Anyone here want to explain SARG? IT TRACKS WHERE ITS USERS GO ON THE INTERNET!!!

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

SARG is attached to this site.

Anyone care to explain?

[zabet]

1. Maybe it feeds info to the ad bot

for the google ads.

[msongs]

2. thanks for the reminder to use my cookie culler right now :-0 nt

[zabet]

4. ...

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

9. You believe it is a "cookie"? Are you kidding?

You,...

okay,...

[pengillian101]

51. google ads

Google ads galore. Evwey click is a money hit. Pretty soon DU won't need to ask for donations. Google will pay for all us to post.

[lligrd]

3. Skinner Reports Directly To Cheney

- Just in case it is needed.

[GreenPartyVoter]

6. .

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

13. No comment?

Why?

[GreenPartyVoter]

15. The spit take was the comment, or did you mean to the OP?

[lligrd]

16. This Is A Very Strange Thread

[sammythecat]

46. indeed

[bananas]

5. Squid Analysis Report Generator? nt

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

7. Look it up, if you have the energy.

[bananas]

8. Is that what you're talking about? nt

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

10. Interesting.

[bananas]

11. Boring.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

12. Why?

[RC]

14. Huh?

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

18. No one cares to explore let alone explain. I get it.

Okay.

I'll go away, now.

[lisainmilo]

17. what is SARG? n/t

[Hekate]

19. Beats me. Apparently it's the OP's secret code for "That's for me to know and you to find out"...

... or possibly the code means "All the rest of you are fools for not knowing already." Hard to engage with that, so I'm going away too.

Hekate

[Lone_Star_Dem]

31. To my knowledge it's a squid log file analyzer.

In essence, it's a tool to show you were your users go on the internet.

That's pretty much all I know it to be.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

35. It shows you where your users go on the internet. That's all it is.

[Warren DeMontague]

75. Naw, man.. it tells a FUCKING SQUID where we all go on the in'nnernet!

Aye, Matey... who knows what those god-dam squid are plannin'!

[KoKo]

64. You know for us Computer Compromised ..saying "squid log file analyzer"

sort of seems...well biazarre!

I have adaware, spybot, Microsoft Firewall, Earthlink and Cisco DSL..block and use Firefox..
also use that free Virus thing...that's not Norton...ADR or ADM...something.

Am I covered? from "Squidware Attack?

[alfredo]

67. It was the name of a pet turtle at Tract C Kagnew Station.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

20. And how do you know...

That SARG is running here?

[Duer 157099]

21. Interesting. I can only guess that it can only follow links

that originate on DU, so that it could be used for Affiliate tracking, that sort of thing.

I highly doubt that it can follow you around the net from either other browser windows or even if same window, URLs accessed via (non-DU) bookmarks or URLs just typed in.

Although I could be wrong, but I just can't see how it could do it.

Anyone?

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

22. So, the cue to "redinter.vo.llnwd.net" during login is explained by your possibility?

I do not doubt the intrusion is attached to DU,...it popped up up my screen. I decided to take a look at it.

IT is an invasive attachment,...and anounces itself as such to our own government (and anyone else who will BUY).

Oh,...I suppose I am just being "paranoid" and all that.

PLEASE,...forgive me.

[Duer 157099]

23. Not sure. Still looking into it

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squid_cache

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

24. I appreciate your attention.

I doubt wiki is the reliable resource place, though.

Obviously, this is a path of resistance, here. So, I'll allow others to do what they do best.

[Duer 157099]

26. Wiki was not the only place I looked

It seems to be a (log parser for a) proxy cache of some sort, but if you know more than we do, why not enlighten us?

Does that command you cited, at DU logon, do something that enables DU to follow one around the net?

I have a vague sense of what it does, but would like to understand this technology more -- for while I dno't really mind if DU follows me around, I DO mind if other websites have that capability.

[bananas]

28. What intrusion? Is your computer infected by a virus or trojan?

You are being clear as mud.
Please tell us specifically what happened that caused your concern.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

34. Nope. Any one who signs in gets tracked. nt

[Duer 157099]

36. Is it only for the browser instance when DU was signed into?

How could it be active for *any* other browser windows?

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

41. Yes.

I never said it was "active" for other browsers in the browser window. If it attaches to my computer to track my activities, it wouldn't have to show up,...obviously.

Am I making sense, to you?

Are you a "techie" kinda' guy?

