Protect yourself at all times

[CORRUPTERBUSTER]

You know what guys, this whole thing with everyone getting shut down there is always another creeping up that we don’t know about. I wonder how long it would take them to realize this is a fight that cannot be won or lost. I have been spending a good part of the night reading everyone’s post and threads and we got some really smart people in this forum there are not any in other that I have been too.

We are committing a crime? I say a crime of what. Where I live I have cable internet and I am doing rather well in speed, so far my internet provider has 70 confirmed people that they turned over to the RIAA. Now that number might not seem like a lot to you guys, and keep thinking that because this internet provider spans 14 states. We are not the fastest but we are getting there. My point in all this is the people who allow them selves to get caught.

I set up computers for a living I know it doesn’t sound like much but I make an easy buck. I get $30.00 just to set up the computer and $15.00 for each available component, Printer, scanner, web-cam. The computers that I set up have antivirus software already pre-installed along with a firewall. I set these up for free and set them up so that they cannot mess with them in anyway. (Password) The reason I tell people this is it is for their own protection and I make darn sure that the passwords are as many and 100 characters long just to play it safe from hackers. I just put the passwords on a floppy name it to the computer and the person and file here at home.

I cannot stress to people enough never to accept any kind of pop up warning even if it is from your own internet provider. It just doesn’t work that way. When the cable company visited me just a few days ago they said they were checking my lines to see how my service was. I said I wasn’t having any problems, but they just had to come into the house and check it all out. They came into my office and saw my computer tower and then asked where my modem was, I pointed to the closet and a guy walked over and the door was locked. He said he had to get at the modem to check the line and I said, no you don’t because the line the leads to the modem is right there down by your feet and that door isn’t coming open unless you bring me a search warrant.

You see how easy it is to get your self busted, I had to pull that server out of the closet in the middle of the night and take it over to my dads to keep it there for a while until I knew for sure, and I was right because they did come over with the police and a search warrant to check out a closet that had a Linksys modem attached to the wall, and a few jackets hanging in there. Then the truth came out right in front of everyone. And I said it just like this, “No bells and flashing lights, the only reason why you people are here is because your tech’s can’t get past my firewalls, to see what is on my computer tell me if I am wrong”? What could the guy say? Want to know what he said, how many firewalls do you have, and that is when I pointed right to his chest and said that is non of your business what is on my computer your only business is to keep that services coming into my home.

Having a server isn’t legal but what is on that server and the hard drives might be. Do I see a bit paranoid? Your dam Skippy I am, If I want to run five firewalls to protect myself and my property isn’t that my choice?

I protect all my customers as well and everyone who reads this don’t leave your ass hanging out in the wind protect your self at all times and if you are not sure turn off your computer. Sorry for the long story, but I hope my point got across.

[Mazer]

You can never be too careful, as they say, and I say to you. I only run one firewall on my computer, relying mostly on my modem's nat router which only allows a select few incomming ports to be forwarded. If MSN want's to hack into my computer they can go ahead and try, they won't find anything to sue me over; just to be safe, though, none of the unlicenced software I use is from Microsoft. I keep filesharing to a minimum on public networks, I hate to be a leech but that's the way it is. I run Ad-Aware fairly often. Besides that there's not much more I care to do, but I think on the average my computer's much safer than the majority of internet connected machines, and I'm a relatively samll target.

What I'd like to see is a website with tutorials for newbies to learn about protecting themselves. Something that covers the basics and gives links to more advanced techniques. GRC.com is a good resource but it's fairly technical and his postings are long winded. And websites that sell security products, even good ones, are more interested in sales than educating consumers. If someone was willing to help me set up a security for dummies website I'd be willing to host it.

[theknife]

wouldn't mind a few more details here, Mr. CB....

who's your ISP? and were you doing that got them so excited in the first place? what did the search warrant specify they were looking for? and were you running P2P apps or something more extensive? i get your point overall, but i'm not quite clear on what your alleged crime actually was...

[CORRUPTERBUSTER]

who's your ISP? and were you doing that got them so excited in the first place? what did the search warrant specify they were looking for? and were you running P2P apps or something more extensive? i get your point overall, but i'm not quite clear on what your alleged crime actually was...

I think the reason for the whole thing had to do with me denying my internet provider access to my computer, because of firewalls. With Norton personal firewall when you get an attack on your computer you get a pop up that informs you of this attack and you get the option to deny or to grant them access I always wanted to know who was snooping around so before I would do anything I would run a trace and it would show it was my own provider.

I had learned months before that my internet provider was doing checks of customers computers for Illegal downloading software and a few people I know showed me the letters that they had gotten and it said they had illegal software on their computer and if they did not remove this illegal software that their internet service would be shut down. Now I asked my friends how did they find out, did they call you, did they come to your house, how did they find out? All of them said, they didn’t know, but I knew how they did it.
The internet provider was doing program scans which is legal, and I will bet you that when they couldn’t get into my computer I went on a list and that is what brought the first visit, and after that came the cops, but the warrant did not give them permission to turn on my computer and see what software I was running, it only granted them to view what was in the closet. So I hope that this answered your questions.

[theknife]

Originally posted by CORRUPTERBUSTER
I think the reason for the whole thing had to do with me denying my internet provider access to my computer, because of firewalls. With Norton personal firewall when you get an attack on your computer you get a pop up that informs you of this attack and you get the option to deny or to grant them access I always wanted to know who was snooping around so before I would do anything I would run a trace and it would show it was my own provider.

I had learned months before that my internet provider was doing checks of customers computers for Illegal downloading software and a few people I know showed me the letters that they had gotten and it said they had illegal software on their computer and if they did not remove this illegal software that their internet service would be shut down. Now I asked my friends how did they find out, did they call you, did they come to your house, how did they find out? All of them said, they didn’t know, but I knew how they did it.
The internet provider was doing program scans which is legal, and I will bet you that when they couldn’t get into my computer I went on a list and that is what brought the first visit, and after that came the cops, but the warrant did not give them permission to turn on my computer and see what software I was running, it only granted them to view what was in the closet. So I hope that this answered your questions.

not really....

maybe it's just me but i'm still not getting this...

program scans? you mean your isp going through your computer remotely to see what software you have on it? where is this legal?

and in order to get a warrant, there has to be reasonable suspicion a crime has occurred...you're saying your isp is capable of getting a judge to authorize a search warrant based on their inability to look at into your closet, which was predicated by their being unable to view the contents of your hard drive?

they should have given you a copy of the warrant, no? i'd like to see that....and who is your isp?

[sls-sls]

O.K. I'm new to this forum, and by far NOT brilliant. But as I can see, there is only two possibilities here.
1) You're not telling us the whole story, or
2) You ALMOST allowed yourself to be abused by whoever tried to gain access to your computer/modem.

I refuse to believe that any respectable ISP would do random software checks on their customers computers. KaZaa, Blubster, etc... don't turn their people in, because it's bad for business.
An ISP is a business, and you can't make money by pissing off the people that pay you. (Something that the RIAA will be forced to learn sooner or later).
Just an opinion from another novice!

[ONEMANBANNED]

Remember to wear your set belt at all times

[Fantom]

Originally posted by sls-sls
O.K. I'm new to this forum, and by far NOT brilliant. But as I can see, there is only two possibilities here.

You forgot:
3) Trolling