If you’re one of those people that is paranoid about who has access to your information, you may already be familiar with CIPAV (The Computer and Internet Protocol Address Verifier). If not, it’s basically spyware that was developed by the FBI. It captures sensitive information such as a user’s IP address, MAC address, open ports, running programs, operating system, last visited URL, and more.

You may wonder how the FBI could get away with developing and deploying such a program. It was ruled that the information gathered by CIPAV is “the legal equivalent of dialed phone numbers”, and therefore the government can obtain this information without needing to show probable cause or obtain a wiretap warrant. Shocking, isn’t it?

While most of us may not have a whole lot to hide from the FBI, we all deserve privacy. This article will explain to you how to “detect and deter” CIPAV and other similiar programs. If the FBI can develop and deploy garbage like this without us knowing, we should be able to protect ourselves from it.

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I came across a somewhat unique concept today: ProxyDesigner.net. This site would come in handy for those of you that want to create a proxy site, but don’t know anything about HTML and CSS. It uses a template originally designed by Free Proxy Templates, and it allows the user to change colors, advertisement options, links, and more. After you customize your proxy, it produces a ZIP file for you to download. If you are lazy or just don’t know anything about HTML, ProxyDesigner.net may be helpful to you. Also, if you haven’t seen it already, Proxy Builder takes this concept one step further by allowing you to choose between PHProxy and CGI Proxy. Pick one and get started today!

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Webmasters: Are you looking to increase your Google PageRank? It’s common knowledge that PageRank is all about backlinks: The more pages on the web that link to your page, the higher your PageRank will be… And if those sites linking to your page have high PageRanks themselves, that’s all the better for you. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, check out Wikipedia’s page on PageRank.

Anyway, one way of getting backlinks to your site is by posting in forums. I don’t necessarily mean joining a forum and just making posts that have your links in them - But by putting your links in your signature. Not only is this easier, it will tend to be less frowned upon than the aforementioned method, as it seems to be an accepted practice (at least on some forums, to a certain extent).

Some forums require you to meet a minimum number of posts.., I’ve seen forums where you are unable to post hyperlinks until you have made at least 20 posts, but come on, it’s not that hard to do, is it? Find a forum that genuinely interests you. Check that forums PageRank. If you are happy with the PageRank (I’d say anything with a PR of 3 or higher is a good start), become a contributing member. Take part in conversations, and even start new threads. If you show up, make two posts, and then start spamming links, you will most likely have your links removed and/or be banned without a second thought. But if you become a contributing member, and make some relevant posts, a forum moderator won’t be likely to ban you for having a couple links in your signature.

Another general rule to consider is to keep it relevant. Don’t join a Christian Forum and post links to sites about death metal bands. If you are advertising proxy sites, try and find a site that would be frequented by high school teens. Think bands like Good Charlotte (ugh) and maybe a Honda Civic tuning forum. This seems like it’d be common sense to me.

Don’t expect to see immediate results. PageRank has been said to be updated roughly once every 3 months, so put some time into this, and then sit back and wait. Hell, you might forget about it entirely, and then one day a few months down the road it will be a pleasant surprise when your PageRank has suddenly jumped from 0 to 4.

I have not verified that each and every one of these forums does not have nofollow, and that they allow links in signatures - But I feel that most forums do allow this. Pick one (or ten) that interest you. Sign up and make some posts. After you make 20 or so posts, introduce the links to your signature. This is a simple and effective way to get quality backlinks.

Music Forums

Slumz of Boxden (Rap Forums)   PR: 3
Megadeth Forums   PR: 3
SMN Forums   PR: 3
PA Hardcore Forums   PR: 3
Sputnik Music & Musician Forums   PR: 3
The Noise Boston   PR: 4
Bravewords Forums   PR: 4
Official Linkin Park Forum   PR: 4
Ultimate Metal Forum   PR: 4
SOHH.com Forum (Rap   PR: 4
Realest Niggas (Rap)   PR: 4
Hip Hop Universe Underground   PR: 4
OnSmash Forums (Rap)   PR: 4
RapFlava Forums   PR: 4
RapBasement Forums   PR: 4
Siccness Network (Rap)   PR: 4
Guitar Tab Universe Forum   PR: 5
Music Banter   PR: 5
LiveDaily Community   PR: 7

Teen Forums

FaceTheJury   PR: 3
TeenSpot Message Boards   PR: 4
Bored of Studies   PR: 4
RateMyBody   PR: 4
LiveWie Teen & College Forums   PR: 4
Nexopia   PR: 4
GovTeen Forums   PR: 4
IdolForums (American Idol)   PR: 5
The Student Room   PR: 5

Video Game Forums

TSR: The Sims Resource Forums   PR: 4
XS Gaming Forums   PR: 4
Final Fantasy Shrine Forums   PR: 4
Game Addicts Forums   PR: 4
GTA Forums   PR: 5
IGN Forums   PR: 6
Neverwinter Nights Forum   PR: 6