[Duer 157099]

43. Yes, it's making sense to me

and no, i'm not a techie kinda guy. I'm a techie kinda girl

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

47. I just KNEW when I typed "guy" it was a mistake! *LOL*

Forgive me,....PLEASE????

Anyways, would you help me work through this 'attachment'?

It's bothersome as a common-but-observant common,...aware and observant human being out here.

Girls DO RULE but, the guys are so sensitive that I keep it to myself.

[bananas]

56. What 'attachment' are you talking about? Please be as specific as possible. nt

[Contrary1]

25. SARG:

Sarg - Squid Analysis Report Generator is a tool that allow you to view "where" your users are going to on the Internet.
Sarg provides many informations about Squid users activities: times, bytes, sites, etc...

Available languages
English, Bulgarian-windows1251, Catalan, Czech, Czech UTF8, Dutch, Greek, German, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Latvian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian-koi8, Russian_UTF-8, Russian-windows1251, Serbian, Slovak, Spanish, Turkish, Ukrainian-windows1251

Supported log files
Squid, Microsoft ISA, Novell Border Manager

Files Readme ChangeLog Sample reports MAN page (thanks to Luigi Gangitano)
Download sarg-2.2.5 md5sum: 0f4481e375dedf9ab8c682c9407162ff
Last change: Mar-02-2008
Bug Report Support Request Patches Feature Requests

http://sarg.sourceforge.net/sarg.php

[Duer 157099]

30. Here's a much more informative link

http://wiki.squid-cache.org/SquidFaq/InnerWorkings

[KoKo]

65. What's the big deal...it's a "tracking cookie" and doesn't it disappear when we log off?

My Firefox is set to log off cookies when I log off and I do that every day.

[bemildred]

27. You have no privacy on the web.

You never did, you never will. The web is not about privacy. It never was about privacy. If you want privacy, you need really good encryption, an extra added feature.

*** THIS HAS BEEN A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT ***

[Duer 157099]

29. Good point, and needs to be constantly reminded

We all need to remind ourselves of this fact regularly.

[lisainmilo]

76. It actually changes nothing for me...follow me if you want....

My secret is lots of literari.....

[Contrary1]

32. ...or on the phone, or where your car has been, or in your mail and on and on. n/t

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

38. Whatever "rights" to privacy people BELIEVE they have,...is DEAD AND GONE.

The vast majority of people are intent upon being "good citizens".

Good citizens explore all means possible to make life better, for all.

GOOD CITIZENS seek to protect the oppressed from the oppressors.

I am sure anyone familiar with how an oppressive game/system works can identify with my concerns at HOW THAT SYSTEM IS WORKING to protect an oppression that DEFIES "democracy" and our country along with its citizens.

Honestly, I feel stunned at the resistence andopposition to BASIC RIGHTS/VALUES I assert on this forum.

[IDemo]

33. It's all going through room 641a anyway

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A

[Duer 157099]

37. Concepts of Interception Caching

Interception Caching goes under many names - Interception Caching, Transparent Proxying and Cache Redirection. Interception Caching is the process by which HTTP connections coming from remote clients are redirected to a cache server, without their knowledge or explicit configuration.

There are some good reasons why you may want to use this technique:

* There is no client configuration required. This is the most popular reason for investigating this option.
* You can implement better and more reliable strategies to maintain client access in case of your cache infrastructure going out of service.

(more at link)

http://wiki.squid-cache.org/SquidFaq/InterceptionProxy#...

[Lone_Star_Dem]

39. Ah, hell. This means Skinner, EarlG and Elad know I looked up that Oblivion cheat?

How will I ever look them in the face again?

Really, I had to. I was stuck wandering around for two days and couldn't figure it out.

If you find this upsetting I suggest you never use a Windows based computer again. Really. Don't even hit the power button if you want real privacy on the internet.

Oh, and you may want to look into what information about your viewing preferences your cable and/or satellite company are gathering. 'Cause those aren't exactly secrets either.

Then there's the features you access on your cellphone. That's something that marketing companies have a great deal of interest in.


Personal information should be private. Emails should be private, unless you're doing them from work, then it's a gray area. Telephone conversations should be private. But these rights to privacy aren't extended to all our activities. Even if what's being reported isn't about you personally, it's valuable information to marketing and design companies to know who, from where, are doing what and when they are doing it.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

42. Are you suggesting they are innoculated from 'design'?

[Duer 157099]

40. Damn. The more I'm learning, the less I like this

And again, not because it's DU doing it, but because of who *else* is using this.

