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Just how STEALTHY is STEALTH MODE???

D

djdarlek

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 10, 2003
130
0
Hello there folks, i've got a very important question that I would love to throw at you guys - I seem unable to find anything that explains in fully elsewhere.

All I want to know is when I turn on 'Block UDP traffic' 'Enable Firewall' and 'Enable Stealth Mode' .. just HOW invisible do I become?

I work at, er, work, and i'm one of the only Mac computers connected to their network internally. It's on a University network. Problem is, well, sometimes I just can't help stumble on some NSFW sites, and accidentally download pictures that maybe I should not in a work senario.

Is there any way an IT technician in control of the network would pick me up? My job, literally could depend on it ;)

cheers guys
 
Secure your computer all you like, the network admin can see every byte coming in and out of it.

Your only hope would be to receive encrypted transmissions - which isn't going to happen.

If your job depends on it I'd stop. Right now.

AppleMatt
 
Yes Apple Matt, thankyou for your honest advice. At one point years ago I was downloading a LOT of porn at work using P-2-P. I got caught using DC++ after I generously thought I was helping someone out with an upload at some ridiculous speed. You know, wow he's going to get this 700 meg in like 3 minutes, why not leave it. I got caught! I stopped immediately, and haven't really done anything like that since. Now it's mainly alt news sites that have those damn 'adultfriendfinder' ads slapped all around the edges. The sites themselves aren't pornagraphic, but yes, I guess I should give them up too. But there's only so much BBC.com you can read! lol

Cheers for the advice

:cool:
 
djdarlek said:
Yes Apple Matt, thankyou for your honest advice. At one point years ago I was downloading a LOT of porn at work using P-2-P. I got caught using DC++ after I generously thought I was helping someone out with an upload at some ridiculous speed. You know, wow he's going to get this 700 meg in like 3 minutes, why not leave it. I got caught! I stopped immediately, and haven't really done anything like that since. Now it's mainly alt news sites that have those damn 'adultfriendfinder' ads slapped all around the edges. The sites themselves aren't pornagraphic, but yes, I guess I should give them up too. But there's only so much BBC.com you can read! lol

Cheers for the advice

:cool:
Click to expand...

HAHA! I've never heard anybody admit to doing that, but that's pretty damn funny. I would never risk it at work though because I like my job and they take that kind of thing very seriously.

Back on topic, though. Stealth mode just means that your computer isn't easily seen from another computer on the network. Usually malicious people looking to abuse your computer will do a "scan" where they send messages to large blocks of sequential IP addresses. For many services/operating systems, the default is to send some sort of acknowledgement response back. Setting stealth mode simply means your mac doesn't respond to any of these generic requests. Of course, if you turn on any services on the firewall, then your mac will be visible through those services.

If you really want to get porn at work, you could encrypt everything you transfer. Just make sure every site you go to is secure (https), and that none of them have suspicious names. There must be a site like that somewhere, seems like a potentially large market.
 
savar said:
If you really want to get porn at work, you could encrypt everything you transfer.
Click to expand...
The network admins will still know where you went, even if they don't know what you saw.

Just ask yourself if it's better to be bored or unemployed.
 
I would say that your only hope is to use an encrypted link to a proxy machine outside the scope of your work's network, and have a legitimate reason for accessing said proxy from your job.

This all assumes, of course, that nobody has installed software to let them snoop around the machine you use.
 
amholl said:
how do u enable those things?
Click to expand...

i was about to ask myself the same question, as i had never noticed such options in the preference pane of "Sharing". Well, anyway now I found it. Go to Apple>System Preferences>Sharing>Firewall>Advanced... And there it is! BTW can someone tell me what is recommended to have check and what not? Right now I just check Stealth mode because I don't really know what UDP means... and as for the logging, I never read that kind of stuff anyway.
 
you could always ssh to another computer and forward the connection to access your porn.
 
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