| Crowbar |
Now that Google has bought DoubleClick, let's review a few scary facts. Consider the following quote:| quote: | Google ad sense operates on a different level...using cookies is just part of the game. Via IP pingbacks, toolbar tracking, and account identification, users may unkowningly be giving out alot more data than they realize.
Say for instance that you use Gmail. or any Google service that requires login. Google can track you via that login to each site you visit that has a google ad (70% of the net from what I understand). See, doubleclick never had this part of the equation...they never had account info. Google can tie your IPs, usernames, email content, and web browsing activity...and you can't do jack about it (short of blocking the google scripts themselves). Even without login account info, Google has the ability to track your individual machine via IP pingbacks. If you nav to page one, the google ad gets your exposed ip, then the next page you visit that has a google ad...yep..that ip is used to track that navigation. No cookie needed. Of course, if your behind a firewall, only the firewall ip would get exposed. But still...do you really want to give anyone that much information about you? |
I recommend putting the following in your hosts file, C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
# [Google Inc]
127.0.0.1 adwords.google.com
127.0.0.1 pagead.googlesyndication.com
127.0.0.1 pagead2.googlesyndication.com
127.0.0.1 adservices.google.com
127.0.0.1 imageads.googleadservices.com
127.0.0.1 imageads1.googleadservices.com
127.0.0.1 www.googleadservices.com
127.0.0.1 apps5.oingo.com
127.0.0.1 www.google-analytics.com
127.0.0.1 ssl.google-analytics.com |
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| Sonusthree |
Interesting!!
Can you explain what the hosts file information does?
Many thanks,
Martin. |
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| phn |
Copy and paste below. But first, it's not sure this deal will go through. It depends on what whoever in the US gov't is in charge of it decides. But much speaks for it going through. There has been a laxing of antitrust (anti competition) laws in America since Reagan.
Kind of funny to see Microsoft ***** and moan about this. But google has turned into a monster, perhaps more dangerous than Microsoft can ever become.
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This article was inspired by a thread posted over at Digital Point and I found it interesting enough to spread the wisdom.
If you suddenly find a website completely inaccessible for unknown reasons, or you open a website and find that all or certain elements or advertisements are gone, it can be because some other piece of software on your computer has modified the C:Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts file without your permission. I will first explain what the “hosts” file is for those who don’t know, if you already know then you can skip the next five or six paragraphs.
The “hosts” file is used by your operating system to associate host names with IP (Internet Protocol) addresses. For a www (World Wide Web) address to work it must first be translated into the IP address.
Take www.google.com for instance, a host name many of us use several times every day. Its IP address is 216.239.37.99. Either address will work but the www address must first be translated into the IP address. If you use the IP address directly it will go straight to the location without looking it up. The www addresses exist to make it easier for us humans, without them we would have to type in numeric IP addresses when browsing the web.
The first step for your computer when matching an IP address with a host name is to check the local “hosts” file. If the IP address is found in your local “hosts” file your computer will stop looking and go to the address. Usually that is not the case, the hosts file is more or less empty for most of us, only containing some some instructions on how to modify it.
When no information is found in your local hosts file your computer will ask the DNS (Domain Name Server) at your Internet service provider for the information. So all in all most of us never even give this a second thought, until it stops working.
Since your computer stops looking as soon as it finds a match the local “hosts” file can be used as a tool for blocking unwanted websites or marginally speed up your browsing by putting the host names and IP addresses of your favorite sites into the file, so that your computer never has to query a DNS.
If you want to block a host you can do that by associating the www address with the IP number 127.0.0.1. That IP address is known as “localhost” and computers use it to refer to themselves. By associating a host name with 127.0.0.1 you tell your computer that the address is itself and the computer will not go anywhere because it thinks that it has already displayed the address.
The “hosts” file can be very useful, as long as you are the one making the changes or are fully aware of any changes being made. Complications arise if something else modifies the file without your knowledge or permission. Changes to the file can be made by various ad blocking software but also popular file sharing software such as ***** Lite. The person who inspired this article had suddenly found that AdSense had been blocked. Something, most likely *****, had added the following to his hosts file:
# [Google Inc][Restricted Zone site]
127.0.0.1 adwords.google.com
127.0.0.1 pagead.googlesyndication.com
127.0.0.1 pagead2.googlesyndication.com
127.0.0.1 adservices.google.com
127.0.0.1 www.googleadservices.com
What can we do to protect ourselves? More technical people can put a “read only” on the “hosts” file so that it cannot be modified automatically by just any program, but 99.999% of all Internet users will never do this. The average user won’t notice if for example AdSense or other types of advertisements suddenly are blocked, and that could lead to publishers losing potential revenue. |
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| Crowbar |
| quote: | Originally posted by Sonusthree
Can you explain what the hosts file information does? |
The hosts file overrides domain to IP routings. In the example I gave, when the computer tries to reach any of these Google ads/adsense domains, the requests are sent right back. That essentially blocks them. This won't affect your usage of Google, Gmail, or any other Google services, just the ads, which don't load (and given their preponderance around the web, that can actually speed up your browsing a bit as a bonus).
