Database Users

How does google know that I surfed in from a pda

Hello
The other day i surfed to google from my XDA exec.
mobile internet rocks!!
i was wondering how does google know that i surfed in from a pda, cause i think it sent me to
www.google.co.uk/pda

the web page probably detected your screen size and redirected you to a page that was more friendly to you PDA browser. i wish more sites would do this.
www.google.com/pda for us US residents.

LOL
Not the screen size but the type of your internet browser, in this case Pocket IE.

Correct--it's not the screen size.
Although a LOT of your information is sent over the wire, much more than most of us realize, your resolution information is unknown to most websites, unless you explicitly allow it to be given via some kind of an executable that transmits such information. An example would be an embedded ActiveX object in IE for Windows.
Back on topic, yes, your browser information is known, not only to Google, but to every other website you visit. Not only that, the website also knows where you came from (i.e. the http addy) and where you went when you left it. There's a whole bunch of information deemed to be private that we would rather keep to ourselves (such as our surfing habits) that's known to any website that installs a cookie (a common thing nowadays) on your computer.
This is also how Google knows where you are. For example, when I log on, Google send me to the local Saudi page at http://www.google.com.sa/ It knows this information by doing a reverse lookup on your IP address, and comparing it against known databases of geographically assigned IPs. Since IP addresses are assigned and tied to geographical locations, it's easy enough to do, although it's still very disconcerting to see.
Be careful folks, even your searching habits are being tracked by Google. I have nothing to hide, so I don't care, but many folks do. Witness the recent Federal inquiry into the searching habits of the users of major search engines. Yahoo and MSN gave up that information quickly enough but Google is resisting. I don't think it will be able to hold out for very long though.
Imagine...now the fact that you searched for p0rn on the 'net is well known to anyone in the know. Scary, isn't it?
This Privacy Newsbyte brought to you courtesy of XDA-Dev's online donation campaign. Donate or be left in the dust!

thanks monakh
so google can detect both my mobile ip address (is there such a thing?) and my browser, correct?

monakh said:
the website also knows where you came from (i.e. the http addy)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct, through the referrer...
monakh said:
and where you went when you left it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Only if you click a link on the site itself, -and- it is handled via a special handler.
No information is sent to a website when you leave it through e.g. a bookmark in your browser, or by typing in a new URL.
Please correct me if I'm wrong

You are correct.

hey i mailed myself (google account) using my adsl modem and using the gprs/3g connection to check the header to see if i could spot an originating ip address
i found one common ip address
Received: by 10.xy.za.b with HTTP; Sat, 18 Feb 2006 05:34:45 -0800 (PST)
i guess this is the google server, correct?
is there any way to prise the originating ip address from an email

That's why there is a registry hack to set Pocket Internet Explorer works like Internet Explorer 6.0.

Tuningszocske said:
That's why there is a registry hack to set Pocket Internet Explorer works like Internet Explorer 6.0.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not entirely... I mean, you could - of course. But it also means that many sites will fail to send you PDA-specific content - which, with most plans/top-ups, means heavy costs.
Identifying PIE as IE6 is more used for stupid websites who check whether the browser is IE6 or above, regardless of whether that is actually required by the site.
There's three parts, the compatibility bit ('(Default) = Mozilla/4.0'), the browser string ('Version = MSIE 6.0') and the platform ('Platform = Windows NT 5.0'). If you leave the last bit intact ('Platform = Windows CE'), then you should still be able to get into stupid sites, while having PDA-friendly sites send you the PDA content.

oh i had not thought about the popups
i guess we wont get(suffer) popups with mobile ie5?
i just posted to this bulletin board to check my ip address
from the pc it looks like this 82.1a.bcd.efg
and fro my cda it looks like 193.abc.def.ghi

That's fine because presumably your mobile device and your home PC are on different networks so they sport different IPs.
IPs are a dead giveaway. In many cases, your position can be 'somewhat' and primitively triangulated to within 5 square miles of where you are. This may not be necessarily true for mobile networks, but those networks know where you are at all times anyway. In fact, there is now regulation in the US that mandates all handset makers to manufacture hardware with GPS functionality built-in. Between the two and a half dozen GPS satellites and your cellular network, you can run but you can't hide
This is, of course, so emergency services can reach you in time of need (in case you are unable to make the call to 911/999).
Of course...

