Showing posts with label Computers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Computers. Show all posts

Tuesday, 13 August 2013

Fight Internet Censorship with the Pirate Bay's PirateBrowser

Fight Internet Censorship with the Pirate Bay's PirateBrowser

By Dark Politricks

To celebrate it's 10th birthday the worlds most infamous censored site, The Pirate Bay, has introduced its own Internet browser to enable people to access its website even if it's being blocked by your ISP.

Most big ISP's have blocked The Pirate Bay for its users claiming it breaches copyright by allowing people to download Torrents of films and music.

If you don't know what a torrent it it's a movie split into thousands of small pieces. Each piece is stored on various computers so that each user is not in theory holding a full version of a film that may be breaching copyright. When you download  the torrent the files are all put together and downloaded from their various locations.

However most ISP's still see this as copyright violation and even though The Pirate Bay is just like Google in the fact they are just a search engine and don't actually host the films or music they have been attacked from all quarters.

Is Your ISP Blocking You?

You can quickly test whether you are being blocked by your ISP by clicking these links which all point to the Pirate Bay Website.

http://thepiratebay.org

http://thepiratebay.sx

https://piratereverse.info

Check More Pirate Bay Proxies

If you want a PHP script that will scan a number of known Pirate Bay Proxies then you can download this one I quickly knocked up from here: Pirate Bay Proxy Checker Script.

Just change the file extension to .php and either run it from your local computer or server. If you are running Windows I recommend downloading WAMP so that you can run an Apache server on your PC.

I also recommend changing the port number the server runs on to 8080 or 8888 so it can run side by side with IIS. This article will explain how to set WAMP up.

The benefits of running your own local webserver on your PC are many. You can make scripts such as web proxies, scrapers, scanners, BOTS, proxy hunters and many more cool tools. Plus the great thing is that the only IP address that will show up on the remote hosts log files will be 127.0.0.1 (unless you set up a different IP).

As this is the standard loopback localhost address there is no way for someone checking a logfile to know where in the world you are unless they have further information. Therefore running a local server, especially over another wifi network than your own is ideal for a wide range of HTTP activity.

Use Pirate Bay Tor Browser

If you are being blocked from the Pirate Bay by your ISP then you have a number of choices.

1. Find a working mirror to the site - e.g search for Pirate Bay Proxies on DuckDuckgo.com or try this page: http://torrentproxies.com/ to find some not blocked by your ISP. Many mirrors will first open up in something called adf.ly with a JavaScript countdown. After a few seconds a link will appear saying "click here to continue". On clicking the page will change (usually to an advert with a blue bar at the top) and in the top right corner will be another countdown saying "Please Wait". Usually after 5 seconds it will say "SKIP AD" and on clicking it you will end up at the Pirate Bay mirror site.

2. Use a proxy to access the Pirate Bay. There are many free proxies out there and you can find a good list at http://nntime.com/proxy-list-01.htm. Use a tool like FoxyProxy to manage your proxy lists and toggle between them. Or you can go into your browsers network / proxy settings and manually enter the IP address and port number you want to use.

3. Download the new Pirate Bay Browser or the Mozilla TOR Browser. Both of which access the TOR network to help disguise your internet footprint by bouncing your HTTP requests through a series of servers.  As the TOR website explains.


"Tor protects you by bouncing your communications around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around the world: it prevents somebody watching your Internet connection from learning what sites you visit, and it prevents the sites you visit from learning your physical location. Tor works with many of your existing applications, including web browsers, instant messaging clients, remote login, and other applications based on the TCP protocol."


With all the outrage surrounding the NSA spying on ALL American citizens and the recent revelations that they are using this information not only to catch terrorists but to catch petty criminals, drug dealers, tax avoiders and to spy on and blackmail politicians and judges it is in everyone's best interests that they tighten up on their Internet Security.

As this article I wrote explains there are a number of measures you can take to reduce your Internet footprint and whilst you might be totally invisible you can blend into the background.

So do yourself a favour and use the Pirate Bay browser or the TOR Mozilla Browser. Not only does making use of the TOR network help protect your privacy but the Pirate Bay Browser will let you access a number of Pirate Bay Mirror sites and bypass any censorship that your ISP or country may have introduced.

