3 Positive Things Part 6

[Daniel E.]

Re: 3 Positive Things Part 5

How are your fingers? Did you count them all? There were some left???

At least I don't have to trim his nails. He acts like a squirrel even when the vet techs do it. So we are hoping his new, as-needed Rx of trazodone will help with nail trims (and vet visits).

 

[gooblax]

Re: 3 Positive Things Part 5

My old dog's nails used to get sufficiently worn down on the road so thankfully never had to undergo that experience! I'm too nervous to try to trim my parents' dog's nails in case I accidentally hurt her. She's incredibly docile when relaxed though so would be excellent to practice on.

My three positives for today:

1. Dealt with pre-guest-anxiety by playing piano before she arrived and it was actually very successful (the anxiety reduction, not the playing! :lol.
2. Fairly calm day at work today, and was forced to tackle an asking-question thing that I'd been avoiding for a few weeks.
3. My bathmat, which I'd washed yesterday but was still damp this morning (must have rained during the night), dried inside during the day so my guest doesn't have to choose between stepping onto a wet mat or slipping on the tiles. Yesterday I chose slipping on the tiles - would not recommend.

 

[GaryQ]

Re: 3 Positive Things Part 5

Now why would you do something that dangerous?
There’s a thing called the poor man’s floor mat: A towel lol
And when tiles are extremely slippery even for a towel a slightly damp towel or a slightly damp towel beneath it helps keep it from becoming a crazy carpet.

Glad you didn’t break your neck. I’ve (pretty sure we all have) have had some really close calls. I remember an ex gf taking a bath with oil and not cleaning it after... you can imagine the “in flight” acrobatics to not crack my head open. Put my back out and the shower curtain (my partial savior) took the worst of it.

 

[gooblax]

Re: 3 Positive Things Part 5

Well, you see, I didn't think it would be that slippery.
I was lucky though and got away without even a bruise, but now I know for next time.

Oil, yikes! Glad at least the curtain helped but that sounds painful.

For your amusement I should also mention... The previous day I had washed my towel and left it in the basket, in my bedroom, after drying. When I had a shower that night, imagine my towelless surprise to discover the oversight. :facepalm:With most of my window blinds open I had basically airdried by the time I navigated my way, in the dark (because the blinds were open so light would be quite revealing to the neighbours), through my bedroom floor obstacle course, to get the towel.

 

[GaryQ]

Re: 3 Positive Things Part 5

1 - After rebuilding my main PC in the backup server's case (it will now also act as back up server) and doing a clean install of Windows 10 I was really surprised to see how much the disk usage footprint was reduced!

2- I'm not a tinfoil hat or the conspiracy theorist type but I'm also not a fool and with everything being web based IT Security is a constant threat. But what I've really had enough of is privacy invasion and every step I take being tracked for advertising or other purposes. I'm Putting my foot down and locking all the Windows I can (Pun intended)

Being eliminated/Allready Implememted or being implemented starting today :

• Internet Explorer - OUT (Actually stopped using it a while back)
• Edge browser - OUT (Kiss my PCs goodbye one by one - Also need to lock ET from phoning home too. It stays active and sends stuff even when not in use)
• Cortana Search - Disabled (and every cortana option that can possible be disabled)
• All privacy invading options that can be disabled either through Windows settings or via registry and group policy changes
• Chrome = Google (not a chance in Hell I'm going there)
• VPN and virtual machine for 99% of web traffic. (adds an extra important layer of isolation/protection from main PC)
• Malware Bytes, Windows Defender (Cloud based protection and Sample submission disabled though - Smart screen filter disabled but no longer an issue with Edge out of the picture)
• Changed adblockers - Using Ublock Origin now. No longer see all these Social Media tracking Icons (Yes they don't just show a Facebook etc. button the scripts behind the buttons are actual trackers) I Don't Twitter, Facebook or any other Social media so I have no need to keep seeing follow us or Like us on these sites.
• I try and Support Psychlinks financially as best I can so I don't feel bad about blocking adds, buttons and trackers here.
• Google search OUT - Been using it all these years and actually had it as my home page on all PCs
• DuckDuckGo.com - Now my main search engine. Not as powerful as google search but it's getting better as it gets more popular and IT LOGS NOTHING and sells no info for advertising or other purposes!
• Getting my own domain mostly for having my own mail server again is also something i'm thinking about.

