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Re: [gNewSense-users] basic questions about gNS
From: |
Ted Smith |
Subject: |
Re: [gNewSense-users] basic questions about gNS |
Date: |
Tue, 17 Feb 2009 20:26:17 -0500 |
On Mon, 2009-02-16 at 16:45 -0500, Bubba cakes wrote:
> Thanks, Ted. I do have Evolution, and I already use it for Calendar
> and Contacts. So I'll see about using an email address with it.
>
> My thinking on a proxy server is that it's a computer that I connect
> to in order to send emails that are not linked to my IP address. I
> know nothing. I thought it was a way to become insulated from prying
> eyes.
>
> I believe that there are US Constitution breakers who spy on internet
> users. For example, Homeland Security, that US Federal tobacco, drug,
> and firearms agency, (I forget its name), etc. Just on principle, I
> would like to be anonymous when I use my computer to contact
> companies, friends, and information sources. Not that I have anything
> to hide, I just don't like the current U.S. slide toward fascism. So
> I'm becoming more private.
>
I sure as hell wouldn't put it past them. Less the ATF than the NSA, but
yeah, the Constitution isn't really important anymore, it seems.
Gmail is a proxy server in that regard, but your original IP will both
be logged on Gmail's servers and probably included in the email.
Anonymous email is hard to come by -- though Mixmaster, the level II
anonymous remailer, should be in the repositories. Be warned, it's a
b**** to set up.
It's much easier to protect your email from prying eyes by encrypted it.
I suggest you set up GPG with Evolution (it's easy to do that) and then
get the people you email with on a regular basis to set up GPG as well,
if not with Evolution, than with Thunderbird and Enigmail (thunderbird
will work everywhere, even on non-free systems).
Remember, there is a difference between anonymity and encryption.
Anonymity protects a hostile third party from knowing who you are and
who you're talking to; encryption doesn't protect against that, but does
protect a hostile third party from knowing what you are talking about.
Consider the use case carefully before setting up any security measure.
Good luck.
- Ted
> On 2/16/09, Ted Smith <address@hidden> wrote:
> On Mon, 2009-02-16 at 16:23 -0500, Bubba cakes wrote:
> > Hi, all,
> > I hope this is the right list...
> >
> > I have some basic questions, and I wonder if this is the
> place to ask
> > them.
> >
>
> Probably as good as any. :)
>
> > I want to know about internet security, how to keep my
> computer from
> > being infected with viruses, spamware, spyware, adware,
> > whatever-ware...
> >
> > Is there a program that I can run to check all my files and
> drives for
> > security problems?
> >
> > What about a firewall?
> >
> > Actually, I don't know what I need. I'm a construction guy,
> and need
> > you computer guys to tell me what to do.
> >
>
> You don't need any of the above.
>
> Going through the list, there's no such thing as viruses,
> adware,
> spyware, whatever, for GNU/Linux. This is for a combination of
> reasons
> -- the system isn't a very alluring target for bot herders,
> but it's
> also built much more securely than Windows, so it's much
> harder to
> infect.
>
> By default, gNewSense doesn't have any network services
> active, meaning
> there's no reason to use a firewall.
>
> If you really want to run security programs, I suggest
> chkrootkit and
> rkhunter. They are programs that install themselves to run
> automatically
> every so often and report on how vulnerable or 'hacked' the
> system
> looks. They can have a lot of false positives though, so
> unless you want
> to learn more about security, I wouldn't bother with them.
>
>
> > I would like to be able to browse the internet without being
> monitored
> > by anyone. I would also like to send emails without
> receiving ten
> > freakin advertisements based on words I just sent to
> someone. Is this
> > possible?
> >
>
> In a sense. However, I don't think you're meaning exactly what
> you're
> asking.
>
> You could set up Tor (there's a detailed guide on doing that
> on
> <http://torproject.org>, follow the Ubuntu/Debian
> instructions) for
> anonymous browsing, but if you just want to avoid ads, then
> just install
> the Adblock extension for Firefox (I believe the package is
> called
> adblock-plus, but if you just searched adblock in Add/Remove,
> you'd find
> it). Additionally...
>
>
> > Is it possible to use the internet and email (Gmail) without
> somebody
> > always reading/monitoring my activities?
> >
>
> Not really. Email is a clear-text protocol. Your email
> provider will be
> able to read any emails you send via them, unless they are
> encrypted.
> Setting up email encryption is a more complex task that would
> make this
> a very long message, so I'll just refer you to the vast amount
> of guides
> on google. Note that it isn't particularly hard, just
> complicated.
>
> In terms of ads directed at your email content, there's no way
> to stop
> google from gathering data from you if you use their service,
> but you
> can stop seeing them if you set up an email client like
> Thunderbird or
> Evolution.
>
> > Is Gmail email using a proxy server? (I think it is, but
> don't really
> > know.)
> >
>
> No, definitely not. What do you mean by "proxy server",
> though?
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> gNewSense-users mailing list
> address@hidden
> http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnewsense-users
>
>
>
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- [gNewSense-users] basic questions about gNS, Bubba cakes, 2009/02/16
- Re: [gNewSense-users] basic questions about gNS, Ted Smith, 2009/02/16
- Message not available
- [gNewSense-users] basic questions about gNS, Luis Alberto, 2009/02/16
- Re: [gNewSense-users] basic questions about gNS, Bubba cakes, 2009/02/16
- Re: [gNewSense-users] basic questions about gNS, Tor at Shared Genius, 2009/02/16
- Re: [gNewSense-users] basic questions about gNS, Dara Adib, 2009/02/16
- Re: [gNewSense-users] basic questions about gNS, Ted Smith, 2009/02/16
- Re: [gNewSense-users] basic questions about gNS, Dara Adib, 2009/02/16
- Re: [gNewSense-users] basic questions about gNS, Eric Padman, 2009/02/16
Re: [gNewSense-users] basic questions about gNS, Bubba cakes, 2009/02/16
- Re: [gNewSense-users] basic questions about gNS,
Ted Smith <=
Re: [gNewSense-users] basic questions about gNS, Tor at Shared Genius, 2009/02/16