How can I test if my browsing is anonymous?

[arran]

I tried http://browserspy.dk with this proxy http://www.proxeasy.com and still java script manages to leak out a whole lot of information on browserspy.dk like
Resolution, Screen, Time on your PC etc.

[caspian]

Originally Posted by arran

I tried http://browserspy.dk with this proxy http://www.proxeasy.com and still java script manages to leak out a whole lot of information on browserspy.dk like
Resolution, Screen, Time on your PC etc.

If it cannot see your IP Address, does the rest matter?

[arran]

Originally Posted by caspian

If it cannot see your IP Address, does the rest matter?

yes it does matter. javascript revealing information about your pc is not good.
because website owners can still identify visitors using proxys by matching the information about your pc that javascript sends. one of them being the date and time on your pc, from the time they can work out what country your are in.

[arran]

Originally Posted by ssj100

That doesn't sound like a huge security risk. Most people are happy to tell which country they are from anyway.

In fact, isn't it actually good for market research etc and thus general web development (eg. improving internet facilities in your country) to let out a bit of detail?

Its not a security risk. But it is more of a Privacy matter.

Originally Posted by ssj100

The scary thing is that your ISP probably knows every single web address that you visit. Is there any way around that?

Of course there is a way around it. VPN Proxies etc which have been talked about millions of times in these forums.

[lotuseclat79]

Originally Posted by ssj100

That doesn't sound like a huge security risk. Most people are happy to tell which country they are from anyway.

In fact, isn't it actually good for market research etc and thus general web development (eg. improving internet facilities in your country) to let out a bit of detail?

The scary thing is that your ISP probably knows every single web address that you visit. Is there any way around that?

Hi ssj100,

Tor (onion routing) is one such proxy system that is free and hides your IP address.

-- Tom

[Eice]

Originally Posted by arran

Its not a security risk. But it is more of a Privacy matter.

It's not privacy, it's sheer, utter and unadultered stupidity. It's like taking the number off your mailbox because you're afraid people can see your house address, or wearing a burqa while outdoors to prevent people from finding out your hair color.

[caspian]

Originally Posted by Eice

It's not privacy, it's sheer, utter and unadultered stupidity. It's like taking the number off your mailbox because you're afraid people can see your house address, or wearing a burqa while outdoors to prevent people from finding out your hair color.

LOL!!!!....

[markoman]

Originally Posted by ssj100

Thanks for that information, and for being specific. Much more helpful than arran's comments.

I have a question - does using these proxy systems slow down internet speed? If it does, I think I'll give them a pass. I use a download manager to max out my download speed bandwidth regularly, and it's just great to see 1Gb videos downloading at 300kb/s (when the max speed I could possibly get is 310-320kb/s). Yes yes, it's probably very slow compared to most people on Wilders, but I'm from a very under-developed country it seems haha!

A good VPN provider will easily give you 300kb/s of speed, so you should have no trouble on this side.

[lotuseclat79]

Hi ssj100,

Generally speaking, only available network bandwidth over the route between source and destination affects download speed and in cases where the ISP throttles user's accounts according to the services to which they are subscribed. It varies according to traffic density on the routes traversed which can mean outages or lots more traffic for any number of reasons.

At home I have the lowest bandwidth FiOS account originally requested at 5MB/sec download and 2MB upload - and installed at 10MB and 2MB (recently bumped up by the ISP to 15MB/sec from 10MB/sec max), and yet, when I use Tor, there has always been reasonable bandwidth download speed.

To find out for yourself, try Tor with Firefox (NoScript and Torbutton add-ons) - the Torbutton allows easy switching on/off use of Tor proxy from Firefox. That way you will know for sure whether you value privacy with encrypted traffic over 3 hops vs speed with no privacy or security (not using Tor). I'd recommend using a Tor controller (Vidalias or Tork). If you use Tork (KDE environment only, not GTK+), it can switch identities of the 3-hop circuit (choose a different routing path) in which your traffic traverses.