There are places online that provide large hosts files that block continually updated lists of malicious websites and so on, so then you don't have to worry about keeping up. Spybot Search&Destroy (the spyware removal program) has its own hosts which can be turned on in the options. I don't think most of these include Google ads/adsense, however.
One caveat is if you run a server: since 127.0.0.1 loops back to the system, that would be a problem when you run a server, so should be instead 0.0.0.0 for entries to be blocked instead.
| quote: | Originally posted by phn
# [Google Inc][Restricted Zone site]
127.0.0.1 adwords.google.com
127.0.0.1 pagead.googlesyndication.com
127.0.0.1 pagead2.googlesyndication.com
127.0.0.1 adservices.google.com
127.0.0.1 www.googleadservices.com |
My list already includes these entries, and more. |
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| Sonusthree |
| Thanks guys. Very helpful. Much obliged. |
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| janneman |
| quote: | Originally posted by Crowbar
Definitely reason to be concerned. Google now even have a word processor and spreadsheet Web applications, and with all the myriad other services like Google Desktop they provide, and ads on most of the Web, they have access to enormous information for each user. Not to speculate too much, but I'm guessing that was the plan from the beginning of the company. The potential for abuse is enormous. |
OTOH, it is a way to get loose from the Micro$oft Office stranglehold. Until M$ also will migrate the office apps to web-based services. I am pretty sure anyway that M$ knows at least as much about you as Google does.
Jan Didden |
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| 1/137 |
Another way to get away from microsloth is to use OpenOffice for your needs as well as moving to Linux...which has become much easier recently.
rt |
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| phn |
About the American antitrust laws, I should have written that the antitrust laws have become increasingly more lenient beginning with the Reagan administration.
I'm pretty much as anti Microsoft as the next guy. I'm equally anti region codes, which I'm pretty sure would have been illegal if it hadn't served powerful interests.
Linux is irrelevant. It's a community of navel-gazers. Unless they pull their heads out of their collective you know what and take their first step out of the 1970s, they are going to remain irrelevant to everybody but computer nerds and script kids. Quite a few of them should be on this forum.
As much wrong Microsoft stands for, it does a lot of things right. It's today one of the most progressive IT companies on the planet. Interaction design and user-centered/friendly design are where the future is. Technology is not a problem. Programming is not a problem. The programmers know their stuff. They deliver. Programmers are like engineers. They like tight, well-defined specifications. They will write a good software as easily as a poor one. The problem is that everybody asks the programmers to write poor software. Microsoft is well aware of that and is spending millions trying to change it. |
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| 1/137 |
For the home user Linux works fine and in my experience much better than anything microsloth puts out. I cannot comment on the commercial IT side as I have no recent experience however it seems like many sites are now running it. Solaris development will also be interesting to watch..So emphatically no it is not irrelevant..
And as I stated...Linux is quite easy to get running on for a somewhat capable home user...and it's much more cost effective...again..not irrelevant for most of us.
My other point is that my previous comments were quite obviously in respose to statements made about becoming free from microsloth and taken in that correct context...which they were clearly originally intended....(I was obviously commenting on the previous post)....Linux is not irrelevant but is a very viable path to being microsloth free for the home user.
rt |
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| Conrad Hoffman |
| FWIW, if you check HOSTS in Wikipedia, it will link you to many frequently updated hosts file that have even a few more Google entries than listed above. I've found it very effective at cutting down on unwanted cookies and such. Here's a good place to start: http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/ |
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| phn |
I wasn't addressing any poster. It was a general response to the let's dump on Microsoft attitude. Bill Gates doesn't need me defending him and I have no interest in defending him. Gates has nothing to fear. Microsoft's main strength is that its "competitors" are idiots. Everybody dreams of competitors like that. Microsoft has nothing to do with Linux and Firefox amounting to nothing. They are amounting to nothing all on their own.
I have posted this before. It's from the March 1999 issue of Networker Magazine. The author is such an idiot his name doesn't deserve mention. But I feel like naming names, and the name of the idiot is Dennis Fowler. Anyway, the quote illustrates everything that's wrong with Linux and Netscape/Firefox.
"The question remains though, whether AOL can overcome the reputation as a consumer-oriented business. This will determine whether Case's hopes for penetrating the e-commerce market will succeed. The Sun phase of the deal may be enough to reassure the hardcore techies who are worried about what a consumer outfit like AOL might do to the technically oriented Netscape operation."
Judging by this quote, Linux and Netscape/Firefox have done what they set out to do--corner the hardcore techie market. And Windows has cornered 95 pct of the non-techie market, the market Linux and Netscape/Firefox people have shown nothing but contempt for. Mac has those other 5 pct. So it seems Apple, not Linux, is Microsoft's only competitor in the OS market. The way I see it, Apple is the only one in this group to have any reason to complain. But that sort of changed, I think, after Steve Jobs invented the portable music device and the cell phone. |
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| 1/137 |
Phn:
"Microsoft's main strength is that its "competitors" are idiots. .."
