spaghettiwestern
@spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works
- Comment on Does anyone use a VPN to subvert the Netflix household device fencing? 2 days ago:
If you have an Android phone you’ve probably noticed a prompt at some point asking for your permission to transmit precise location information and enable wifi scanning. Every Android phone sends wifi SSIDs and MAC addresses along with its GPS location back to Google. The combination of all that information is IMO as unique as a fingerprint. They can use that along with signal strength of each AP in the area to determine your TV’s location with precision. (Google used to allow apps like Maps to be used with wifi scanning turned off, but no more.)
Although your Google TV can’t tell it’s on a VPN directly, Google can still pinpoint your TV’s physical location using their database of SSIDs and MAC addresses, and if they want to they can determine you’re using a VPN by comparing that to the expected location of your IP address. There probably aren’t enough people doing this right now to make it worth the trouble to detect your VPN, but IMO it’s just a matter of time before they decide it is.
I also expect that Google sells that information to every company willing to pay for it, so almost every single wifi enabled device can be precisely located if it can transmit data to the Internet.
We live in a scary time.
- Comment on Linux Mint 22.2 “Zara” Is Now Available for Download 2 days ago:
I’ve been running Mint since 17.x and have only had one upgrade fail in all that time. You’re very unlikely to have a problem, but backup your system just in case!
- Comment on 4 days ago:
Thanks for that list. No need here for more advanced hardware so I’ll have to put off networking upgrades until I can come up with a reason to justify it.
- Comment on 4 days ago:
As a home user, what additional feature have you found useful on enterprise networking equipment?
- Comment on 4 days ago:
OpenWRT is amazingly flexible and would be a great place to start.
I switched from DD-WRT last year and have been amazed how good OpenWRT is. There are thousands of software packages that allow you to do pretty much anything you can think of on inexpensive hardware. Used Netgear R7800s are available for less than $50 on ebay or there are plenty newer hardware options if you want to spend more. Thousands of downloadable software packages can be added to the base, including Wireguard and Adguard Home, plus there are OpenWRT integrations for Home Assistant. The forum is full of people who are happy to help newcomers.
I started by running OpenWRT in a virtual machine to get familiar with the UI and moved on to a live installation. Highly recommended, especially if you enjoy learning.
- Comment on how to start with self-hosting? 6 days ago:
4gb isn’t much ram, but it can be surprisingly useful if you configure Zswap. Lots of guides out there. Here’s one of them.
- Comment on Google: 'Your $1000 phone needs our permission to install apps now'". Android users are screwed - Louis Rossmann 6 days ago:
What are those alternatives? I can’t think of any that are ready for prime time.
- Comment on The Browser Wasn’t Enough, Google Wants To Control All Your Software 1 week ago:
Not everyone cares enough to avoid Google. Some of us that do are related to them.
- Comment on The Browser Wasn’t Enough, Google Wants To Control All Your Software 1 week ago:
You can stop using all Google products.
That may be true for you, but other people face different realities. When Google implements the sideloading block it will eventually be pushed to everyone who doesn’t use a custom ROM.
- Comment on The Browser Wasn’t Enough, Google Wants To Control All Your Software 1 week ago:
The infuriating part of the Google enshittification process is that there is nothing the user can do about it.
Literally the only thing that motivates Google is profit. Controlling side-loaded apps will almost certainly boost their profits by a infinitesimal fraction of a percent, therefore it will be done. Even if consumer uproar causes Google to back down in the short term, they’ll simply implement this a few months later. Late-stage Capitalism sucks.
- Comment on Lowering power consumption on Opteron 2 weeks ago:
A single Opteron 6272 is somewhat faster than the N200, but the Opteron’s TDP is 115 watts while the N200’s is only 6 watts. OP’s server with 2 processors is more than 2x as fast as my single processor laptop, but can require nearly 40x the electricity. For a home server it’s major overkill.
- Comment on Lowering power consumption on Opteron 2 weeks ago:
Sounds like my laptop will be plenty fast for some time to come.
This platform doesn’t use much power to begin with, but I do run TLP using a battery profile (despite the fact it’s always plugged in) to lower the power consumption a bit further. There’s no noticeable impact on application performance. If you’re running Linux maybe it will work on your hardware.
- Comment on Lowering power consumption on Opteron 2 weeks ago:
Tangential question: What kind of server apps require that kind of processing power? I run a server on an Intel N200 laptop with multiple apps and services and it rarely uses more than 12% CPU and 15 watts. I’m wondering if I’m going to eventually run into something that needs a more powerful platform.
- Comment on HELP: Wireguard for home network with remote exit node 4 weeks ago:
I have this set up on an OpenWRT router with multiple remote endpoints used for different devices. Our phones go to a hosted Wireguard server in one city, PCs to an OpenWRT router in a different location, and IOT devices that aren’t blocked and guest devices exit access the Internet locally.
Policy Based Routing on OpenWRT makes this possible. As long as the remote server is set up to allow your WG devices to access the Internet you should be able to achieve what you want to do without further control of that server.
- Comment on Router suggestions for a complete noob 4 weeks ago:
As others have said, get something that works with OpenWRT. It’s unbelievably flexible and the OpenWRT forum can be really helpful, both for finding ways to implement things and solving problems.
- Comment on 'This Verdict Is a Wake-Up Call:' Jury Trial Finds Meta Breached State Privacy Law in Class Action Against Fertility App | Law.com 4 weeks ago:
And Maga will cheer for a 3rd term.