Here's some more info, and another good link:

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/webcaching/chapter/ch05....

As we discussed in Chapter 4, "Configuring Cache Clients", one of the most difficult problems you might face in deploying a web caching service is getting users to use your cache. In some cases, the problem is mostly political; users might resist caching because of privacy concerns or fears they will receive stale information. But even if users are convinced to use the cache -- or have no choice -- administrative hurdles may still be a problem. Changing the configuration of thousands of installed clients is a daunting task. For ISPs, the issue is slightly different -- they have little or no control over their customers' browser configurations. An ISP can provide preconfigured browsers to their customers, but that doesn't necessarily ensure that customers will continue to use the caching proxy.

Because of problems such as these, interception caching has become very popular recently. The fundamental idea behind interception caching (or proxying) is to bring traffic to your cache without configuring clients. This is different from a technique such as WPAD (see "Web Proxy Auto-Discovery"), whereby clients automatically locate a nearby proxy cache. Rather, your clients initiate TCP connections directly to origin servers, and a router or switch on your network recognizes HTTP traffic and redirects it to your cache. Web caches require only minor modifications to process requests received in this manner.

As wonderful as this may sound, a number of issues surround interception caching. Interception caching breaks the rules of the Internet Protocol. Routers and switches are supposed to deliver IP packets to their intended destination. Diverting web traffic to a cache is similar to a postal service that opens your mail and reads it before deciding where to send it or whether it needs to be sent at all.<1> The phrase connection hijacking is often used to describe interception caching, as a reminder that it violates the Internet Protocol standards. Interception also leads to problems with HTTP. Clients may not send certain headers, such as &Cachectrl;, when they are unaware of the caching proxy.

[lovuian]

45. This doesn't sound very good at all

I have noticed that the new assault of Neo Cons and Repubs is the Internet
they are trying to control it

this could be one of those ways

[bananas]

61. That can be a valid concern

It's also called "transparent proxy" because the user doesn't know it's there.
A lot of companies use this to prevent employees from accessing porn sites etc.
It's also used for censorship in foreign countries.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_the...

[KoKo]

66. Skinner always says "I know everything about you...where you go and what you do"

when trolls go at him with their sockpuppets. I assume he's the "Great OZ" ...

[Duer 157099]

44. OK, now that I sort of understand this, my question is:

why does DU need to use it?

I can understand why an ISP would think they need it, because it reduces their overall bandwidth, by delivering "cached" content to their users, instead of having the make a fresh request each time a page is requested.

But why would DU need to deliver cached content from the Internet? I can see why they would deliver their own cached content, but the rest of the net?

Maybe they don't, maybe the software has that built in capability, so that ISPs can deploy it that way, but for a place like DU, they can still use it in a more pared down fashion.

Am I understanding this correctly? Anyone?

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

48. Thank you. What's with the 'tracking'?

I am not accusing DU of deploying it. However, DU users CAN AND ARE being tracked.

There is no question about the tracking.

WHY AND HOW are the questions.

[bananas]

50. You understand it a lot better than the OP

Squid can be used by an ISP to reduce bandwidth,
or it can be used by a web site host to reduce server load.
That second mode is referred to as "reverse proxy" or "accelerator" mode.
Squid is open-source software that has been around for about a decade.
There are other commercial packages which do the same thing.

You asked, "But why would DU need to deliver cached content from the Internet?"
They can't.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_proxy

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

53. Wait a minute. You seem to assert that SQUID HAS TO BE USED.

Explain.

[bananas]

55. No, I'm not asserting that at all.

And you still haven't told us exactly what happened to set off your paranoia.

[Xithras]

49. Oh LOL! You're complaining about Squid?

Squid is just a caching engine used to reduce server load and traffic. It caches frequently requested data so that data can be returned from the cache and saves the server a few hits. It helps to make the site more reliable and responsive.

Hell, we run a Squid cache at work. There is NO privacy loss as a result of the cache. The data collected by Squid cache is already available to administrators in normal server logs anyway. Any server admin on the Internet can see how you got to their server, and where you went when you left.

Might be a useful way to identify Freepers.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

52. Bookmarking.

On behalf of FREEPERS, I'll cling to this "caching engine"!!!!

Why don't you provide links to what you proffer?

I'd appreciate it, enormously.

