sam the drummer said:
cyclops said:
One question though. What is the point of using a proxy-server if the proxy-server will tell someone else who you are?
Well you can use a proxy server to acess websites which have been banned by your work (or school as I did). Generally it doesnt really matter if the site knows your IP as someone would have to contact them to get the IP and I doubt you'd be doing covert operations via a proxy!
There are really four types of proxies.
Transparent, which send on the HTTP_CLIENT and HTTP_FORWARDED_FOR headers to the main site. This means that the site can see your original IP if it chooses to look in these. The forum software doesn't currently look at these when checking your connection against the IP ban list, but it is a tiny thing to fix.
Opaque, which hides all of the HTTP header information, but still logs your IP from/to on the local machine. Tracing these means convincing the server operator of the proxy to check his access logs for the information. To be honest, it is kind of polite to release this info between server operators if asked. Also, in big server farms, many don't even know they have an opaque proxy setup.
Anonymous, which hides all the HTTP headers and doesn't log any transactions. Tracing these requires assistance from government bodies, server operator and ISPs. In other words, it is near impossible without a very good reason (and "he spammed my forum" isn't enough).
High-Anonymous proxies are the holy grail. These not only do not keep logs, but they also spoof (i.e. fake) header information so the party doesn't even know that you are using a proxy. The rent of these generally run in to hundreds a month, due to the nature of their usages.
The Transparent and Opaque proxies are the amateur stuff that people use to circumvent bannings and the like of. The other two are the type that are generally used for illegal activities. Any hacker worth his salt 'chains' together several proxies so that any backtracking will prove fruitless. I used to use a high-anonymous connection to my local machine, then an anonymous in front of that, meaning that my connection was bounced off of several nodes before hitting the server that I wanted. I meticulously checked, and rechecked security of every server, every time. Then got busted because I didn't notice somebody looking over my shoulder at the screen :facepalm:
The problem with the top two types of servers now, is that governments are constantly trying to bring them down and trace the users. This is because pedos have now become technically savvy enough to hide their identities, resulting in hackers getting caught in the cross-fire. To be honest, the government should really be paying these hackers to take down pedo servers (and there are large hacker groups who do exactly that), however, any attempt at this will get you done for a loooooong time, even more than the guys who are the pedos.
Anyway, went off on a tangent there. Errr...Eto'o's a good player and stuff.