- Comment on 'This Verdict Is a Wake-Up Call:' Jury Trial Finds Meta Breached State Privacy Law in Class Action Against Fertility App | Law.com 4 weeks ago:
They’ve done worse: hipaajournal.com/meta-facing-scrutiny-over-use-of…
Meta Pixel is a snippet of JavaScript code that can be used by website owners for tracking user activity through the use of cookies.
The problem is the data collected via this code snippet may be sent to Meta, and may include patients’ protected health information. Meta is not a business associate of HIPAA-covered entities, and under HIPAA compliance rules, any data transmitted to Meta would require patient consent to be a HIPAA compliant website.
Criminal and civil judgements are dwarfed by the huge profits generated by the violation of privacy laws. Shareholders and C-Suites don’t care where the money comes from as long as it keeps coming.
- 'This Verdict Is a Wake-Up Call:' Jury Trial Finds Meta Breached State Privacy Law in Class Action Against Fertility App | Law.comwww.law.com ↗Submitted 4 weeks ago to technology@lemmy.world | 9 comments
- Comment on Establishing an ideal home drive using raspberry pi 4 model B(xfce)with help of nextcloud 4 weeks ago:
Debian 12, Mint, Pi OS, Windows 11, Android. Works perfectly on all of them.
- Comment on Establishing an ideal home drive using raspberry pi 4 model B(xfce)with help of nextcloud 4 weeks ago:
Also check out Syncthing. I have it running on my Pi5, PCs and my Android phone. The phone’s photos directory and lots of other files are automatically synced to my server and computers. No open firewall port is needed, everything is encrypted in transit and it supports trusted and untrusted hosts
- Comment on What are your VPN recommendations for accessing self-hosted applications from the outside? 1 month ago:
I have everything route through the tunnel and my router. Along with allowing instant access to everything I self-host and my home server through VNC, it allows me to use Adguard Home for phone DNS lookups no matter where I am. Theoretically my cell carrier should no longer be able to see any of my Internet traffic which I consider an added bonus. I’ve found no downside so far except some weirdness from Google if I’m out of the country for an extended period.
- Comment on What are your VPN recommendations for accessing self-hosted applications from the outside? 1 month ago:
I self-host various applications and have been really happy with Wireguard. After watching just how hard my firewall gets hammered when I have any detectable open ports, I finally shut down everything else. The WG protocol is designed to be as silent as possible and doesn’t respond to remote traffic unless it receives the correct key. The open WG port is difficult to detect when the firewall is configured correctly.
If I want to connect to a device using SSH, HTTP, VNC or any other protocol it must first go through my WG tunnel. Running it on an OpenWRT router instead of a server means if the router is working, WG is working. It’s been rock solid. Using Tasker on Android I’ve set it up to automatically connect whenever I leave my house. It makes everything in my home instantly accessible no matter what I’m doing.
Another thing to consider is there’s no corporation involved with WG. So many companies have suddenly decided to start charging for “free for personal use” products and services it has IMO made anything involving an account worth avoiding…
- Comment on Adblockers stop publishers serving ads to (or even seeing) 1bn web users - Press Gazette 1 month ago:
Besides the miserable experience unchecked advertisements cause, it is simply not safe to allow those advertisements to load these days.
A few years ago (before SSDs were common) there was unusual PC hard disk activity when loading a popular link aggregation site. A bit of investigation turned up a Trojan on my system. After removing it and reloading that site, my PC was immediately reinfected. The site owner denied any responsibility and said it was the advertising company’s fault.
The way the Internet operates now means no one is responsible for the content their site provides or the damage they cause. Imagine if restaurant owners were able to deny responsibility for the atmosphere in their establishments or food poisoning episodes they caused? IMO it’s the same thing.
Advertisers and websites have created the “dark traffic” mentioned here by repeatedly poisoning the public and they deserve the massive loss of revenue their behavior has caused.
- Comment on Amazon Ring Cashes in on Techno-Authoritarianism and Mass Surveillance 1 month ago:
2nd this configuration. My firewall rules block all camera external access and Frigate (once configured) is superb at detecting people without false alerts. It is disturbing just how much traffic smart devices try to send to China and Amazon even when not subscribed to cloud services. The open Wireguard ports appear closed to scanners so I’m also reasonably comfortable with network security.
- Comment on $440 Charge For A Wheel Scuff Raises Questions About Hertz's AI Rental Car Damage Scanner 2 months ago:
Returned a multi-week Hertz rental a couple of days ago and had to fight with the staff to get to get a written acknowledgement of no damage.
Customers are supposed to just trust Hertz employees will self-report damaging the car after it has been turned in? Absolutely laughable considering how many times rental companies try to screw over their customers.
This is great info and I won’t be renting from Hertz again.
- Comment on Plex has paywalled my server! 2 months ago:
Holy shit! Please take your pill.
- Comment on Plex has paywalled my server! 2 months ago:
That’s not going to scale…
How many mothers do you have?
- Comment on Plex has paywalled my server! 2 months ago:
It’s possible. I’ve done it for a friend who can barely turn on his PC.
The OpenWRT router was fully configured before shipping it to him and the existing router’s needed Wireguard port was opened by me using the Comcast Android app. All he had to do was connect his TV to a new wifi network. That was difficult, but he ultimately succeeded.
- Comment on Plex has paywalled my server! 2 months ago:
#3 - An OpenWRT router with Wireguard connecting to another router 1000 miles away will do the trick.
- Comment on 109 children rescued, 244 arrested in Operation Soteria Shield, exposing widespread child exploitation in North Texas 2 months ago:
I’d give you 10 to 1 odds that 100% of these criminals are strident Maga Trump supporters.