Guess What?

Guess what, Mac sports fans?

For some time I've been trying to figure out how I was getting tracking (spyware) cookies planted into my Safari browser. All along I've watched my firewall log as packets were redirected to several IP addresses I didn't type. Now I know. They're coming from this web site.

You see, the server for this forum is 69.20.37.125. If you type http://69.20.37.125 into your browser pane it should bring you here. At the same time, while waiting for the Forum site to load, your browser's being redirected to at least two other ad/slum-ware sites operated by the mob. The redirects mean "hits" and market share. We're being used.

The other IP addresses, both in sequence with the IP for this site, are: 69.20.37.8 and 69.20.37.107, both coming up after DNS (Destination Name Service) resolving as ads1.inetinteractive.net. So far I haven't been able to find the spy cookies; but I'll keep looking.

Checking around (snooping, yeah... what of it?) I learned that the above ad-industry site is a front for another site, called AdComplete.com, a closed, semiprivate web site requiring name and password login. Wonder if Google would have any info on the subject?

Who are these people, and what is their game? What about it Merlyn... got any snappy come-backs on this one?


A

I have been here a while and I've never been redirected to any ad or web site or anything -- I have checked my firewall and there are no hits. You've got a strange thing going on, but it's not inherently this site, but it appears to be made to look that way.

You do realize what cookies are right?

cookies are generally used to store your login information so that you dont have to login everytime. yes they can be used as trackers but in cases like this site is for login info

there has yet to be discoverys of any actual spyware for Mac OS X so your whole complaint is moot

I hope you don't think all my replies are snappy replies.. but then again it doesnt matter even if you do now does it? It's hard being a conspiracy theorist.. not a lot of people will agree with you, even if you are right. Now if you look at the top of the site you will see that the people that own this site is.. lo and behold.. inetinteractive.. like you mentioned with your cookies.. so yes they are advertising to us if you havent looked up at the top of the forums.. well there are ads

And actually cookies can be used for tracking.. most definitely.. it's not their purpose and Im not saying that is what the owners are doing.. this is just in response to trippin monkey But usually they are just to hold login credentials or if you have cookies enabled so that the site will work.. etc etc

Now Im not sure if that was considered snappy.. I hope so *grin*

What is happening (I'm looking at the source code) and concerning you is that the ads are loading directly from the iNet servers. This does not mean a 'hit' for them and us being 'used', but instead a nice pretty image telling us to buy something or go somewhere

Have you set Safari so it only accepts cookies from sites you navigate to? That may be a quick and easy way to make sure iNet interactive doesn't track you, if that is what they are doing.

Nice "snappy" come-back Murlyn.

Reply to witeshark

witeshark said:

I have been here a while and I've never been redirected to any ad or web site or anything -- I have checked my firewall and there are no hits. You've got a strange thing going on, but it's not inherently this site, but it appears to be made to look that way.

Click to expand...

whiteshark:

No offense, but you're wrong. Do you work for these people?

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Reply to trpmonkey41's comments

trpnmonkey41 said:

You do realize what cookies are right?

cookies are generally used to store your login information so that you dont have to login everytime. yes they can be used as trackers but in cases like this site is for login info

there has yet to be discoverys of any actual spyware for Mac OS X so your whole complaint is moot

Click to expand...

trpmonkey41:

You don't know what you're talking about. Obviously you and some SELECT others are involved in the scam at this forum.

What's the real deal... spying on Americans for the Peoples' Republic of China under the guise of a MAC advocacy group?

There are cookies and there are TRACKING cookies. the latter variety are spyware and cannot be deleted through normal means. If you don't know this, tm41., you should take a crash course in IT security 101.

Tracking cookies are witten to hide themselves in places where the victim will probably either not have access or is unlikely to look. Without even ONE decent spyware scanner/removal tool for MAC, all of us... and I imply by "us" those who are sincere in appreciation of the MAC OS... are sitting ducks.

