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Resolved Hosts file and local logging of requests

Discussion in 'Networking (Hardware & Software)' started by DCHammer, 2018/04/11.

  1. 2018/04/11
    DCHammer

    DCHammer Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    This isn't a trouble shooting question. It's theory but I didn't know where to ask. I did a variety of Google searches but I can't find the answer but that's likely because I'm incapable of asking the question in a manner a search engine can understand.

    So let's get to the question.

    After I modify my hosts file to route traffic to specific addresses, specifically 0.0.0.0 to prevent the traffic entirely, are calls to the entries in my hosts file logged somewhere?
    And if the answer is initially no, can it be done?

    Now that the question is asked, I'll explain why even though the person that asks probably already knows.

    With the current nonsense surrounding Facebook, I've updated my hosts file to direct MANY calls to data scraping 'agents' to 0.0.0.0 to prevent collection of anything.

    Now I'm just curious to see, a) how often this is preventing calls to the addresses added to the hosts file, and b) what site was attempting to make the call to one of those entries.
     
    DCHammer,
    #1
  2. 2018/04/11
    TonyT

    TonyT SuperGeek Staff

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    You can use netstat to view existing connections, but no real need to log what site is attempting to connect because you are controlling where they connect, i.e. 0.0.0.0. To further dig you have to capture the packets using a tool like wireshark.

    There's been a lot of hype re facebook lately and most of it is nonsense. The simple way to safely use facebook on a computer is to access your facebook settings and disable apps completely AND use Firefox to do so, and use Firefox private windows when going to facebook so no cookies, offline date or html5 storage are saved. You can also use the add-on extension uBlock Origin which details what gets blocked and how often.
     
    TonyT,
    #2


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  4. 2018/04/12
    DCHammer

    DCHammer Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    There is a bunch of stuff that happens on websites all over the place. The Like button, the pixel etc.
    They track where you go and what you look at even if you aren't an actual FB user.
    That's what I was curious to understand. How often that is happening and who is doing it?

    I understand I've prevented the traffic from happening in the first place, I was just curious to see if I can find out who I'm preventing. It's kind of like locks versus security cameras.
    It was just an academic exercise so I'll drop it.

    Thanks for the assist. You guys are always helpful here.

    You can mark this resolved.
     
    DCHammer,
    #3
  5. 2018/04/12
    TonyT

    TonyT SuperGeek Staff

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    You already know who you blocking by adding domains and IP addresses to a hosts file.

    The Facebook Like button is only logged and used by Facebook itself. Facebook uses HTML5 Storage on your computer. HTML5 storage is a new type of offllne storage per the HTML5 spec. A cookie can contain only up to 4KB of data, not very much. HTML5 storage can contain up to approx 10MB per all modern desktop browsers; varies for mobile device browsers. This storage can hold database info among other things and is website accessible using javascript.

    Thus if you go to Facebook and your browser settings allow Web storage then Facebook will use it to store a lot of data. Then if you go to a different site it can access that storage data using javascript per the Facebook API. (Application Programming Interface rules). That's how one site can allow you to login to it using your Facebook credentials, gMail credentials, Yahoo credentials, and so on.

    There are many ways to handle this type of tracking if not desirable:

    1. Browser settings - disallow 3rd party cookies, offline storage, etc on a per site basis.
    2. Ad blocker extensions and add-ons. (better than a hosts file because domains and IP addresses change often)
    3. Use a more secure browser such as Firefox.
    4. Hosts file.
    5. Use TOR browser, secure but slower.
     
    TonyT,
    #4

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