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TODAY'S TOPICS
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- Concealing Your True IP Address
- A Hot IP Address Tip for Internet Marketing Research
- Great ClickBook Offer About to Expire
- Call for Comment I
- News Flash
- Call for Comment II
Hi Affiliate.
One aspect of your online existence that can be something of a
concern in the privacy stakes is your IP address -- an identifier
which can be likened to the Internet equivalent of your street
address. Every Internet-connected computer has an IP address
assigned to it.
For the most part IP addresses are geographically assigned. In
other words, with the right reference material or look-up program,
your approximate geographical location can be derived from your IP
address.
Your IP address is readily available to anyone you contact via
e-mail, and to any Website you visit. If you look down towards the
bottom of this e-mail, where your subscription information is
located, you'll see a field for "Subscriber's IP Address". That was
your IP address when you originally joined our merry little group,
and it was invisibly derived by whatever purchase, sign-up or
subscription form you used at the time.
That may not be your IP address now, and in fact it probably isn't.
But it was your IP address when you registered with us, and that
together with the date/time of registration and other information
is enough to give a competent investigator a good start on tracking
you down.
Legitimate organizations like ours only extract and retain your IP
address as evidence that you did in fact purchase one of our
products or subscribe to one of our services. This is an
unfortunate necessity because there are people who will forget that
they willingly and voluntarily subscribed, then report the provider
(that's us) for spamming when they receive a newsletter or other
legitimate contact.
Being blacklisted as a spammer is not something that anyone
(especially anyone in business) can afford to have happen, so it's
not only reasonable but also necessary that we be able to provide
evidence that any such complaint is spurious.
Unfortunately an IP address can also be used for nefarious purposes
by a knowledgeable and determined hacker. So what I'm going to do
now is to put your interests ahead of mine, and tell you how to
prevent a Webmaster from deriving your IP address when you visit
his site.
However, don't be tempted to use this knowledge for anything,
hmmm... shall we say, "illegitimate". In the event of an
investigation being initiated because of something you did, more
powerful weapons come into play than are available to the average
Webmaster.
You can't completely hide and not provide any IP at all, so how do
we do it? The answer lies in a technique called proxying -- the use
of a proxy server.
The big picture is fairly easy to follow.
Let's say you want to connect from your computer to Google.com. All
connections between two computers on the Internet are two-way
conversations; your computer sends data to the target, and the
target responds by sending data to your computer. So we might
represent the connection like this:
Your Computer <------------------------------> Google.com
Any webpage at Google can be programmed to record your IP address,
so if for example you fill out a Web form requesting information
from Google, your IP address will almost certainly be sent to
Google along with your request.
Now consider this alternate scenario:
Your Computer <-----> Intermediate PC <------> Google.com
Your computer is now conducting its two-way conversation with an
intermediary computer, which in turn is specially configured to
hold that same conversation with Google on your behalf. Google can
now only derive the IP address of the intermediary.
In web-speak, that intermediate PC is called a Proxy Server.
Now although the use of a proxy is a fairly simple procedure in
itself, there are two problems:
1. You have to know the IP address of a suitably configured
proxy server computer -- one that is also configured to
allow you to use it in this manner;
2. You have to tell your Web browser to use that proxy
server in conversing with locations on the Internet,
instead of making a direct connection.
As I'll demonstrate shortly, neither of those problems is difficult
to overcome. The only real bar to your overcoming both problems
yourself manually is tedium.
You can do a web search for the term "public proxy servers" and
you'll get plenty of hits to investigate further. Sites such as
PublicProxyServers.com list thousands of IP addresses that are
*supposedly* available for your use.
In actual fact you will almost always find that you have to try
quite a number of the IP addresses provided before you'll find one
that is usable. Anyway, for what it's worth, here's the link to
PublicProxyServers.com, but there are much better solutions...
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=Ml13p&m=1fFq7_x70VZTAn&b=akbNHncQGvmML3laDCOB6A
Telling your browser to use the proxy server IP address is again
quite simple, but tedious if you have to keep changing that IP,
which for reasons I will explain shortly you will want to do.
To tell Firefox v3 to use a proxy server IP address, click the
following menu sequence:
Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> Settings button
For Internet Explorer v7 it's:
Tools -> Internet Options -> Connections -> LAN Settings button
Proxy server settings are in the second box
Now regardless of which browser you use, after changing proxy
servers a few times you will soon come to the conclusion that
either it's not worth the effort, or you need a more automated way
to do it.