monakh said:
This is, of course, so emergency services can reach you in time of need (in case you are unable to make the call to 911/999).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
off-topic...
Technically it's so they can find you if you do call 911/999/112/whathaveyou but are unable (due to injuries, or duress, etc.) to state your location.
Being able to find you at any time is an added perk but it needs court orders even if you have been reported and officially designated a "missing person". Getting such a court order can take many hours, being declared a missing person can take 24 hours up to 48 hours (depends on the country and exactly what reasons you have to believe the person in question is truely missing).

ZeBoxx said:
monakh said:
This is, of course, so emergency services can reach you in time of need (in case you are unable to make the call to 911/999).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
off-topic...
Technically it's so they can find you if you do call 911/999/112/whathaveyou but are unable (due to injuries, or duress, etc.) to state your location.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ahh yes, I stand corrected.
It's so we CAN make the call and are unable to state the location. That WOULD make sense. However, like you said, there are legal hurdles, although at least in the U.S., they are fewer and far between.

is there any ip address list out there which tells me which ip addresses are allocated to which country?
are ip addresses bunched like telephone numbers
e.g. +1 is north america
+3 and +4 is europe
+96 & +97 middle east

nope, that's not how they work
organisations can get an IP from their service provider, who get blocks from their service providers, who get bigger blocks from places like RIPE, who in turn get huge blocks from ARIN.
But if it's a specific IP you're interested in, try VisualRoute

Exchange / WinServer / DNS / Domains geeks here!!

Hi guys,
since my Hermes is gone, I couldn't but stay in touch with technology and so...in the meantime...I couldn't resist and I'm trying to set my Windows Server 2k8 domain with DNS, IIS7, Exchange etc, the latter is in trial right now, can you give a little advice to set everything up?
The actual problem is I don't think I understood how to set DNS properly.
I mean, I saw some of you offer Exchange services using DDNS (mine is @ath.cx), so I guess you have a dynamic ip and if I'm not wrong, you don't have problems sending email to gmail, as I was having instead.
How have you solved this?
I found some pages saying I have to set the TXT spf field in DNS and to set a Reverse DNS zone and I've done the first with Microsoft site builder(don't know if in the right manner) but I can't do the latter...some sites say only my ISP can do it...but have to say I'm quite confused AT ALL...
how have you done?advices of any kind (noob simple guides instead of my entire book with 430+)?
Currently, I did -again- a good format and installed Win Server 2k8 std with only DNS Server Role, IIS7 and Exchange prerequisites (found on MS WebSite).
Let's see if there's something wrong in my conf, before going to Exchange again and find it not working:
Code:
*let's call my pc first name "pc"
*dyndns to my IP (under a NAT, router, then a bridge-switch, with DMZ on and working) @ mydns.ath.cx, switched on wildcards for *.mydns.ath.cx;
*domain mydomain.co.cc with a nameserver pc.mydns.ath.cx;
*dns for primary zone mydomain.co.cc with:
MX mail.mydomain.co.cc. ;
NS pc.mydns.ath.cx. ;
TXT (v=spf1 mx ptr ptr:vser.ilmeglio.co.cc mx:mail.ilmeglio.co.cc a:vser.ilmeglio.co.cc include:vser.ilmeglio.co.cc mx:vser.ilmeglio.co.cc -all) [Microsoft did this, I'm quite unsure of what I inserted there though] ;
mail CNAME pc.mydns.ath.cx. ;
www CNAME pc.mydns.ath.cx. ;
[just added] pc PTR pc.mydns.ath.cx. .
Is all this allright?
[more questions coming...]
When I install AD (dcpromo), do I have to use my mydomain.co.cc OR can I use AD only in my home network (let's say myname.mylocalnetwork) and so separate the two things: Exchange & AD?
If I can, are there -hard- additional modifications to make Exchange accept mails from my real web domain and not my local one?
And what about the "pc" name, does it need the network domain or can I leave it the local one? Will Exchange need changes for this too?
P.S. I'm messing with windows server, domains, dns, dcpromo, AD, exchange, ALL this stuff, from 3 days on only, I've learned just a miiinimal part of it all I think, so treat me as a noob
Infinite thanks.