There's no question but that packet redirects to the two slum sites mentioned in my previous post are coming from this location. I believe I will be easily able to prove it; besides- anyone with any knowledge in the use of aftermarket firewalls will be able to verify my assertions for himself by monitoring his log in realtime.

End of story.

A

Andreades seriously.. being suspicous of everyone is not only going to give you ulcers, but it really degrades your quality of life.

When someone is redirected, usually they do not know it.. For example I can create a page that first takes you to one page to the next to the next and you wouldnt realize what had just happened. Obviously whiteshark is not a web developer so he wouldnt know these things. I work for iNet interactive more then whiteshark does.. since Im a moderator at their forums.. even before they owned it.

Cheer up! The world isnt out to get you

Although it's been fun trying to steer you away from the truth which you so elegantly wrote about.. we are all from China.. not sure how you knew that.. we only pick moderators from China also But there is an easy fix to help your troubled mind.. download Mozilla, go to your cookie manager, click on the "Cookie Sites" tab, Add inetinteractive.com to the deny list and whatever domains you want to deny.. and that should take care of all your woes. And if you really feel that Mac-Forums is in on this whole conspiracy, go ahead and put mac-forums.com in on your deny list also.

That will take care of all your problems and the rest of us can go about our business trying to take over the world.

Cheers!

Murlyn said:

Although it's been fun trying to steer you away from the truth which you so elegantly wrote about.. we are all from China... And if you really feel that Mac-Forums is in on this whole conspiracy, go ahead and put mac-forums.com in on your deny list also.

That will take care of all your problems and the rest of us can go about our business trying to take over the world.

Cheers!

Click to expand...

Agreed here. And I am not a web developer, but I do know about redirect tools, and I have had it happen in doz (those dark days!) But it has never happened here, my firewall shows nothing odd and my cookies list from this site is totally normal. I'm sure it's an anomoly of other then this site! Think about it, there are rarely more then 10 or so loggon on here, why bother to target this site?? In the Linux forums there are many times hundreds logged on. Why would these evil ad people not go there?? And they don't This sort of thing doesn't happen there either.

Is there any chance what you have seen resembles this?? One never knows!

Conspiracy Theory. Anyone see that movie? Mel Gibson is the man.

oooh i live an exciting e-life.... im from china now? ****... ive never been more west than ohio... *boggle*


hehe chill out man... how would people make money if they couldnt advertise....

and if they did get hits from it..who cares?

Andreades, download Little Snitch, turn it on and be astonished.

Little Snitch can be set up to work like a cookies manager set to "ask before accepting cookies." Virtually every site on the net (including this one) is a tree, with branches leading off to doubleclick and other sites like it, as well as various other locations that remain shrouded in mystery.

Since downloading Little Snitch last week, my Mac's Network Utility runs non-stop as I try to match those numbered URLs to their names. I came to the conclusion that for every site I visit, three others, on average, are involved. A newspaper site I have visited every day for years has five other connections I didn't know about (one of them being a separate server that stores the photos). But another connection is to doubleclick, another to a different ad company (unless doubleclick owns them all, and is owned, in turn, by Billy), another to the company that runs the newspaper's web site and another I haven't been able to trace.

Some set cookies — or try to — and others keep track of hits, and I presume, my computer address, whether I accept their cookies or not. And many of the secret sites have the same numbered URLs, whether the main site is in the U.S., Canada or Britain.

Little Snitch allows you to individually block or allow the connections to the main sites (which would defeat the purpose of going there) or the main sites' subsidiary sites, whether once or until you quit the browser, or forever.

It also alerted me to the built-in phone-home trick built into Stuffit that's triggered every time I use it and which I blocked forever, and the same stunt performed by Real. I have yet to fire up other apps while on the net. Does Text Edit connect to Steve Jobs' executive jet?

It was an eye-opener, but I was laughably naive.

Now I'm trying to figure out whether Little Snitch itself phones home.

It's getting tougher keeping all the paranoids at bay.

I'm going to hold the moon ransom because I'm a Super Villain .

lol

That rocked!

lol I leave for one week and these guys some how leaked out our plot. Were all out to get you andreades...


wow.