Well, happily, there is an automated method.
But before I get to that, I said above that I would explain why you
may want to be changing proxy servers frequently. There are a
couple of reasons:
1. Many so-called "public" proxy servers aren't meant to be
used by the public at all, and proxy server IPs are
appearing and disappearing all the time. You'll often find
that, having found by trial and error a proxy server IP
that does work, it will cease to work soon thereafter. Then
you'll have to find another proxy server IP and configure
your browser for it.
2. Going through a proxy can slow down your browsing session --
quite considerably in some cases. Thus if you perceive a
need to conceal your real IP address while connecting to a
particular site, you may want to revert to your real IP for
general browsing.
The solution of course is software -- a program that will:
(a) Automatically find a working proxy IP address for your use;
(b) Configure your browser to use that IP;
(c) Allow you to switch to a different IP with a click or two;
(d) Revert to your original real IP with a minimum of fuss.
There are a number of programs that will do at least most of those
things, but the big problem with the majority is the IP addresses
they serve up for your use. Many are hosted in Asian countries and
are extremely slow. In many cases the IP address provided doesn't
even work once.
So let's cut to the chase...
After trying quite a few of these applications I found only one
that I would class as "professional". I found it to be unobtrusive,
reliable, well laid out and very easy to use. It also has a number
of very useful optional features that I didn't find anywhere else.
Here's the link to the product website...
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=Ml13p&m=1fFq7_x70VZTAn&b=W3Lzu9XaLEqsi_V9IcYYZQ
But before you go there, a word of advice.
If you perceive a need for this sort of application and you decide
to purchase it then you really need to take out the Premium Service
option. Here's why...
* More and faster IPs available;
* You can select your IP so that to anyone analyzing it you will
appear to be located in your choice of USA, UK, Canada, Germany
or Hong Kong;
* You can also hide your real IP in Outlook, AIM, MSN and many
other programs besides your Web browser;
* You get free upgrades to all future versions of the program.
By the way, spoofing your IP address can also give you access to
sites from which you might otherwise be blocked. Even if you as an
individual haven't been blocked from any website, there are still
ways you can be affected.
For example, many gambling sites prevent access by visitors from
particular countries, because of the laws in those countries. Such
blocking is accomplished by geographically mapping your IP address,
so if you spoof an IP from a different country there is a good
chance you'll have full access.
Of course, if you then provide account information that is relevant
to your home country, you may then be blocked on that basis. But
even that trap has obvious workarounds.
Please don't take that as an incitement to break the law. However,
many countries have enacted certain laws that some citizens
consider an unreasonable curtailment of their civil rights. If you
consider civil disobedience to be a reasonable response to stupid
or unreasonable laws, you'll get no criticism from me.
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*** HOT TIP ***
IP SPOOFING FOR INTERNET MARKETERS
To have any chance of success Internet marketers need to use a
major search engine for research purposes. While many marketers
use several search engines for research, Google is the biggie and
the one most favored, so I'll use it for this example.
If you have any experience in Internet marketing you probably know
that the results pages that Google returns for a given search
keyword or search term depend on your geographical location.
For example, say you have an interest in the "ugg boots" market.
When you search for that term, the search results page that is
returned will be different for someone located in Australia or the
UK than for someone in the USA.
Of particular interest to the Internet marketer will be the paid
advertising that appears down the right-hand side of a Google
results page. If you live in Australia and you are researching the
Ugg Boots market in the USA, you want to know what advertisements a
US-based customer will see when they search for "ugg boots".
By using the Hide-My-IP application discussed above, you can see
search results just as your target market would see them, not as
they are for your own locality.
Thus, by quickly changing your IP with a click or two, you can see
that...
An Australian-based search for the term "ugg boots" will return
almost exclusively .com.au sites.
A US-based search will return predominantly US .com sites.
A UK based-search will return a mixture of .com.au and .co.uk
sites; further, where prices are displayed in the advertisement,
they will be in British pounds.
Thus, for an Internet marketer, the Hide-My-IP Premium Service is a
must, because the Basic application doesn't allow you to select IPs
for specific countries. With the basic application you will be
served with random IP addresses, and you have no control over their
location or quality -- most will probably be located in Asia.
At the time you purchase Hide-My-IP you will be given a once-only
opportunity to add the premium service at a substantial discount.