Way off topic to be sure, but DNS is a confusing beast to set up at times.
Check this page out:
http://rscott.org/dns/
You can set up a rdns table yourself, but unless the lookups are set to go your DNS machines, it won't do any good.
Reverse lookups are usually delegated to whoever the IP is assigned to, normally your ISP. Some ISP's will forward the reverse lookups to your name server of choice, some will change their records to what you request, and others will either give you a blank look or refuse to do anything.
Also keep in mind that any kind of server is against the acceptable use policy of many ISP's, check with yours before opening anything up to the world.
As for the records you listed, I don't know how microsoft does theirs (I run bind on UNIX machines and always found the microsoft way of dealing with domains and 'NT domains' to be severely fscked up and confusing), but the basics are the same, and I already see some problems:
You only have a single NS
Your MX points to a CNAME, not an A
PTR records are used only for reverse lookup tables, not forward tables
(Mods, I would imagine that this should go in the general -> Off-Topic forum)

jdc said:
[...] but the basics are the same, and I already see some problems:
You only have a single NS
Your MX points to a CNAME, not an A
PTR records are used only for reverse lookup tables, not forward tables
(Mods, I would imagine that this should go in the general -> Off-Topic forum)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your answer!
Actually I'm again starting from 0 after having understood it's better to maintain my home domain off the internet
Don't think my ISP policy is good for me, but perhaps I can obtain something about rDNS...not sure though
About NS, how can I have two if this is the unique pc doing the dns server?Is this a problem of RFC rules?
If I set both mydns.ath.cx and pc.mydns.ath.cx (which both point here) at the registrar would it do the trick?
About MX, mmh how can it point to an A if I have a dynamic IP? I mean ok, when it's all working perhaps my ip will stay one, but what if my router disconnects, or simply power goes down...my ip would change and I can't change it manually everytime, that's because I was pointing to an address hopped again from the other CNAME to my DDNS servers...is this, again, a problem of RFC roules or is simply wrong?Don't know how to solve though
Still have to learn much about forwarding, do you mean I should add it into a primary reverse zone?
Thanks again,
sorry, that's OT of course

[IDEA/POLL] Use C2DM app for remote phone access

These apps allow you to remotely access your phone from a web browser. However, they all run a web server on the phone, and I cannot connect to any of the over 3g (Verizon).
LazyDroid Web Desktop
Remote Desktop
Remote Web Desktop
I want to move the web server off phone, and (hopefully) onto private sites.google.com site. App Engine might be necessary, but I'm hoping this could be done solely in JS.
The hosting site would provide the UI, and interact with the phone using C2DM (the magic that powers Chrome2Phone, GMail, and installing apps from the web Market).
The UI is pretty obvious. It just needs a whiz to create HTML, Javascript, etc.
The C2DM backend is a still a bit mystifying to me... and searching for c2dm and javascript does not yield any obvious working implementations. But it seems plausible. Push a command to the phone, phone returns/uploads data to website, and UI updates.
Then there is the Android end. Well, there are the 3 projects above, Tasker for a quasi-hackish approach, and RPC (promising, but it seems like a WIP).
Thoughts? Volunteers? Geniuses?

Ooo... 2 birds with one stone!
This would also kill 2 birds with one stone.
No more typing in dynamic IP addresses! You get to use DNS to handle the connections. Bookmark your site in your desktop browser (it is always the same!). And set a preference in the Android app.

On lazydroid i've in planning some kind of trick that will let you connect behind firewall ... similar to a vpn...

