Windows 10: The ISP in the middle riddle

Dear Mystere,
i move the discussion here if you don't mind
because I think we were off topic...

Ok but are we talking about technical feasibility
Is the ISP supposed to work like that? I think we are
degenerating on the "thin foil hat" side here.
Anyway thanks for the link and case closed for me
and for the sake of the OP.

This is a quote from the link:

--If your company has set up the proxy correctly you won't know anything is off because they'll have arranged to have the proxy's internal SSL certificate registered on your machine as a valid certificate. If not, you'll receive a pop-up error message, which, if you click on to continue, will accept the "fake" digital certificate. In either case, you get a secure connection to the proxy, it gets a secure connection to the outside site -- and everything sent over the proxy can be read in plain text. Whoops. --

What I understand is that someone has to put a fake certificate in my machine
for this to work, otherwise i'll receive a pop-up error message that warns me
that the identity of the site is not to be trusted.

If what I understand is wrong i'd ask you, or someone with more expertise than me,
to better explain to me in simple words ...

:)

 

Shortcuts Not Working in Windows 10 - Looking on Wrong Drive

I "upgraded" to Windows 10 this morning from Windows 8.1. Since then, several of my shortcuts for programs I have installed have stopped working.

In my computer, I have a fairly small SSD that I use as my C drive. I have a larger drive that I use as D drive. While using Windows 8.1, I installed almost all of my software to the D drive.

An example of a shortcut that is having this problem is one I have for Civilization 4 BTS. When I look in the properties of this shortcut, the target is:

"D:\Program Files (x86)\2K Games\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4 Complete\Beyond the Sword\Civ4BeyondSword.exe"

This is where the game is installed, and the path is correct.

When I double click on this shortcut to run the game, I get an error message:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\2K Games\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4 Complete\Beyond the Sword\Civ4BeyondSword.exe

The specified path does not exist.

Check the path, and then try again."

For some reason, the shortcut is attempting to run the program from the C drive, but it is not there. When I check the properties of the shortcut again, it still has the D:\ path that it had before. Something is clearly wrong with how Windows 10 is trying
to run my shortcut.

I tried to change the Windows 10 setting of where applications were stored to see if that might help, but that option was grayed out and unchangeable.

Other interesting information... I can right click on the start button, click run, and paste my D:\ target string above into the run window, hit enter, and the program will run correctly. The target string is not the problem here, it's how Windows 10 is
trying to do things when I double click on the shortcut.

I have several shortcuts that are broken like this, and it's very frustrating.

 

Windows 10 Upgrade delivering obscene content

As part of the Windows 10 "upgrade", tiles were placed on my start menu. One of these live tiles was I guess a Twitter app.

After the Windows 10 upgrade, when I clicked on my start button, it showed a bunch of tiles. The Twitter tile was live/animated, and was switching back and forth between a picture of a scantily clad stripper bending over and some message that read "Don't
you talk **** to me..."

I did not ask for Microsoft to install obscene content on my computer with the Windows 10 "upgrade". I did not even agree to have obscene content added to my computer. This has exacerbated mental health issues that I struggle with, and I take this very
seriously.

 

Of course they do. It's another potential revenue stream that was just made legal here in the US.

You are getting worried about something minor. The only way to stay 100% private is to do away with all communication and connections. Just use your computer and the internet with some common sense and you'll be fine, following accepted good pactices and keeping your computer updated along with good AV software.

 

Hi, thanks for your replay,
i'm more curious to understand how it is supposed to work, did you read the
article in the link?
The subject is if someone can somehow be in the middle beetween a PC and
a secure connection with e.g. google (privacy is already gone here) so is
all this https encripted connection and certificate authenticy just bullshit?

 

In my mind I try to keep it simple.

1. If I'm online I'm susceptible to monitoring by who knows who or what.
2. The only thing I can do in install security programs and be careful what I do online.
3. Learn as much about security as I can.
4. Their are some things I can't do anything about and still be online.
5. Things worth stealing are not kept on my computers when that computer is online.
6. Everything online has to go through my ISP and what they do with all that I have no control over.

What is right or wrong has nothing to do with anything online.
The only security I have concerning my ISP is; I do nothing worth monitoring.
I understand that their can be 'A man in the middle' monitoring. Other than making sure the program is not on my systems, their is nothing I can do about it. So I don't worry about it.

**All I do is keep my system neat and tidy and monitor my security that I have on my systems.
I try to use my mouse and keyboard and brain wisely.

Jack

 

Note, that it is an old article and they are talking about SSL, most browser do not even support SSL anymore, TLS is a standard these days. So do not worry, if the connection is encrypted, it is encrypted.

ISP can see, what domain you are visiting, but not the actual URL and other info. Lets say you visit youtube.com/someshadystuff ISP will see, that you are on youtube, but not the shady stuff. But if the whole domain is somewhat illegal, like howtobecomeaterrorist.com, encryption will not help you. *Smile

For common browsing I use those (for sensitive browsing, I download TOR and remove it afterwards):

1. Non-ISP DNS connected via dnscrypt, if the DNS requests are not encrypted, ISP can see them.
2. Privacy search like StartPage or DucDuckGo, which is encrypted, SP shows images via proxy.
3. HTTPS Everywhere addon, which makes sure TLS is enabled, if the webpages supports it.

The best way is to use VPN, but note, that some leak, so make sure to pick the right one.

That One Privacy Site | Simple VPN Comparison Chart

VPN Testing

 

Thanks TairikuOkami,
i find your explanation logical and coherent.
I consider this solved.

 

Wrong reply sorry.

 

Is Google DNS encrypted?

 

Althought I was not asking for advice on how to
browse the web I thank you for your time

 

You need to use use dnscrypt to encrypt dns request, no DNS service can do it for you.
It still needs to be supported though, Google does since 2016. Google Groups

DNSCrypt - Official Project Home Page

Interesting fact, some ISP or MITM, hijack DNS queries, eventhough Google uses DNSSEC.

recdnsfp by recdnsfp

 

No, but I think you are totally missing the point,
if you care keep asking or read again*Smile