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What follows is mostly a re-post of a caffeine and sleep deprevation induced manifesto I posted in the article on Cult of the Dead Cow's recent product announcement.

Distributed proxies and access to the web

There is a huge benefit in an easy way to access the web from controlled and possibly opressive environments, such as from behind company or school firewalls where administrators check on traffic, or from UN Human Rights Commission type countries.

If Chinese grandmothers and high school students could easily read anything on the web, then China would be less likely to end up in a war with us or Taiwan. The Chinese are not going to like America or agree with us because they can read the propaganda and claptrap our press spews out every day, but they will have a different sense of perspective (perhaps more cynical) and they will be less likely to get into a froth about the spy-boys being a little rough with the planes. Suffice that I think that the more the people of the world can see and hear of each other, the safer the world will be. The Truth Shall Set You Free.

Of course, if you give people in communist countries a safe, unblockable way to access a set of http proxies which can then get the web pages, then the same system can be used for someone in Europe to use paypal.com in spite of the best intentions of their paternal government. It can also be used to post to slashdot in spite of the fact that you've been modded down 5 times in the last 24 hours. If Saudis can access porn, then The WIPO Troll can post fecaljapan.

The dailynews.yahoo.com link is a good example: it is unlikely that you can easily visit it from China. Look at these stories:

• Punching Holes in Internet Walls, a New York Times article on attempts to circumvent access restrictions from countries that "protect" their people from information. (Here are the obligatory partners and channel links.)
• Beijing Declares Victory But Chat Rooms Are Skeptical, a New York Times article on censored web discussion boards in China. If Chinese could safely access web sites outside the country, they might use uncensored web boards. (Again, channel and partners links.)
• www.realmapping.com, attempting to keep a database of IP addresses and geographic position. See some technical information here.

This doesn't even touch on the persistent and heroic efforts of employees everywhere to read 2600.com, fuckedcompany.com, and other blocked sites while on the clock. And numerous attempts by *_sporks everywhere to . . . nevermind, no one sympathizes with *_sporks.

Something like realmapping system might be used by gateway machines in China to track where offending users are inside China. A Triangle Boy running both inside and outside the wall is needed to let everyone see the all the internet they want (violating EU directives by sharing personal information if that's their desire).

For a gnutella/freenet to fix the internet access problem, it has to be undetectable by the European/Communist firewalls (because the Communists will block all encrypted traffic, or find the student himself) and someone in the free part of the world must run a script to dump www.nytimes.com into the gnutella/freenet system. It would be much better to set up Triangle Boy without the single point to block, the central safeweb service, and doing something to hide and disguise the web page requests and content.

This hard to do. A system that doesn't hide and disguise the traffic risks the Communists blocking all encrypted traffic or harassing users, but maybe it can work if enough people use it. Maybe proxy and client combinations can hide their real traffic in the meta tags and comments of innocent looking web pages, or use other steganographic tactics, but you would have to be constantly upgrading those modules.

Without the central safeweb proxy, cooperation from publishers on the free side of the firewall is useless. This would have the effect of making it impossible for Yahoo to not display Nazi stuff to France, because they couldn't tell who was from France. Yahoo and the French, the Communists and their people, Rob Malda and the sporks will all have to realize that anything they put on the Internet is on the Internet for anyone who wants it.

We can force the world to choose the whole Internet or none at all.

What follows is mostly a re-post of a caffeine and sleep deprevation induced manifesto I posted in the article on Cult of the Dead Cow's recent product announcement.

Distributed proxies and access to the web

There is a huge benefit in an easy way to access the web from controlled and possibly opressive environments, such as from behind company or school firewalls where administrators check on traffic, or from UN Human Rights Commission type countries.

If Chinese grandmothers and high school students could easily read anything on the web, then China would be less likely to end up in a war with us or Taiwan. The Chinese are not going to like America or agree with us because they can read the propaganda and claptrap our press spews out every day, but they will have a different sense of perspective (perhaps more cynical) and they will be less likely to get into a froth about the spy-boys being a little rough with the planes. Suffice that I think that the more the people of the world can see and hear of each other, the safer the world will be. The Truth Shall Set You Free.

Of course, if you give people in communist countries a safe, unblockable way to access a set of http proxies which can then get the web pages, then the same system can be used for someone in Europe to use paypal.com in spite of the best intentions of their paternal government. It can also be used to post to slashdot in spite of the fact that you've been modded down 5 times in the last 24 hours. If Saudis can access porn, then The WIPO Troll can post fecaljapan.