CloudsITA said:
On lazydroid i've in planning some kind of trick that will let you connect behind firewall ... similar to a vpn...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried it again last week, and it is still unsuccessful. Webkey is currently the only application that I can successfully use to reach my phone.
Now, I could be wrong, but I believe all of these apps run a web server on the phone. I get a lovely, private 10.x.x.x IP address, which I can't reverse the route to. I have tried and failed to get DynDNS to work.
I have been looking into a solution since my original post. I have not had any time to do code squat, but I have loosely figured out all of the parts.
The big architectural difference I have been seeking is removing the server from the phone. I am not an Android expert, but I don't believe it even requires a running service. (Thank you, C2DM.)
With the app-webservice separation, you can work a "protocol" that reduces the overall bandwidth used... and thus improve battery life. Put all the "hard work" on a webserver, and (things get fuzzy here) possibly push it off onto the client browser (JS).

C2DM Browser Links
I could probably make something like WebKey but with C2DM and some more features. If you want you can give suggestions and I'll start making on saturday (after my exams). It would probably be possible in javascript for the actual sending from server and php just for logging in to your google account. The phone would just be registered on the server and no services (just as you wanted )

nebkat said:
I could probably make something like WebKey but with C2DM and some more features. If you want you can give suggestions and I'll start making on saturday (after my exams). It would probably be possible in javascript for the actual sending from server and php just for logging in to your google account. The phone would just be registered on the server and no services (just as you wanted )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am not sure "more features" is necessarily the direction I'm headed. I am focused on making a "seamless" experience (i.e. less separation of phone and computer).
I was headed to App Engine (Python bias + easy Google integration). I have a project created. I haven't pulled together the various examples to make the core, but it seems <naive>simple</naive>. Stir in some templates, CSS, a sprinkling of JS, and voila!
The big "tricky" part that I can't convert from f***ing magic to a clear approach is the data link in the server. I want to avoid any storage to a Google disk, or otherwise, even temporarily. No stored data = easy privacy policy.
nebkat, if you're really chomping at the bit to code, here's my Android client concept.
- C2DM is a wake-up call. (cheat an borrow ChromeToPhone's ID to begin with)
- Connect to web server, send "I'm here," and wait for further instructions (Channels API/Comet/AJAX/.........)
- make the command set extensible
- each command is blockable in the client. (Permission control is set on the phone, not remotely.)
- After N minutes of no activity, send a "good bye," disconnect from the server, and fade into the background.

Don't worry, I'm very experienced with the server side stuff and I know exactly what you want. The only information stored on the sever side would be google account, the device c2dm registration id and some logging features just for statistics. A password could be set on the phone that would be sha512 hashed on the ajax request and would be sent to the phone. Even if a hacker found the hash, it would be useless without being logged in to the persons google account or knowing the server side auth token.
For now i'll just make the reciever, processor and command output and later on the extra security and ui stuff. It will work exactly the same way as Chrome2Phone except it will have server side php and the different commands. The connection from pc to phone will be something like this.
user command -> ajax request -> php c2dm request -> phone
phone -> php server http request -> controller page status
BTW I'm saving up for a Nexus S, how much would people pay for this type of app? There would definitely be a free version, but I just need to get the Nexus S because I have a Galaxy Spica now and it isn't the best for app development. I'm new to how stuff at xda works, would a donate version get me enoguh for the Nexus?

nebkat said:
Don't worry, ... <snip> ... auth token.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alrighty then. I'm feeling like I can stop contemplating implementing this.
BTW I'm saving up for a Nexus S, how much would people pay for this type of app? There would definitely be a free version, but I just need to get the Nexus S because I have a Galaxy Spica now and it isn't the best for app development. I'm new to how stuff at xda works, would a donate version get me enoguh for the Nexus?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since I was learning the ins and outs of App Engine, I read their quota rules and realized if this were popular it would require funding. I don't know where you are going to your web server, but I assume you'll have to pay someone to keep it running. But I had thought about $$$ already.
"Give away the razor, and sell them the blades."
Make the app free, no feature restrictions.
You get your money through various "membership" levels on the server. (See the account levels at fastmail.fm for an example.) So, you can use the app for free, but you only get, say, 2-3 MB of traffic per day, and only X sessions per day. Need more? See the pricing chart.
user command -> ajax request -> php c2dm request -> phone
phone -> php server http request -> controller page status
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
user command -> php server http request -> phone
phone -> php server http request -> controller page status
user command -> php server http request -> phone
lather, rinse, repeat.
C2DM is not deterministic, and acts up in low signal conditions. So, I made a decision to only use C2DM to initiate a session. Once both ends are connected to the server, everything goes over HTTP.
Oh.... and not that we need another Lookout/Phone Finder, but a shared-secret SMS code for the case where "they" have shut down the data connection.