3 - Finally needed something to Browse online and not really up to Writing my own broswer LOL So.... (Drum roll please)
Typing this using FireFox Quantum 66.03. It's actually not bad now. I like it. Had been years since I last tried and was not impressed before.

 

[Daniel E.]

Re: 3 Positive Things Part 5

VPN and virtual machine for 99% of web traffic. (adds an extra important layer of isolation/protection from main PC)

BTW, I find an online virtual machine is actually faster for browsing (except for the keyboard latency) since my home Internet is slower than Amazon's, etc.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Re: 3 Positive Things Part 5

I'm not a tinfoil hat or the conspiracy theorist type but I'm also not a fool and with everything being web based IT Security is a constant threat. But what I've really had enough of is privacy invasion and every step I take being tracked for advertising or other purposes. I'm Putting my foot down and locking all the Windows I can (Pun intended)

Being eliminated/Allready Implememted or being implemented starting today :

• Internet Explorer - OUT (Actually stopped using it a while back)
• Edge browser - OUT (Kiss my PCs goodbye one by one - Also need to lock ET from phoning home too. It stays active and sends stuff even when not in use)
• Cortana Search - Disabled (and every cortana option that can possible be disabled)
• All privacy invading options that can be disabled either through Windows settings or via registry and group policy changes
• Chrome = Google (not a chance in Hell I'm going there)
• VPN and virtual machine for 99% of web traffic. (adds an extra important layer of isolation/protection from main PC)
• Malware Bytes, Windows Defender (Cloud based protection and Sample submission disabled though - Smart screen filter disabled but no longer an issue with Edge out of the picture)
• Changed adblockers - Using Ublock Origin now. No longer see all these Social Media tracking Icons (Yes they don't just show a Facebook etc. button the scripts behind the buttons are actual trackers) I Don't Twitter, Facebook or any other Social media so I have no need to keep seeing follow us or Like us on these sites.
• I try and Support Psychlinks financially as best I can so I don't feel bad about blocking adds, buttons and trackers here.
• Google search OUT - Been using it all these years and actually had it as my home page on all PCs
• DuckDuckGo.com - Now my main search engine. Not as powerful as google search but it's getting better as it gets more popular and IT LOGS NOTHING and sells no info for advertising or other purposes!
• Getting my own domain mostly for having my own mail server again is also something i'm thinking about.

I did most of the things on your list a long time ago. It's not so much a privacy thing for me, although that does matter. It's more of an attempt to minimize unnecessary resource usage and get control of all the things Windows and other programs wants to autostart (I hate that. Let me decide what I want running in the background and stop trying to make those decisions for me.) Fortunately there are a few excellent free utilities to gain that control.

However, I don't use adblockers at all. You can control ad tracking through Firefox (and cookies too) and in my experience adblockers are another resource drain and the net effect is to slow down my browsers.

I'm also not ready to move away from Google search. It's far too important for website development and SEO and Duck Duck is just not a replacement.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Re: 3 Positive Things Part 5

BTW, I find an online virtual machine is actually faster for browsing (except for the keyboard latency) since my home Internet is slower than Amazon's, etc.

I do have a VPN for certain tasks but I don't use it all the time.

1. It does slow down browsing on certain sites.

2. Some sites block VPNs but they don't explicitly say that so to the visitor it looks like the page is just loading slowly or timing out.

3. For reasons I haven't been able to figure out, I can receive email in Microsoft Outlook while using the VPN but I cannot send email until I turn the VPN off.

 

[GaryQ]

Re: 3 Positive Things Part 5

BTW, I find an online virtual machine is actually faster for browsing (except for the keyboard latency) since my home Internet is slower than Amazon's, etc.

by Virtual Machine I meant locally not online.

 

[GaryQ]

Re: 3 Positive Things Part 5

I do have a VPN for certain tasks but I don't use it all the time.

1. It does slow down browsing on certain sites.

2. Some sites block VPNs but they don't explicitly say that so to the visitor it looks like the page is just loading slowly or timing out.

3. For reasons I haven't been able to figure out, I can receive email in Microsoft Outlook while using the VPN but I cannot send email until I turn the VPN off.

The VPN is for diong general searches and browing since you never know who's running or has hacked/hijacked a site before it's too late. Hence the reason it's going to run in the VM to isolate it from the core. Had my browser hijacked once or twice so better safe than sorry.