Web Design Forums

Dev Shed Forums   PR: 6
DigitalPoint Forums   PR: 6
SitePoint Forums   PR: 7

Automotive Forums

Bimmer Forums (BMW)   PR: 3
Civic Forums   PR: 3
AudiWorld Forums   PR: 4
C6 Corvette Forums   PR: 4
E46 Fanatics   PR: 4
Ford Truck Enthusiasts   PR: 4
NASIOC Forums   PR: 4
Car Forums   PR: 5
Automotive Forums   PR: 5
VWVortex Forums   PR: 5

General & Misc Forums

Catholic Answers Forums   PR: 5
Christian Forums   PR: 5
HipForums   PR: 5
Ask An Expert   PR: 5
JREF Forums   PR: 6
Anandtech Forums   PR: 6
DPReview Forums   PR: 8

Obviously, this isn’t all of the forums out there. There are thousands more, and it’s likely that I missed a lot of the big ones. Do some searching on your own and find one that suits you and the site(s) you are trying to market before you spend time making posts. Good luck!

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Do you have an old PC lying around? Don’t let it gather dust, put it to use! I came across a blog titled simply ‘Recycle Your Computer‘, and it offers various methods of doing just that. Some of the more interesting guides on the site were:

How To Creating a Reverse Proxy
How To Create a Linux Firewall
How To Create a Linux Router
and
How To Create a CUPS Printing System.

Now you have no reason to kick that old PC to the curb!

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I think it’s safe to say that by now, the majority of us are using Google. Many people may be unaware, however, that Google puts a cookie on every computer that performs a search. This cookie tracks some of your surfing habits, and essentially logs your entire search history. Some may not see this as an immediate threat, as the cookie doesn’t identify a user by name. However, you’d be surprised by how much you can tell about someone just by analyzing their web searches (and other browsing habits) over the course of even a few weeks. This Google cookie, or ‘gookie’, doesn’t expire until January 17 of 2038. Google has recently stated that they have no intentions of deleting these search histories. Google co-founder Larry Page tries to keep things optimistic:

“On the more exciting front, you can imagine your brain being augmented by Google. For example you think about something and your cell phone could whisper the answer into your ear.”

Come on Larry, that’s just a little bit creepy, don’t you think? Anyway, if you’d like to “fight back”, so to speak, against the evil Gookie army, you can use an anonymous proxy - You could use one of the thousands already available on the web, or you could setup your own. Alternatively, you could follow this handy little guide, which basically shows you how to set your browser to do three things: Clear all long-lasting cookies, not keep cookies between restarts, and divert all google requests out through an anonymous proxy. Now get busy!

For the record, I have nothing against Google. It’s worth mentioning that, on occasion, they will make a move that would seem to indicate that they’re taking steps in the right direction. But then you read something like this. Don’t be evil, Google - Take your own advice, eh?

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Censorship as defined by Wikipedia, is the systematic use of group power to broadly control freedom of speech and expression. While marked as a basic right in the US Constitution, freedom of speech is a luxury not everyone in the world is afforded. In some countries, speaking your mind, even online can land you in prison!
The Internet is a medium to promote information, and allow published knowledge to be available and easily accessed by the public. It was created as a non affiliated entity to provide information access to all, regardless of geographic or political boundaries! The best way to fight those who censor online content is to continue to make it available through as many and easily accessible means as possible.
Here are some good resources to help you start accessing the web the way it was meant to be:

• Reporters without borders posted this very detailed article on how to get around online based censorship using legal technical means. Very useful if you are in a country with censored web access.
• Brief article with links on how to break out of ‘corporate proxy jail’. (Although you should be warned that some of these methods may break or violate your company’s internet policy)
• An online list of publicly (and usually free) web based proxies. Although typically geared towards social networking sites, these can be used to access unfiltered content online anonymously.

Keep fighting the good fight to preserve online freedom!

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I’m sure that by now, many of you are aware that Google is much more than just a search engine. Over the years, the company has developed a plethora of useful tools, all of which serve their purpose, and quite well might I add. But someone has made an interesting discovery proving once again that not everything should be taken at face value. Believe it or not, Google’s Translation Servive and Wireless Transcoder tools can be used to view sites from work or school that may otherwise be blocked, such as MySpace, Facebook, GMail, and more.

Normally when you view a web page, your computer’s browsing software makes a connection to the destination server, downloads the page’s data, and displays it for you.

This would normally be the preferred way of doing things, but occasionally you’ll find yourself on a work or school connection that disallows you from connecting to certain web sites. In these scenarios, what you need is a proxy. A proxy is a server or service that will connect to the blacklisted server on your behalf and send you back the results.

Now, you still need to directly access the proxy server, so it’s important that it’s not on the blacklist itself. It’s very interesting that Google, a host unlikely to end up on most blacklists, has a couple of tools that can essentially act as a web proxy!

For more information on using Google as a proxy service and therefore browsing the web anonymously, please check out the full article at Hackszine.com. Happy surfing!

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Depending on how your network administrator does things, you may be able to access your favorite websites by IP address. While this is a non-traditional way of surfing and may be a tad more difficult, surely it’s better than being told which sites you can and cannot view. Check out this website IP lookup tool. Enter a websites URL, and then try accessing that site with the IP address that the tool gives you. Also, if you feel so inclined, you can lookup a host by IP address, along with a wealth of other things. Enjoy!

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