I have my own server nebkat.com and there is nothing on it anyway.
The only other way to make "push" requests to the phone is with WebSockets. It would probably be better than c2dm because we have full control over what gets sent (google limits some requests). The advantage of WebSockets is that they send no header information which means that we could send our messages in 20 to 30 bytes.
I'll look into more detail on friday.

With web sockets won't you need to ensure the phone has a routable, external IP address? I know, for one, t-mobile does not expose an external IP address for their phones. Unless, of course, if the phone is connected over WiFi. C2DM works great for me (I have used a couple of apps with it and it is really useful).

MrGibbage said:
With web sockets won't you need to ensure the phone has a routable, external IP address? I know, for one, t-mobile does not expose an external IP address for their phones. Unless, of course, if the phone is connected over WiFi. C2DM works great for me (I have used a couple of apps with it and it is really useful).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, WS is server initiated and the ip address' shouldn't make a difference.

MrGibbage said:
With web sockets won't you need to ensure the phone has a routable, external IP address? I know, for one, t-mobile does not expose an external IP address for their phones. Unless, of course, if the phone is connected over WiFi. C2DM works great for me (I have used a couple of apps with it and it is really useful).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need an valid external IP address if you are attempting to initiate contact with your phone, which is why the 4-5 apps I've mentioned do not work on carriers like t-mo and verizon.
But the phone can establish a connection, and the carrier NATs (or whatever) will handle the routing for outgoing and incoming data.
I think the right questions are: Will Verizon/T-Mo allow the ports and protocol for WebSockets? Do Android and desktop browsers implement the draft API correctly and consistently?
I like C2DM. I works well when you have a good connection. But there are 3 issues with it.
1) The message size limit is 1024 bytes. Not ideal for file transfers.
2) In a poor signal areas, since the service retries sending messages, you will get delayed and/or duplicate messages. I work in a large "concrete" building, so I get this behavior often enough that I don't want to rely on it.
3) I believe there is a limit on the number of messages you can send. So, hunting around the filesystem could hit this limit (but unlikely in reality... I hope.)
It would be interesting to see exactly how those apps handle all of the data. Do they only use C2DM, or do they hand over to another protocol?

Ok my exams are over and I am starting with it. I'll give updates on this thread

Open source distributed social network

Hi!
Anyone else bothered by sharing their personal info on social network to the third party? I had thought about developing open source distributed social network app based on https server running on android phones. Each member should have android device as a server of his/her profile.
0) - https protocol could provide possibility to connect to your social network using web browser.
1) - One may be able to deal with extensive upload and download or lost connection issues by allowing distributed profile updates sharing:
I suggest following scenario:
D updates profile. B, C are acknowledged friends of D. B is on quality link - good connectivity to internet and sends broadcast I am sitting on good connection. B downloads update of D. D looses connection. C downloads and update of D from B.
2) - Re-acknowledging of friend ship should be day-wise of few hour-wise. So passwords should change during time using some hashing or whatever.
what do you think?
see ya