As for the adblocker I used AdBlock plus for quite a while on IE but was SLOOOOW and buggy on Edge and I found UBlock Origin lately and tried it quite impressive and on a slow (although faster than Daniel and FMN) 7mbps DSL connection removing all the HTML tracking and advertising bloatware increases page load time substantially. Way snappier. Sure there are sites that block them but there's so many sites with all the same info I just skip it. Same goes for "have to sign up free" just to read posts or articles. I simply click back and find another source. There a cool feature where you can actually remove elements from the page with a single click.

The main problems I had with my VPN were with downloads in Edge it would hang or stop or say finish but be incomplate so I'd have to disable it. Actually reminds me need to try downlaod something with the VPN on with FF.

Screen scrolling seems smoother in FF than it was in Edge. Maybe an illusion. And the forum site definitely loads and displays better.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Re: 3 Positive Things Part 5

Which VPN do you use, @GaryQ ?

 

[GaryQ]

Re: 3 Positive Things Part 5

Surfshark.com

Got it new years day on their $1.99 US /month promo for 2 years. Cost me $62 and change Canadian for 2 years. I took a chance on a startup and no regrets so far. Right now they're offerign that price on 3 years.

They're pretty new to the game but growing fast. I think they were at 500 servers in 50 Countries when I signed up and now they're at 800 I think.

In the British Virign Islands, strict no logs policy and P2P and torrenting are allowed and also no maximum connections. The windows app is cool has a kill switch if the VPN connection drops so does the internet connection to that PC.

Oh and they also have double hop options although those are preset groups. You can connect anywhere. They also update the app quite often with improvements and bug fixes. Of course the hard core can go the manual route but that seems complicated for the average joe.

It is a VPN so there are always little issues that can arise and somedays slowdowns can be noticable but I get 80-90% of my bandwith speed on average

EDIT: Speaking of updates one just came in ready to install LOL

 

[Daniel E.]

Re: 3 Positive Things Part 5

In the British Virign Islands

By the way, the cost of gas and groceries there is outrageous. (And it's a rich person's playground anyway for all their banking needs.)

 

[Daniel E.]

Re: 3 Positive Things Part 5

1. Snake free (again): We evicted a snake from a shed by watering him with a hose.

2. A/C now works in the SUV. Was just a loose wire causing problems. Cost to fix: Nothing.

3. Group project is almost over.

 

[H011yHawkJ311yBean]

Re: 3 Positive Things Part 5

I do have a VPN for certain tasks but I don't use it all the time.

3. For reasons I haven't been able to figure out, I can receive email in Microsoft Outlook while using the VPN but I cannot send email until I turn the VPN off.

Hey there! You sound super savvy already, but I was wondering what outgoing settings you had tried with Microsoft Outlook?

I assume you use IMAP, not POP?

1.)Have you already tried using all the various security types? Depends on what device you’re using, of course.

2.) Have you tried outgoing port number 587 instead of 25?

3.) Is SSL on? Try shutting it off. Or if it’s off, try turning it on. There may be a different option -
"This server requires a secure connection (SSL)" or
"Require Secure Password Authentication (SPA)"

4.) Also, if it’s not working on the thick client, have you tried the online version/server? If Microsoft Outlook online also has the same problem, then it’s the server (usually) but if it’s only the email app/program/thick client, then it’s something in the email settings, VPN settings, Firewall or that sort of thing.

5.) I know at some point that Microsoft Outlook wasn’t working a while back because selecting “Use same settings as incoming” seemed to be wonky: as soon as I had my customers change that to just filling out the same login and password as their incoming mail on the smtp server, it starting working again.
—————
Here are some links that seem helpful, as well.

The VPN server may need to whitelist your email, for example.

On the last link there are some good screenshots of settings in various devices/thick clients

Unable to Send Email When Connected to VPN | ExpressVPN

5 things to do when SMTP is blocked by VPN

SMTP - Sending emails while connected to VPN Hide My Ass! Support

———————-
Also, as far as browsers go, which one do you recommend using that would be the safest?

Hope this helps! [emoji2]



Sent from my Hollycopter using SlappaSquawk

 

[GaryQ]

Re: 3 Positive Things Part 5

There’s ain’t no such thing as a safe browser. They all have security flaws that can be attacked through multiple vectors. Even Tor browser isn’t failsafe. The goal is to make the hacker give up trying before succeeding and move on to try an easier target. From what I’ve discovered this week Firefox seems like the only option that’s not advertising revenue based and it can be locked down some.

