblowing and similar activities without danger of being traced, but when it is used as it has been for a non-political use, and moreover for a use that strains the capacity of my T-1 class SDSL service, I have to call it a day.

Sorry!

Please note that none of the services you have come to know as White Rose Society are effected by this service closure.

[babylonsister]

1. That stinks, Ben. I can only hope it was

some strange freeper and not someone from here.

[benburch]

3. We'll never know.

As I don't keep logs from this system at all. (There would be no privacy if the proxy were logged!!!)

[StefanX]

2. Does TOR provide a similar service?

Tor is an "onion router" which allows you to surf anonymously. It basically works by bouncing your web requests via other addresses using a proxy.

From their website: Tor is a toolset for a wide range of organizations and people that want to improve their safety and security on the Internet. Using Tor can help you anonymize web browsing and publishing, instant messaging, IRC, SSH, and other applications that use the TCP protocol.

Your traffic is safer when you use Tor, because communications are bounced around a distributed network of servers, called onion routers. Instead of taking a direct route from source to destination, data packets on the Tor network take a random pathway through several servers that cover your tracks so no observer at any single point can tell where the data came from or where it's going. This makes it hard for recipients, observers, and even the onion routers themselves to figure out who and where you are. Tor's technology aims to provide Internet users with protection against "traffic analysis," a form of network surveillance that threatens personal anonymity and privacy, confidential business activities and relationships, and state security.

http://tor.eff.org/

This a free open-source program which anyone can use. To set it up, you also need to download the free program privoxy and then set something in a config file (a text file) and set something in your browser's preferences. Takes about 5 minutes to set up.

From then on, open Tor before you open your browser, and your IP address will no longer be traceable. To test it, go to showmyip.com and it will show you as surfing from somewhere far from where you live! Another thing that will happen is that google will show up in different languages - because google is "localized" depending on where it thinks you're browsing from. (This isn't a bug, it's a feature - kind of cool to be exposed to different languages for the google interface - but of course you still get exactly the same google search results.)

[benburch]

5. I use a paid proxy service called Guardster

http://www.Guardster.com/

There is a free mode, a paid mode, and a paid VPN mode.

And it is offshore in the Dutch Antilles where there are very strong privacy laws, and like my now-defunct proxy, they pledge to keep no records, so no worries about federal snooping.

The VPN service lets you set up Guardster as a SOCKS proxy for your internet connections, and then not even think about the fact that you are using an encrypted proxy again.

[StefanX]

6. Tor is free

I think it's very simple the way it works. People who are using it allow transmissions to be re-routed through their machines. So nothing can be traced.

This also allows it to be free of cost, since the users are doing the work themselves.

I've also seen some ISPs in the US which promise to keep no records. I believe bway.net in NY is one of these. But you're probably safer in Anguilla.

But for people who want a quick-and-dirty solution now, it might be worth downloading tor and privoxy and setting them up on their computer. This can be down for the browser, as well as for instant-messaging software. They can all be "torified" to make transmissions anomymous.

[benburch]

7. I will investigate tor at some point.

Sounds like a worthy application!

[bpilgrim]

4. that sucks

but as long as your archives are still there, you're forgiven ;->

peace

[benburch]

8. Sorry if you were one of the users, Billy.

I know the shutdown was abrupt, but I'd rather not draw the ire of the RIAA. Those guys play for keeps.

[bpilgrim]

10. peter werbe's show

but i hear ya about the RIAA, no worries :hi:

peace

[annabanana]

9. ..that was a really sucky thing for someone to do..

(I REALLY hope it wasn't one of us)

[benburch]

11. Well, I think that many people used it...

not just progressives/liberals. But unless I was willing to learn something about the users, which would have defeated the purpose, I had to accept that there was no way to prevent anybody, including freepers, from using it.