mrWax said:
Hi!
Anyone else bothered by sharing their personal info on social network to the third party? I had thought about developing open source distributed social network app based on https server running on android phones. Each member should have android device as a server of his/her profile.
0) - https protocol could provide possibility to connect to your social network using web browser.
1) - One may be able to deal with extensive upload and download or lost connection issues by allowing distributed profile updates sharing:
I suggest following scenario:
D updates profile. B, C are acknowledged friends of D. B is on quality link - good connectivity to internet and sends broadcast I am sitting on good connection. B downloads update of D. D looses connection. C downloads and update of D from B.
2) - Re-acknowledging of friend ship should be day-wise of few hour-wise. So passwords should change during time using some hashing or whatever.
what do you think?
see ya
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I implemented such a prototype some year ago, although not for mobile clients. You'll have a few issues you'll need to address. You have to use PKI to ensure the identity of the sender in the distributed environment, and you'll have to implement a message routing protocol distributing the messages among the peers. Have a look at my prototype and feel free to steal any ideas: http://whisper.ping.se

Thanks!
Maybe for simplicity one could just copy WIFI WPA2 protocols where router would be one member and internet connection would be connection to the members personal data.

mrWax said:
Maybe for simplicity one could just copy WIFI WPA2 protocols where router would be one member and internet connection would be connection to the members personal data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Huh? I'm sorry, but I can't make any sense of this at all. To achieve what..? I'm missing something here, I guess.
Android is shipped with the BouncyCastle crypto libraries. This is what you'll use to sign the messages with each users private keys to ensure the identity of the author of each message. If you want to encrypt, you'll use this library as well. Since you are working in a distributed store and forward environment, you can not rely on link encryption (e.g. https, wpa2 etc) but have to use point-to-point encryption instead, protecting the message itself instead of the transport channel.

Radio broadcasting resembles similarities to the internet "broadcasting" or: social network resembles similarities to the "person-his friends" virtual private network.
Since it is said that it is hard not to make security flaws when constructing new protocols. i think that adopting whole existing expert made protocol is best solution.
Whole wifi wpa2 protocols could be packed inside ordinary encrypted channel. Where the personal info provider of specific person from which his friends would want to download info - would take place of a "wifi Access Point " in this.

[Q] Lock websites on Nexus 7

The training center I work for is piloting a bunch of mobile devices to distribute to users . The devices need to be able to access only a select number of websites and a few in house apps (a sad use for these wonderful devices). I have rooted one of our Nexus 7s and disabled most of the default apps. I then just password protected all of the apps that I must keep like Titanium backup, settings, etc. What I can't figure out is how to lock chrome so that it can only go to certain websites. Does anyone know how i could do this?

marcymtz said:
The training center I work for is piloting a bunch of mobile devices to distribute to users . The devices need to be able to access only a select number of websites and a few in house apps (a sad use for these wonderful devices). I have rooted one of our Nexus 7s and disabled most of the default apps. I then just password protected all of the apps that I must keep like Titanium backup, settings, etc. What I can't figure out is how to lock chrome so that it can only go to certain websites. Does anyone know how i could do this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Android doesn't have parental settings like a computer with security software like kaspersky or McAfee. It also doesn't have such a software that prevents you from accessing sites you don't want it to be accessed. You can tell the IT department to set the privacy settings so when the sites are typed, it'll be blocked.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

I'd address this by having them contact a specific access point that accessed a specific proxy (that they were configured to use) with the list of sites.
Squid isn't bad to configure.

drop the default route (ip route del default), add the desired DNS hostname translations to /etc/hosts -> /system/etc/hosts, and then add back in individual routes (ip route add) to the ip blocks named in /etc/hosts.
This would need to be repeated every time the DHCP lease renewed, as the renewal process will certainly re-insert the default gateway route, and the current IP might change.
A better solution would also compromise or replace DNS lookups with the same domain name whitelist, and every DNS lookup not in the whitelist would blackhole to the loopback (127.0.0.1) device.
You didn't say whether or not these devices are "in the wild" (either 3G or random WiFi hotspots). If the devices are captive (getting DHCP leases from a corporate/business access point) there are plenty of other tricks that can be played at the default gateway.
Note also that it is pretty typical for "web sites" to pull content from all over creation, or use load-balancing services (e.g. akamai) where the name-to-IP translation can't be readily predicted in advance,
Both of those factors might condemn you to be perpetually editing your hostname whitelist and routing table instructions.
good luck