The dailynews.yahoo.com link is a good example: it is unlikely that you can easily visit it from China. Look at these stories:

• Punching Holes in Internet Walls, a New York Times article on attempts to circumvent access restrictions from countries that "protect" their people from information. (Here are the obligatory partners and channel links.)
• Beijing Declares Victory But Chat Rooms Are Skeptical, a New York Times article on censored web discussion boards in China. If Chinese could safely access web sites outside the country, they might use uncensored web boards. (Again, channel and partners links.)
• www.realmapping.com, attempting to keep a database of IP addresses and geographic position. See some technical information here.

This doesn't even touch on the persistent and heroic efforts of employees everywhere to read 2600.com, fuckedcompany.com, and other blocked sites while on the clock. And numerous attempts by *_sporks everywhere to . . . nevermind, no one sympathizes with *_sporks.

Something like realmapping system might be used by gateway machines in China to track where offending users are inside China. A Triangle Boy running both inside and outside the wall is needed to let everyone see the all the internet they want (violating EU directives by sharing personal information if that's their desire).

For a gnutella/freenet to fix the internet access problem, it has to be undetectable by the European/Communist firewalls (because the Communists will block all encrypted traffic, or find the student himself) and someone in the free part of the world must run a script to dump www.nytimes.com into the gnutella/freenet system. It would be much better to set up Triangle Boy without the single point to block, the central safeweb service, and doing something to hide and disguise the web page requests and content.

This hard to do. A system that doesn't hide and disguise the traffic risks the Communists blocking all encrypted traffic or harassing users, but maybe it can work if enough people use it. Maybe proxy and client combinations can hide their real traffic in the meta tags and comments of innocent looking web pages, or use other steganographic tactics, but you would have to be constantly upgrading those modules.

Without the central safeweb proxy, cooperation from publishers on the free side of the firewall is useless. This would have the effect of making it impossible for Yahoo to not display Nazi stuff to France, because they couldn't tell who was from France. Yahoo and the French, the Communists and their people, Rob Malda and the sporks will all have to realize that anything they put on the Internet is on the Internet for anyone who wants it.

We can force the world to choose the whole Internet or none at all.

The dailynews.yahoo.com link above is a good example, as it is likely that you couldn't easily visit it from a computer in China. To see what I am talking about, look at these:

• Punching Holes in Internet Walls, a New York Times article on various attempts to circumvent access restrictions. (Here are the obligatory partners and channel links.)
• Beijing Declares Victory But Chat Rooms Are Skeptical, a New York Times article providing background information on web discussion boards used and censored by people in China. (Again, channel and partners links.)
• www.realmapping.com, (changing their name to Quova), a company attempting to keep a database of IP addresses versus geographic position. You can look at some technical information here.

A system or service like that described in the realmapping links might be used by gateway machines in China to broadly filter all sites outside the country, except for perhaps a select few. This is a real threat to the safety of the world. If Chinese grandmothers and high school students could easily and regularly read anything on the web, then China is much less likely to end up in a war with us or with Taiwan. The Chinese are not going to like America more or agree with our positions because they can read the propaganda and claptrap that our press spews out every day, but they will have a different sense of perspective (perhaps more cynical) and they will be less likely to get into a froth about some spy-boys getting a little rough with airplanes. I'm not going to get into the philosophy of it all, but suffice to say that I think that the more the people of the world can see and hear of each other, the safer the world will be. The Truth Shall Set You Free.

A system like Triangle boy, which is a network of proxies run by volunteers to enable you to connect to safeweb, is what we really need to solve this Internet filtering in foreign countries. An easier to use freenet/ gnutella from l0pft will be very exciting of course, but I think it may not be the right solution for the Communist censorship problem.

For a gnutella/freenet to have effect on the Chinese student who wants to read a New York Times article, it has to be undetectable by the Communist Firewall (because the Communists might decide to block all encrypted traffic, or find the student himself) and it depends upon someone in the free part of the world running a script to dump www.nytimes.com over into the gnutella/freenet system every day. I believe it would be much better to set up something like Triangle Boy but without the single point of failure of the central safeweb service, and doing something to hide and disguise the web page requests and content.

That's really hard to do. If you settle for a distributed system that doesn't hide and disguise the traffic, then you run the risk that the Communists will simply block all encrypted traffic or start trying to track down and harass individuals inside their country. Maybe you can depend on the difficulty of running that type of firewall on a whole country, and the fact so many people will use it even the Communists won't be able to throw them all in jail. Maybe you can also set up clever proxy and client combinations that hide their real traffic in the meta tags and comments of innocent looking web pages, or use other steganographic techniques, but you would have to be constantly upgrading them against Communist detection.