I definitely agree...microsloth would not be where it is if it had any reasonably intelligent competition and the Linux people are certainly not seriously going to compete for the mass market desktop if they continue to act the way they have in the past.
And I also agree that even from and end user perspective they have done quite a bit right. Until recently installs of windows were at least in my personal experience) a lot easier to do than any variety of Linux that I have worked with.
That said...since I like to build my own machines from parts I would have to buy or obtain a microslot OS. For me obtaining them has become more difficutl and a purchase is absurd...hence my personal switch to Ubuntu which was actually quite easy even for someone with my relatively low level of PC skills...it's probably NOIT the right thing to do for many people but for anyone willing to put a little effort into it (I'm unemployed...I have the time) I think it is a very reasonable path.
rt |
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| panomaniac |
Thaks for postig all the HOSTS stuff, guy. Very clever!
I went there last night and downloaded their hosts file and bat to install it. Yikes! I thought that it killed my computer. :eek:
After running the install bat a lot of stuff locked up and had to be forced quit. Reboot was super slow, too. (Hint. Close your browser when you run this install.)
Once the computer had gone thru its really long reboot, everything seems just fine. And the new Hosts file really speeds up browsing of advert laden sites. Following links on Google News is now a joy, not a chore.
For years it has frustrated me that pages are so slow to load, not because of content, but because the browser is trying to pull stuff from all the ad and tracking sites. Grrr... With the new hosts file in place, the pages load super fast, no waiting for useless 3rd party URLs to show up.
Thanks for a good one. Now onto Windows Lite! |
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| Ron E |
| quote: | Originally posted by panomaniac
Once the computer had gone thru its really long reboot, everything seems just fine. And the new Hosts file really speeds up browsing of advert laden sites. |
I'll second that - it takes forever to boot now, but browsing seems quicker. I thought about doing this some time ago, but was scared away by the suggestions of possible slowness. My old P3 has a new lease on life ;), at least after booting... ;p |
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| panomaniac |
| quote: | Originally posted by Ron E
it takes forever to boot now, but browsing seems quicker. |
Oh no, is it slow at every reboot? I've only rebooted once. |
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| phn |
The winhelp hosts file is huge. Lots of porn stuff blocked. That's no doubt useful for people looking for cracking tools at astalavista and other "grey areas" of the internet. Porn banners, popups, and installers abound. But I cannot remember the last time I ventured there.
I only need the main offenders. While I do not support the porn and gambling spammers, they do not pretend to be anything but the lowlifes they are. It's google and other lowlifes who pretend not to be that I'm concerned with.
Also, could you not replace this:
127.0.0.1 c0.amazingcounters.com
127.0.0.1 c1.amazingcounters.com
127.0.0.1 c2.amazingcounters.com
127.0.0.1 c3.amazingcounters.com
127.0.0.1 c4.amazingcounters.com
127.0.0.1 c5.amazingcounters.com
127.0.0.1 c6.amazingcounters.com
127.0.0.1 c7.amazingcounters.com
127.0.0.1 www.amazingcounters.com
with this:
127.0.0.1 amazingcounters.com
I mean, amazingcounters.com is the domain; the whole domain. It should mean the same as *.amazingcounters.com, right? |
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| Ron E |
Yeah, I considered pruning all the obvious porno stuff out of there as places I am not likely to go, but the file is really huge and I figured it would take almost as long as making my own file from scratch ;)
I notice that the "instructables" website doesn't seem to work correctly. That is the only hitch so far. BTW, I did this as a learning experiment, not to "protect" myself from google.
I know when I have tried to block cookies in Mozilla with the generic falkag.net, the various *.falkag.net cookies seemed to get through, so maybe that holds true for the hosts file, maybe not. Some research is in order. |
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| Ron E |
| quote: | Originally posted by panomaniac
Oh no, is it slow at every reboot? I've only rebooted once. |
Yep, every time. |
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| I_Forgot |
If you want to be "safe" from Google or M$ or whoever, quit using your computer and credit cards. You are kidding yourself if you think that tweaking host files is going to do any good.
I_F |
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| Kari |
| quote: | Originally posted by phn
Also, could you not replace this:
127.0.0.1 c0.amazingcounters.com
127.0.0.1 c1.amazingcounters.com
127.0.0.1 c2.amazingcounters.com
127.0.0.1 c3.amazingcounters.com
127.0.0.1 c4.amazingcounters.com
127.0.0.1 c5.amazingcounters.com
127.0.0.1 c6.amazingcounters.com
127.0.0.1 c7.amazingcounters.com
127.0.0.1 www.amazingcounters.com
with this:
127.0.0.1 amazingcounters.com
I mean, amazingcounters.com is the domain; the whole domain. It should mean the same as *.amazingcounters.com, right? |
No, that will not work in a HOSTS file and that is why all those entrys are there.
BR,
Kari |
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