[Xithras]

89. The documentation has already been linked to.

Everything I'm saying is buried in the Squid documentation on their site. It's in computer geek-speak and is targeted at people who understand the technology, but it's all there at http://www.squid-cache.org /

If that's not good enough, look at the Squid Wiki. This isn't come corporate spyware thing, but an Open Source program originally written by UCSD and maintained by an Open Source group of volounteers. Yo can download the source and inspect it yourself if you're technically savvy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squid_cache .

As the Wiki starts out: "Squid is a proxy server and web cache daemon. It has a wide variety of uses, from speeding up a web server by caching repeated requests, to caching web, DNS and other computer network lookups for a group of people sharing network resources, to aiding security by filtering traffic." Tat kind of says it all. It's an Internet performance enhancer.

[bananas]

57. It sounds like his computer is infected with something.

He keeps mentioning a mysterious "attachment".
It probably has nothing to do with squid at all.

[Xithras]

88. Could just be a Squid cookie.

Squid does plant cookies, so I'm assuming that's what's being referred to. They're benign, and just help to improve site performance. There's nothing sinister about Squid.

[KoKo]

68. Well thanks for that...what about the "squid tentacles on the back end" though...

are they trailing something? What about "black ink" couldn't that be some sort of sinister problem that Squid ejects as you log out?

[Xithras]

87. Squid doesn't manage "log out"'s

Squid does have some capabilities to plant a cookie on your browser to help ITS OWN PERFORMANCE the next time you use it. First, it can record the last viewed stamps on the pages you looked at, and use them to determine how to serve you the next time. If the pages haven't changed and are still in your cache, it can command your browser to display a cached version instead (I admit to not understanding exactly how this process works). If it's detected that you are viewing the same pages over and over, it can also use that information, stored in a cookie within your own browser, to prefetch that data next time you visit. It's not a sinister thing, but simply allows the server to serve you your requested information faster. If the server KNOWS that you like to look at Page A, then Page D, then Page X, it can pull those three pages into a precache while you're still reading Page A. That way, when you click the link to D, the data is already there is the memory buffer waiting to go. It improves site performance for the viewer and allows the load on the primary server to be distributed more evenly.

[muriel_volestrangler]

77. 'where you went when you left'?

How would that information get to a server? I know that http has a 'referring site' (I can't remember the official term) field so that a request is marked "this request came from a link at ...", but are you saying that every site gets sent a http packet saying "this user just clicked on your link, but they don't want any reply from you at all"? It's some time since I looked at http flows, but I don't remember anything like that.

[Xithras]

86. There's two basic methods.

The first pipes a visitor through an intermediary page. This is easy to see. The second, more common method uses the Javascript OnUnload event to fire off an action to the server when you leave. In combination with an AJAX service, a page exit can rip your destination URL and send it back to the host server. Unless you do a view-source on the webpage and know what you're looking at, you'll never even know it happened. Note that this method can only capture the FIRST CLICK when you leave someones site. Site owners use the trick to find out where their traffic is going, usually as a way to improve their content to keep them from leaving next time (e.g., if you see that half our visitors are heading over to your competitors site, it's a dead giveaway that something is very wrong with your own.)

The big thing to remember is that the site owner can only track links for a single hop, and the situations in which they can track even that is limited. I overstated the freeper thing a bit. A site owner cannot track your outgoing target if you type a URL into your browser, because that action occurs outside of the DOM. JavaScript can't access anything on your computer outside of content related to the page being displayed at the current moment. They CAN track a site change, however, if you get there by clicking a link within the current active document within the browser.

Even then, it's not foolproof. Kill Javascript and you'll kill the ability for this to function. If you open the link in a new window or tab, you also beat it. Most ad blockers also detect these actions and block them outright.

As far as privacy violations go, it's a fairly minor one.

[muriel_volestrangler]

92. Thanks - the JavaScript method makes sense

and yes, I agree it's not a major invasion of privacy, since it does involve a link the first page had provided.

[Redstone]

54. BFD. Turn off your browser cache and history, and it's a non-issue.

Redstone

[Duer 157099]

58. Let me ask a very simplified version of this question

Maybe it will help.

Why would *any* website admin need to know where somebody goes *after* they leave said website?

I don't mean by following a link off the site, because there are good reasons to know that (Affiliate tracking, for one).

But what is a legitimate reason for a log to track all of a browser activity?

It seems this is the bottom-line question, no?

Also, now that a post upthread got me thinking about it, can a website (server log) extract the browser cache/history??? That's a whole new concern.