If you don't accept that opportunity you can add the Premium
Service later at the normal retail price. The shortcut link
directly to the Premium Service option is:
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=Ml13p&m=1fFq7_x70VZTAn&b=qFeVQkcSNpZczBU4eeTl7g
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** ONLY DAYS TO GO ON THE GREAT CLICKBOOK OFFER **
A reminder that the ClickBook + Long-Reach Stapler offer ends in
a couple of days.
If you're new to this list, ClickBook is my highly recommended
productivity booster for anything related to printing. A new
feature of ClickBook is that it can also produce PDFs without any
fuss or bother. Another of its many neat tricks is booklet
printing, and to fasten booklets you need a stapler with a long arm
that can reach from the edge of the booklet into the center-line
where the staples go.
The quality Bostitch Long Reach Stapler usually sells from the
ClickBook website for $39.95, but until July 31 (now less than a
week away) you can get the stapler free with a purchase of
ClickBook. That means you're getting ClickBook for ten bucks
instead of fifty.
The stapler takes standard #56 (12.7mm by 6mm -- 26/6) staples
which are readily available anywhere, but you can also add a box of
5000 to the shopping cart for just $5 when you take up this special
offer.
Here are the links...
ClickBook + Stapler :
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=Ml13p&m=1fFq7_x70VZTAn&b=f5il1hmb2w1qIPIHcTNPsg
Add 5000 Staples for $5 :
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=Ml13p&m=1fFq7_x70VZTAn&b=aZmnGMw6lKMPf6Zhv74ZLw
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** Call for COMMENT I **
My latest book, "Spam Warfare: Home & Small Business Edition" has
been freely available to members for a week now, and going by the
number of downloads there's a lot of interest in the subject.
So what I need now folks is some feedback.
Positive or negative, both are valuable. I can't improve the
content or provide a missing ingredient if I don't know about it.
While many people are reluctant to make negative comments, they
really are valuable to any writer, especially to those who write
any sort of how-to material.
So Affiliate, if you are a member of The Hacker's Nightmare
family, and if you have read "Spam Warfare...", please take a
moment to give me your thoughts on it.
And by the way, that goes for any book in the members area...
If you love it I'd like to hear about it -- if there's something
you didn't like or found lacking, please say so.
I really look forward to hearing from you, so thanks in advance
for taking the time. It's as simple as clicking on this link to
share your thoughts and opinions...
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=Ml13p&m=1fFq7_x70VZTAn&b=qrU9NoaOqTgxVGfq31wHJgAffiliate+Affiliate&e=
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** NEWS FLASH **
And speaking of spam...
'Spam king' escapes from jail
July 23, 2008 - 9:44AM
[Associated Press]
An inmate known as the "spam king" for sending hundreds of
thousands of unsolicited e-mails has walked away from a federal
prison camp in Colorado.
U.S. Marshals, the FBI and IRS are looking for 35-year-old Edward
"Eddie" Davidson, who left a minimum-security facility in Florence
on Sunday. The U.S. Attorney's Office announced his escape on
Tuesday.
The office said Davidson was last seen in the Denver suburb of
Lakewood, which is about 90 miles north of the prison camp.
Davidson was sentenced in April to 21 months in prison and ordered
to pay $US714,139 in restitution.
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** Call for COMMENT II **
Affiliate, is there something you'd like to see discussed
in this newsletter?
Be assured that I'm always open to requests and suggestions, so
don't hesitate to send in a request via the Web form at...
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=Ml13p&m=1fFq7_x70VZTAn&b=lCd2ARFqOCAkdgjAP4xUuAAffiliate+Affiliate&e=
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That's it Affiliate.
Until next time, Stay safe! And remember...
The human brain is the first line of defense;
keep it engaged when online.
Best regards,
- Bill Hely
- Author: "The Hacker's Nightmare"
- "How to keep hackers, worms & other germs out of your PC"
FOR ALL CORRESPONDENCE & SUPPORT PLEASE USE THIS FORM:
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=Ml13p&m=1fFq7_x70VZTAn&b=lCd2ARFqOCAkdgjAP4xUuAAffiliate+Affiliate&e=
-------------------------------------------------------
In case you've forgotten... here's a reminder that you
did subscribe to my service. We forward this record to
the service provider whenever a spam report is lodged.
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Subscription Date : July 4, 2008
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"Location" is a web server's "best guess" based on
your IP address. It doesn't matter if it's wrong!
-------------------------------------------------------
PO Box 164, Clayfield, QLD 4011, AUSTRALIA
To unsubscribe or change subscriber options visit:
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