By getting rid of the central safeweb point, you also avoid any censorship due to cooperation from publishers on the free side of the firewall. This would have the effect of making it impossible for Yahoo to not display Nazi stuff to France, because they couldn't tell who was from France. This would make the IP ban that occurs after you modded down 5 times in 24 hours also useless. Yahoo and the French, the Communists, and Rob Malda will all have to come to the realization that anything they put on the Internet is on the Internet for everyone, no discrimination.

That day cannot come too soon. We need to get to work.

The dailynews.yahoo.com link above is a good example, as it is likely that you couldn't easily visit it from a computer in China. To see what I am talking about, look at these:

• Punching Holes in Internet Walls, a New York Times article on various attempts to circumvent access restrictions. (Here are the obligatory partners and channel links.)
• Beijing Declares Victory But Chat Rooms Are Skeptical, a New York Times article providing background information on web discussion boards used and censored by people in China. (Again, channel and partners links.)
• www.realmapping.com, (changing their name to Quova), a company attempting to keep a database of IP addresses versus geographic position. You can look at some technical information here.

A system or service like that described in the realmapping links might be used by gateway machines in China to broadly filter all sites outside the country, except for perhaps a select few. This is a real threat to the safety of the world. If Chinese grandmothers and high school students could easily and regularly read anything on the web, then China is much less likely to end up in a war with us or with Taiwan. The Chinese are not going to like America more or agree with our positions because they can read the propaganda and claptrap that our press spews out every day, but they will have a different sense of perspective (perhaps more cynical) and they will be less likely to get into a froth about some spy-boys getting a little rough with airplanes. I'm not going to get into the philosophy of it all, but suffice to say that I think that the more the people of the world can see and hear of each other, the safer the world will be. The Truth Shall Set You Free.

A system like Triangle boy, which is a network of proxies run by volunteers to enable you to connect to safeweb, is what we really need to solve this Internet filtering in foreign countries. An easier to use freenet/ gnutella from l0pft will be very exciting of course, but I think it may not be the right solution for the Communist censorship problem.

For a gnutella/freenet to have effect on the Chinese student who wants to read a New York Times article, it has to be undetectable by the Communist Firewall (because the Communists might decide to block all encrypted traffic, or find the student himself) and it depends upon someone in the free part of the world running a script to dump www.nytimes.com over into the gnutella/freenet system every day. I believe it would be much better to set up something like Triangle Boy but without the single point of failure of the central safeweb service, and doing something to hide and disguise the web page requests and content.

That's really hard to do. If you settle for a distributed system that doesn't hide and disguise the traffic, then you run the risk that the Communists will simply block all encrypted traffic or start trying to track down and harass individuals inside their country. Maybe you can depend on the difficulty of running that type of firewall on a whole country, and the fact so many people will use it even the Communists won't be able to throw them all in jail. Maybe you can also set up clever proxy and client combinations that hide their real traffic in the meta tags and comments of innocent looking web pages, or use other steganographic techniques, but you would have to be constantly upgrading them against Communist detection.

By getting rid of the central safeweb point, you also avoid any censorship due to cooperation from publishers on the free side of the firewall. This would have the effect of making it impossible for Yahoo to not display Nazi stuff to France, because they couldn't tell who was from France. This would make the IP ban that occurs after you modded down 5 times in 24 hours also useless. Yahoo and the French, the Communists, and Rob Malda will all have to come to the realization that anything they put on the Internet is on the Internet for everyone, no discrimination.

That day cannot come too soon. We need to get to work.

The firm is privately funded (including cash from NewEconomy, a Dutch VC firm,) and the company's management have told me they don't necessarily intend to take the firm public, since the cost of creating the database was so low.

On the one hand, it could be a very handy thing for companies wanting to provide localised content - very relevant to those of us living outside North America, as we usually don't qualify for freebies or special offers - and on the other hand, I really don't want companies knowing where I am surfing from and what my viewing habits are. The same argument goes for cookie, but this is a lot more intrusive.

Try http://www.realmapping.com

Of course, one way of getting round this would be to use Anonymizer or Freedom.

Take a look at RealMapping, they really provide a lot of information.

They don't want to say how they achieve this (it's their trade secret) but I would guess they are using the RIPE/ARIN etc. databases. I mean, the WHOIS databases and traceroute give me a fairly accurate indication of where the IP address is located, and at least they are free ;-)

Actually, they are giving away a hint about their procedure:

"It boils down to this: The first step is automatically building up different databases containing information about the 4.25 billion IP addresses available. On the basis of these databases, our input team makes an interpretation and a manual allocation for the different databases. These allocations are automatically checked for consistency and compared - once again automatically - with all available information".

They must have one hell of an NDA for their manual verification people ;-)

Jacco
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# cd /var/log