On Mon, 2009-02-16 at 16:45 -0500, Bubba cakes wrote: > Thanks, Ted. I do have Evolution, and I already use it for Calendar > and Contacts. So I'll see about using an email address with it. > > My thinking on a proxy server is that it's a computer that I connect > to in order to send emails that are not linked to my IP address. I > know nothing. I thought it was a way to become insulated from prying > eyes. > > I believe that there are US Constitution breakers who spy on internet > users. For example, Homeland Security, that US Federal tobacco, drug, > and firearms agency, (I forget its name), etc. Just on principle, I > would like to be anonymous when I use my computer to contact > companies, friends, and information sources. Not that I have anything > to hide, I just don't like the current U.S. slide toward fascism. So > I'm becoming more private. > I sure as hell wouldn't put it past them. Less the ATF than the NSA, but yeah, the Constitution isn't really important anymore, it seems.
Gmail is a proxy server in that regard, but your original IP will both be logged on Gmail's servers and probably included in the email. Anonymous email is hard to come by -- though Mixmaster, the level II anonymous remailer, should be in the repositories. Be warned, it's a b**** to set up. It's much easier to protect your email from prying eyes by encrypted it. I suggest you set up GPG with Evolution (it's easy to do that) and then get the people you email with on a regular basis to set up GPG as well, if not with Evolution, than with Thunderbird and Enigmail (thunderbird will work everywhere, even on non-free systems). Remember, there is a difference between anonymity and encryption. Anonymity protects a hostile third party from knowing who you are and who you're talking to; encryption doesn't protect against that, but does protect a hostile third party from knowing what you are talking about. Consider the use case carefully before setting up any security measure. Good luck. - Ted > On 2/16/09, Ted Smith <[email protected]> wrote: > On Mon, 2009-02-16 at 16:23 -0500, Bubba cakes wrote: > > Hi, all, > > I hope this is the right list... > > > > I have some basic questions, and I wonder if this is the > place to ask > > them. > > > > Probably as good as any. :) > > > I want to know about internet security, how to keep my > computer from > > being infected with viruses, spamware, spyware, adware, > > whatever-ware... > > > > Is there a program that I can run to check all my files and > drives for > > security problems? > > > > What about a firewall? > > > > Actually, I don't know what I need. I'm a construction guy, > and need > > you computer guys to tell me what to do. > > > > You don't need any of the above. > > Going through the list, there's no such thing as viruses, > adware, > spyware, whatever, for GNU/Linux. This is for a combination of > reasons > -- the system isn't a very alluring target for bot herders, > but it's > also built much more securely than Windows, so it's much > harder to > infect. > > By default, gNewSense doesn't have any network services > active, meaning > there's no reason to use a firewall. > > If you really want to run security programs, I suggest > chkrootkit and > rkhunter. They are programs that install themselves to run > automatically > every so often and report on how vulnerable or 'hacked' the > system > looks. They can have a lot of false positives though, so > unless you want > to learn more about security, I wouldn't bother with them. > > > > I would like to be able to browse the internet without being > monitored > > by anyone. I would also like to send emails without > receiving ten > > freakin advertisements based on words I just sent to > someone. Is this > > possible? > > > > In a sense. However, I don't think you're meaning exactly what > you're > asking. > > You could set up Tor (there's a detailed guide on doing that > on > <http://torproject.org>, follow the Ubuntu/Debian > instructions) for > anonymous browsing, but if you just want to avoid ads, then > just install > the Adblock extension for Firefox (I believe the package is > called > adblock-plus, but if you just searched adblock in Add/Remove, > you'd find > it). Additionally... > > > > Is it possible to use the internet and email (Gmail) without > somebody > > always reading/monitoring my activities? > > > > Not really. Email is a clear-text protocol. Your email > provider will be > able to read any emails you send via them, unless they are > encrypted. > Setting up email encryption is a more complex task that would > make this > a very long message, so I'll just refer you to the vast amount > of guides > on google. Note that it isn't particularly hard, just > complicated. > > In terms of ads directed at your email content, there's no way > to stop > google from gathering data from you if you use their service, > but you > can stop seeing them if you set up an email client like > Thunderbird or > Evolution. > > > Is Gmail email using a proxy server? (I think it is, but > don't really > > know.) > > > > No, definitely not. What do you mean by "proxy server", > though? > > > _______________________________________________ > gNewSense-users mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnewsense-users > > >
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