-- Tom

[SteveTX]

Originally Posted by ssj100

I'm actually asking if it will slow down my speed. It's a relative thing. Like if the maximum possible download speed is 300kb/s, will I still be able to achieve that with a proxy? Will the proxy slow me down at all? Cheers mate.

A proxy will never be faster than your upload link. Download speed is not measured in bandwidth such as Kbps. It is measured in latency. Quantity downloaded at speed is what bandwidth measures. If you want a fast proxy, you want the one with the lowest latency, not the highest bandwidth. That will give you fastest responses and smallest webpage load times. Bandwidth is only relevant for large file transfers, not speed.

To give some comparison, using bandwidth to describe network speed is like telling someone how many lanes are on a highway when they ask you the speed limit.

So the question is, how much latency?

[arran]

Originally Posted by ssj100

Thanks for that information, and for being specific. Much more helpful than arran's comments.

Are you sure his information is better and has answered your question?

Unless the traffic is "ENCRYPTED" when using Tor onion routing our ISP's here in NZ can still see what web site we visit.

[arran]

Originally Posted by Eice

It's not privacy, it's sheer, utter and unadultered stupidity. It's like taking the number off your mailbox because you're afraid people can see your house address, or wearing a burqa while outdoors to prevent people from finding out your hair color.

I don't get what you are on about please elaborate. are you saying that it is stupidity to hide information about your pc?

[arran]

yes I agree Rapidshare is much better I use it as well for downloading Movies, Episodes and stuff.

[Rainwalker]

Originally Posted by box750

I have found Browserspy to be pretty complete testing what your browser reveals about you:

For those who care: Google is very much involved with the site.

[caspian]

Originally Posted by ssj100

The scary thing is that your ISP probably knows every single web address that you visit. Is there any way around that?

Yes. https://xerobank.com/ Xerobank has secure DNS. All the ISP sees is an encrypted connection to Xerobank.

[caspian]

Originally Posted by ssj100

Hi arran, I dunno mate. I'm not too fussed about it anyway. Anyone could be visiting a web-site using my computer at any time (a friend, a relative, etc etc).

And when it comes to mass downloading, I avoid using torrents now. I use Rapidshare - much much faster with a download accelerator/manager and it's completely anonymous. It's great to see a video being downloaded at 300kb/s. Rapidshare is well worth paying for. Apparently someone in the USA got fined 3 million bucks for downloading 20 songs using torrents recently. I think they used her as an example/scare tactic. But it's another good reason to avoid using torrents...not that I download anything illegally of course!

I use Rapidshare with freedownload manager. You can't beat it. And I download with Xerobank. I ordinarily get far more than 300kb/s. I have gotten up 1500 kb/s. But then again, with my bare connection I get up to 3,000 kb/s. 100MB in less than a minute. But as Steve says, it is the latency that counts.

And I can find anything uploaded to rapidshare. Any movie, CD, documentary, audio book that I have searched for I have found.

[box750]

Originally Posted by arran

still java script manages to leak out a whole lot of information on browserspy.dk like
Resolution, Screen, Time on your PC etc.

Maybe you can disable javascript?

[arran]

Originally Posted by Rainwalker

For those who care: Google is very much involved with the site.

evidence? Links?

Originally Posted by box750

Maybe you can disable javascript?

But you need javascript to view some sites. the challenge is to be able to use javascript while at the same time block drive by malware downloads, and block the info javascript sends and filter out ad's. all this is possible with proxomitron installed on your pc, but with the right rule set of course.

Originally Posted by ssj100

Glad you like Free Download Manager too. I wish I had your speeds! Unfortunately, the fastest my line can possibly go is usually between 250kb/s to 350kb/s. So I'm very happy if I'm downloading at 300+kb/s of course.

have you tried firefox add on "download them all" ?? and go to Preferences, advanced and change the maximum number of segments per download to 10.
and you will find that your downloads would be just as fast as free download manager.

better using a ff add on than having another separate program installed and running on your pc.