Also so very important for people to understand is that first is safe browsing habits and understanding that sites we think are safe and secure are hijacked/hacked on a regular basis. Viruses/Malware/ etc are then attached to the sites webpages and through the gracious kindness of JavaScript security holes tada you have anything from a bot to a worm or even a root kit. Current browser attacks seem to be more focused on using your pc for cryptocurrency mining which is hard on a computer but not the end of the world.

A VPN helps (if everything is locked down properly) by hiding your Internet IP address since most home routers are easier to attack and hijack than people think. Once someone has access to your gateway the whole infrastructure is his since everything goes though it. First and most comm is DNS hijacking to reroute to a fake server you think is a safe site.

You could lock everything down but you’ll never be able to see any sites as they pretty much all demand cookies being accepted and JavaScript enabled.

I’m impressed by your knowledge of outlook but would definitely recommend against not using ssl under any circumstance. You definitely need your email and login only going through secure sockets layers at all times.

 

[H011yHawkJ311yBean]

Re: 3 Positive Things Part 5

There’s ain’t no such thing as a safe browser.

I’m impressed by your knowledge of outlook but would definitely recommend against not using ssl under any circumstance. You definitely need your email and login only going through secure sockets layers at all times.

Well, I figured you have a VPN, a Firewall, and all those failsafes. I figured in your case you’d be okay. But yeah, SSL otherwise.

I know enough not to send private stuff or if some company tried to get me to click on a link or asks me to “update” my login/password through email.

I’m not as savvy as you about security (other than being careful), so what about Google/Chrome’s “Incognito” option? It also doesn’t save a history of which websites you visited...


Sent from my Hollycopter using SlappaSquawk

 

[GaryQ]

Re: 3 Positive Things Part 5

In private/ Incognito options are only to prevent "local" viewing of where you've been surfing.

Ex: Battered spouse looking up info on how to make a safe and clean exit... Definitely does not want his/her spouse knowing what he/she's up to.
All trackers are still effective and operational out on the web. Also there are ways to track web browsing if someone has access to the computer used and knows how even if in private/incognito browsing is used. Best to do this type of searching away from the commonly accessible PC.

VPN's Firewalls and all safety precautions are pretty much null and void if not using a secure transport layer https:// for surfing and SSL sockets for mail applications. The first layer of security no matter thhe nethod used is to ensure secure connections to the site or service. The rest are mostly Identity and address obfuscating and protection.

VPN provides some form of IP obfuscation. Mostly so your ISP doesn't know and can't log where you're surfing. This is used for legal things like whistleblowing and other activities such as downloading stuff. but if you're logged into Windows using anyhting other than a local only account or if WebRTC or location is enabled then the VPN is useless in obfuscating your IP and or identity once it exits your VPN on route to and especially at it's destination.

Firewalls prevent most unauthorized entry. Once a door or breach has been opened through any means like clicking on a nasty site that firewall door can be opened since the firewall sees you as opening it in most circumstances.

Anti-Virus programs like Windows Defender and MalwareBytes Premium can help mitigate illegal entry to a certain extent but are not safe against Zero Day exploits if you happen to stumble in ine inadvertantly.

 

[GaryQ]

Re: 3 Positive Things Part 5

1 - Found how to disable edge browser from leaking local IP addressed as WebRTC leaks:

enter about:flags in the address bar then find and enable Hide my local IP address over webRTC connections. Close and repen browser.



This site is quite detailed as to what info your browser is leaking or not to the web
As you can see in this tab WebRTC leaks I'm no longer leaking my local IP address after the above modifications. Great and very detailed site for testing VPN leaks.



2 -All this re-installing and having to manually enter and set all Windows options after every new version upgrade or clean install (have 3 PC left to do) I found some PowerShell scripts that gave me an idea for my next programming project. (I don't always trust 3rd party free software that modifies system settings with administrator access). I'll make an application to run when I need it to uninstall all the bloatware and the Windows apps that you can't uninstall by regular means like phone and Cortana etc. and all my tweaks I do to removed One Drive and Folders from the File explorer and Just run it and let it do it's thing in one run. I could run a script but I want the option to be able to tweak and changes settings at will.

3 - Feeling a little bit better (little bit is a lot better than no bit) and going for lunch with Miss Muffet (fish fry day) She's buying

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Re: 3 Positive Things Part 5

Nice find. I wasn't aware of BrowserLeaks.com - Web Browser Security Checklist for Identity Theft Protection previously.