I know just enough to steep myself in paranoia

[bemildred]

59. Advertising, which is how you make money.

Sites get paid for "referrals". So if you know what referrals you have provided, you are in a better position to know what you should be paid.

[Duer 157099]

60. Sure, that was covered in the "Affiliate tracking" part

that part I get. It's the other stuff I'm asking about.

[bemildred]

62. Well, OK.

But you are already using DNS servers, routers, search engines, etc. and they have to know where you go and what you are interested in, and they have log capabilities. Not to mention tcpdump and the like. And administrators sometimes have good reasons to use such information that have nothing to do with a desire to snoop.

[bemildred]

63. To be perfectly clear, if DU was dumping users browser caches and

groveling over the results, that would annoy me, but I doubt that.

[KoKo]

70. How would they have the time to do it...but then ...

remember when the FBI contacted Skinner and wanted our "stuff" and Skinner said he'd fight it. I never heard what happened to that but it was a few years ago. I imagine the FBI got it...given the Bushie power.

[bemildred]

71. It would not be hard to set up a "filter" to get particular results.

Random browsing would be most unilluminating and tedious. It's like I said, you have no privacy on the web short of encryption, and then it better be good encryption. Meanwhile, behave accordingly.

[KoKo]

69. I think all our free ad ware and virus programs can read all our cache and suck out what they want

anytime. Every time Microsoft updates me...I know it's burrowing in my computer and some thingy is finding stuff. What to do about it? I don't know.. You techie literates probably can save yourselves from this...my my computer is an open book for anything to go through...because I'm computer illiterate and no "nuthing."

[bemildred]

72. That's a good point.

It is possible to set up a internet connected computer so that it is invisible and secure, short of the possibility of some difficult hacking, but that still does not give you any privacy on the web. But all sorts of things that are "protecting" your computer have access to anything on it and you are trusting them not to "call home" as it is.

[Xithras]

91. Here's a simple answer. It's legitimate, and not nearly as sinister as it sounds.

As I said in a reply above, I probably wasn't clear in my first post. They can detect WHICH OUTGOING LINK on their site was clicked. They can't follow you around the Internet or read your history (Not Squid anyway...though there are other tricks for getting that), they can just see what site you were looking at before visiting theirs (IF you clicked a link on their site to get to yours), and you can see which link they clicked on your site to go to another site. If the user closes their browser, or even types the new URL into their browser, it cannot be read. Only outgoing links from your own site can be followed, and only for that first click.

And there's a very legitimate reason for doing so. Site operators want to know which of the links or content areas on their site are getting the most traffic. A high-traffic buried link might need to be moved to a more prominent location. A link you think is important, but that your visitors aren't finding, might need the same treatment. Site operators need to know how people are using their website so they understand how to best adjust it to their users needs.

[Medusa]

73. This is what I learned while working on my company's website

I don't know anything about specific names of programs mind you, but we had a program on our website that allowed us to see the IP's of people who visited our site, and the sites they came to (referring sites if they clicked through) or Google, etc. and the site they left our site for. I also could see the type of OS they were using, the length of time they stayed on my site, etc. I once, for some strange reason could even see what one person who had left my site, gone to another, had posted on a message board. That was enough for me: from that point on, I never again clicked on a "favorite" link while on one website to go to another. I also erase cookies, my history, etc. every single time I log on or off the computer.

[pengillian101]

85. That was very informative.

Thanks for the info.

[Warren DeMontague]

74. You mean, like from Beetle Bailey?

[Edweird]

78. Solution here:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/722

Problem solved.

[bemildred]

79. Yes, that is a great add-on, I use it everywhere. nt

[shanine]

80. what about for opera browser? n/t

[Edweird]

82. I suggest an upgrade to Firefox.

More secure and lots of add-ons.

[shanine]

83. Thanks, I have firefox also,

but opera seemed simpler . . but I will use the ff again.

[iamthebandfanman]

81. most big websites do it

track where you go when you leave their website....

they are trying to get a feel for content you look at ... for themselves and their advertisers.

[Rosemary2205]

84. IT'S AGENT MIKE!!!

[Wizard777]

90. There is a Squid in my computer?

Is this gonna be like when my Mac told me I had a broken pipeline? Because I called a plumber and he said he couldn't find a pipe in there anywhere. He said it was full of wires and circut boards and that I should call an electrician. Who in the hell do you call to get a squid out of your computer?