Download the TOR Browser


Download the TOR Browser


Once installed when you open the .EXE you will connect to the TOR network.

Joining the TOR network

Once connected you can use the Firefox browser to surf the web. All your Pirate Bay Mirror sites and other Torrent sites are linked at the top in the icon bar. Pick one and then carry out your search for movies, applications or other content.

As you can see it's just a search engine like Google which makes it very unfair that the Pirate Bay is being blocked by ISP's as Google also indexes illegal content such as porn and copyrighted material.

This is a search for the US TV show Dexter.

The Pirate Bay Browser

Like most search engines once you run a search you get your results.

The Pirate Bay Search Results

As you can see from the results on the right there are two columns, seeders and leachers.

You want to choose an item with as many seeders (uploaders) and as few leachers (downloaders) as possible to get a quick download.

You can also tell from the names of the file what sort they are e.g if the file has the word CAM in it then it's a poor quality camera in a cinema job. If it's HDTV quality it will be a bigger better quality file and BRRip is a BluRay copy.

Clicking on the file you want will open up the result page. Hopefully you will get comments telling you the quality of the file. Click on "Get This Torrent" to download your torrent file.

Downloading a Torrent from the Pirate Bay

When you want to download a torrent from the Pirate Bay you will first need to have a torrent client. There are many out there including:
www.utorrent.com/downloads/win

bitlord.soft32.com/

www.bittorrent.com/
Once you have one installed your application of choice you can just click on the torrent in your search results and it will open up in the client and start downloading.

As you can see whilst you download the file you will also be uploading at the same time. This way you are not just taking without giving back the files you have already leached. You can control the bandwidth ratio between upload and download as well as set limits on the rate you upload.

Downloading a Torrent in UTorrent

However bewarned, ISP's are also on the lookout for people downloading (leaching) and uploading (seeding) torrents so you need to protect yourself.

Some of the ways include:
-Using someone else's WIFI or network.

-Using an anonymous proxy that doesn't leak identifying information or even better a VPN. A paid for tool like BTGuard which is both a proxy and encryption tool which helps prevent your ISP throttle your traffic.

-Using a block list which will mean that all traffic is bounced around ISP routers so that they cannot scan the traffic.

-Setting your download port to a common port for other traffic such as 80 or 8080  (HTTP) so that it doesn't look obvious you are downloading P2P data. Most people use a "random port" but it is better to look like you are downloading HTTP content especially if you are encrypting your traffic as well.

-Limiting your upload rate to a minimum. Although this violates the spirit of P2P (sharing) the people going after you for stealing copyrighted material are more interested in those spreading (uploading) the content rather than downloading it.

-Ensuring you force outgoing traffic to be encrypted. This will help prevent your ISP see that you are using BitTorrent traffic and may prevent them throttling your bandwidth.

-Set a download cap on your traffic. Even if you are encrypting your traffic some ISP's may see the amount you are downloading and throttle it if they think you are up to no good.

-Using an application like PeerBlock which will block traffic from known bad IP addresses such as P2P blocklists, known bad IP addresses, spyware, FBI and copyright monitoring sites and so on. It is worth downloading and just sits in the background running as you do you're downloading.
As with most security measures a wide range of different measures is much better than just relying on one system.

Hopefully this article will help you make use of The Pirate Bay if you have been blocked so far.

View the original article The Pirate Bay Introduce "The PirateBrowser" at darkpolitricks.com.

Saturday, 15 December 2012

How privacy is becoming an antiquated concept


How privacy is becoming an antiquated concept

By Dark Politricks

It is amazing how much indoctrination we are submitted to throughout our lives and how little most people realise that they are being indoctrinated to accept a power system that subjugates and constricts our lives. It is through this indoctrination that our concept of privacy is slowly being eroded.

Indoctrination comes in many forms and has many purposes but the current major form of indoctrination is to condition the new generation of society that privacy is an ancient old fashioned concept.

Some of us old enough to remember the times before 9.11, and before that the growth of the Internet.
Both of these major events have affected the way democratic societies in the west have treated privacy and reduced limits on government and corporate snooping.

