Peronal Information visible

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
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Guest

Why is it that some web sites are able to know my stat eof residence, even
though I have firewall, etc tools to block access? When accessing some
sites, they make home state-specific offers for the state I live in.
 
All machines connected to the internet communicate by means of an IP
(Internet Protocol) address, when you request a web page the request
contains the IP address to which replies must be sent, much the same as you
put the "From Address" on a letter. Without this you would never see the
page because the server would not know where to address the reply.

In many cases this alone would be a major clue to your location if the web
site were so designed.

You might also have some "Spyware" or "Adware" installed that is providing
the page with more specific information, this is a complex problem to deal
with so here are some utilities that will help to establish whether that is
a problem or not.


--
SpyBot Search and Destroy
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/
Microsoft Antispyware
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...a2-6a57-4c57-a8bd-dbf62eda9671&displaylang=en
Ad Aware
http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-SE...045910.html?part=dl-ad-aware&subj=dl&tag=top5
Important - LSP-Fix
http://www.cexx.org/lspfix.htm

Be aware that using either of these to actually remove spyware can result in
some programs refusing to work, in other words "Free" programs that you
downloaded on condition you accepted ads and so called "Research" may get
broken and you might want to uninstall them first. Some spyware actually
breaks Windows trying to force it's way in and you should arm yourself with
LSP-Fix before starting in case you lose internet connectivity.

http://www.broomeman.com/spyware/
http://www.nsclean.com/nws-root.html

Charlie
 
But the IP address is assigned dynamically by my ISP from a pool that does
not necessarily allocate to users from my state. Also, I use a few different
utilities (PC-cillin, Spybot, SpySweeper, AdSubtract) to guard against
spyware and adware. I know it's not foolproof, but my guess is at least one
of them would trap something that was maliciously trying to grab that data.
Gibson Research's ShieldsUp! reports my system as "invisible." Any ideas?
 
Despite being "Invisible" the message headers say you posted from
68.106.214.16 (Which of course may not be your own computer) and that has a
reverse DNS of
ip68-106-214-16.om.om.cox.net

A "Whois" reveals
Trying 68.106.214 at ARIN
Cox Communications Inc. NETBLK-OM-RDC-68-106-208-0 (NET-68-106-208-0-1)
68.106.208.0 - 68.106.215.255
Cox Communications Inc. COX-ATLANTA-2 (NET-68-96-0-0-1)
68.96.0.0 - 68.111.255.255
You are obviously part of the first group and Cox have 208 to 215 that is 7
blocks of 256 addresses, which is not that many.

I would say it is possible that just looking up these details, which have to
be available to the web server, would give a fair clue. When Steve first
started with spyware it became disturbing just how many seemingly unrelated
snippets of info could be put together to make a sensible "Guess" - data
mining in short. If a website has a "Hit counter" for example (many use
third party counters) they can figure out a heck of a lot using cookies and
stuff. You might try Steve's own groups too..

Charlie
 
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