In a recent document posted on the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) called an ‘Internet-Draft’ by Google, Google called for a change in the DNS server system to allow major DNS servers worldwide to be able to pull client addresses from DNS requests.
This, according to them, is to enable bandwidth saving by rerouting traffic to servers nearest to where the request originated. A few authoritative individuals also want that several other details be sought by the DNS servers if client identity is going to be resolved at all. Latitude/Longitude, ISP, country and the age of the individual can be quite helpful in a number of areas like security, cyber crime and catching pedophiles. Who will regulate these confidential details is something which poses a rather sticky question.
The proposal will not only save significant bandwidth, it will also allow for better speeds as distances are cut short if it is implemented. Normally, data often has to travel across continents before it comes to the user. For example, a request originating in Boston probably travels all over the world through multiple servers before it comes back to the user. This proposal will ensure that the nearest server only handles the request, thus increasing the speed manifold.
EFF (The Electronic Frontier Foundation) compiled a list of the important trends in law, technology and business that would play an important role in shaping online rights in 2010, and companies that in the past year managed to infringe on the privacy of the individual. EFF plans to revisit these trends as the year progresses, as stated by its technology manager, Tim Jones.
1. Global Internet Censorship – Filtering initiatives in Australia and Europe that follow similar steps undertaken in China and Iran highlight the globalization of internet censorship and a battle for internet legitimacy. There are growing concerns about the ways in which restrictions in different countries reinforce each other, on the basis of child protection, cyber security and IP enforcement. Blocking of websites isn’t just for autocratic regimes now, as democracies follow suit.
2. Cyber-security Legislation Stirring in U.S. Congress – As health care reforms occupied Washington, federal technology legislation took a back seat. It is however doubtful that the case would be the same in 2010. Key provisions of the Patriot Act are up for re-authorization before April 1 and The Snowe-Rockefeller Cyber-security Act, which would grant the president the power to disconnect the Internet, is likely to resurface sometime this year.
3. Net Neutrality – Most know Net Neutrality is an abstract idea. But what would be its implications when it makes the transition from idealistic principle into real-world policies, 2010 would tell, as the FCC attempts to institute Net Neutrality this year. How much the FCC can be trusted is yet to be seen as it tends to lean towards the demands of corporate lobbyists and “public decency” advocates more than individual civil liberties and is already promising exceptions from net neutrality.
4. News Organisations Revolt Against Google – News Corp. and other bigwigs in the media zone were unhappy with Google and its effect on their businesses. They don’t appreciate a search engine selling advertisements regarding their content without getting money for it, even if their content is openly consumable online. The print world is expected to force changes to current copyright law, and apply pressure on intermediaries to stop functioning for search engines like Google.
Overplay announced yesterday the availability of South Korean ultra-highspeed VPN server.
Overplay is a VPN service that can reroute your internet traffic via high speed, reliable VPN servers – making it appear to websites which you visit as if you’re located in another geographical area. By using Overplay.net, you can enjoy a variety of online TV content, without the restriction on your geographical location. Wherever you are, keep up-to-date with what’s on TV, watch the latest shows, enjoy sports not normally available on domestic TV, and stay abreast with the latest localised news.
Yesterday, I posted an article on Chinese users trying to access free VPNs and I realized that I didn’t know much about the situation the Chinese users are facing regarding the VPN access. So, the following poll addresses mostly to the Chinese readers of How-to-hide-ip.info and to those that travelled to China lately.
The below list contains VPN services that I mentioned on this blog during the last months. There may be other services that could be used to overcome censorship in China. If you know any, let me know and I’ll add them to the poll.
Loading ...A lot of very popular websites were blocked in China in the year 2009. These well known websites include popular sites like Facebook, YouTube and Blogspot, which were used regularly by millions of Chinese internet users.
These websites are still blocked, and the Chinese are now scrambling to get a piece of their favourite websites by bypassing the restrictions with the help of free VPNs, short for Virtual Private Networks. It is obvious that while the censoring authorities want the citizens to stay away from the ‘corrupting’ influence of these commercial sites, the average Chinese internet user cannot do without these sites, and is looking at various alternate methods to get a daily dose of the same.
This is essentially a struggle between the close minded authoritarian Censorship and the open minded Netizens who are essentially global citizens thanks to the internet. The freedom of the average Chinese netizen has been compromised by the aptly named Great Firewall of the untrusting censors.
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How to Find Out the Country of an IP Address Using ip2c
ip2c (ip to country) is a free program that is able to determine the country associated to a specific IP address. It queries the five main whois servers responsible for each region of the world and try to automatically establish the most authoritative for the IP specified.
Then it return the country’s two-letter TLD (for example US), the extended country name (for example United States of America), its world region (for example North America) and a string containing a brief description of the organization managing the block of IP addresses containing the submitted IP (when available).
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