Here are just a few of the ways we are being conditioned to accept government spying and corporate control over our lives as nothing more than natural behaviour there to "protect us" from the all powerful evil terrorists that live under every rock and bush just waiting to pounce. 

1. Schools

Our schools are nothing more than factories for producing uneducated youth ready for the corporate jungle that will eat them up for low wages and little benefits. Instead of actual education in which they would learn useful information such as morality and where it comes from, philosophy, debating techniques, logic and reasoning. 

They are instead taught a minimum amount of knowledge to become good and obeying citizens ready for the low wage jobs that our service economy is now built upon.

Instead of the junk they are forced to fill their brains with they should be learning useful life enhancing tools such as history that teaches events from multiple points of view so as not to re-enforce any one sided indoctrination they may be getting from home by parents who have been through the same factory system of education themselves.

2. Computer Games

The most popular past time for school boys and girls today is the use of computer games. Whereas once kids played outside, kicking balls against walls, riding bikes in the woods and making their own entertainment they are instead indoctrinated into becoming soldiers of the future by playing war based games like Call of Duty and other games that involve killing "the enemy" en mass

We can see the output of this indoctrination with the use of PlayStation controllers used by drone controllers who sit in Las Vegas and kill dozens of people halfway across the world as if it were nothing but a game. These games are designed to de-sensitise boys at a young age and make it seem normal to kill people without thought or reason.

3. TV and Film

Television is the cancer of the brain that rots the unthinking from the inside. Whenever the rhetoric about war with Iran heats up there always seems to be films or TV programmes that are brought out at the same time to subtly influence the viewer into hating the enemy before any war starts.

From shows like NCIS, Person of Interest and 24 hours to films like The 300 and most recently the film Argo. They all influence the unwitting viewer into supporting domestic spying "for our own good" as well as US foreign policy. This might be about stirring up hatred for Iranians, justifying torture or supporting Israel and dismissing any freedom fighters as mere terrorists.

Whether this is just co-incidence or due to the strong links between the TV industry and pro-Israeli (and through them pro-war, neo-con) lobbyists, they all seem to be linked to current events. To the many dumb vessels that view these shows the underlying messages are taken in but not noticed consciously, to others who are aware of what is actually going on in the world they are signals of what is to come.

4. The Internet and Smart Phones

Whilst the Internet has undoubtedly been a force for good and allowed communication and the spread of information across the world it is now entering a stage where governments world wide are trying to limit these good aspects and instead use it as a tool to spy constantly on the public.

Whether it be CCTV cameras linked up to huge central databases through systems like TRAPWIRE or the ability for hackers (government or corporate) to remotely activate the microphone and webcam on your PC to listen and watch you, your laptop can be used as the ultimate spying tool for those who need it.

Not only has your PC and Phone become tracking devices that can pinpoint your location through inbuilt GPS devices or even just triangulation of phone masts as your phone constantly pings them to find the nearest and strongest signal. They are a means for the authorities to log and record your whereabouts and then store that information for a long period.

5. Privacy

Kids today are growing up with no concept of privacy. They post everything about themselves on the Internet on sites like Facebook and then live to regret them as they get older and go for job interviews. Nearly the first thing bosses do nowadays is search for your name online, using sites like www.123people.com to see what indiscretions their new employee might have got up to in earlier life.

Not only does the concept of having no privacy mean that people get used to being spied on constantly by CCTV cameras, satellites, phone companies, advertisers and the government. It also means that once our generation has gone the future children of the world will think nothing of RFID chips embedded everywhere to help them find information whilst logging their whereabouts at the same time or using their mobile phone instead of cash to pay for their shopping.

Anything that might seem helpful for the end-user also can be used for nefarious purposes and governments all over the western world are building huge data centres to hold all your banking transactions, the  locations of your travels, shopping habits and much more for time memorial "just in-case" something happens.

The nothing to hide, nothing to fear argument is often used at this point to justify this intrusive behaviour but do you really want your government looking back at you through your web camera as you read this article?

View the original article "I spy with my little eye" at www.darkpolitricks.com.