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It's safe. Just poorly written.

snopes.com: Cash for Clunkers


like i said i really like that site. my sweetie turned me on to it during the presidential election when there was mass emails with false information in them. and ever since then when i get an email with questionable material I'll look at snopes first before i send it on to others. Just my 2 cents. Chad J
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Unfortunately there's no shortage of irresponsible journalism that only panders to the lowest "knee-jerk" emotional reaction they can create. Both conservatives & liberals are guilty of it and it's tough to sort out the truth.

Do you really believe that simply logging on to a site would relinquish ownership of your computer to the government? It's too bad that "black helicopter" conspiracy paranoia has become so mainstream. It's almost as bad as the "reality" TV craze in how unreasonable it's become.

I prefer to use the ol' occam's razor rule - The simplest approach is probably the correct one (I'm paraphrasing here).

As far as giving up info to an internet entity - ever heard of cookies?
Every single site you log into collects some sort of personal information about your system.

Try a bit of critical thinking ( and Snopes is a great debunker) - you'll probably do just fine . . .

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Jimbob,John,

Thanks for the links (I'd read the EFF article previously but hadn't seen the WND piece). In general, Snopes is good but I agree, not infallible.



I grabbed a few lines from the WND piece to illustrate my point:

"Millions of Americans, including national leaders, who rely on the popular online hoax-buster Snopes.com as the ultimate authority in separating truth from fiction,"

"Snopes, routinely cited by many as the final word on both frivolous and important stories"

"The Mikkelsons admit, however, that Snopes is only as reliable as the sources it cites, and they invite readers to look for the truth themselves."

"I've got to tell you, you can't believe everything you read on the Internet," writes Farah. "You've got to use common sense and discernment in sorting out the good from the bad."



If you take a single source and make it the "ultimate authority" or "final word" for information, you're leaving yourself open to the single sided "over the top" reactions that occurred with what Beck did on his show.

Most of this whole situation is the result of a VERY poorly written TOU on the cars.gov site, the fact which Beck's team should have uncovered through routine research. Was the research not done and they went on-air without it or did they do the background work but decided to leave out the truth just to panic people in an extraordinarily irresponsible way?

Either way - not a real testament to good journalism.

As the quotes from the WND article suggest - think for yourself - get out and look around at numerous sources and come to an informed decision.

Edited by chyancarrek
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I feel that everyone that has replied to this thread has contributed valid and useful information. We can agree that:

- The Infernalnet can be a scary place that is hazardous to one's computer and one's information.
- It is better to err on the side of caution. If in doubt, don't open or respond to emails that seem questionable, and when in doubt avoid any web site that is not widely known and accepted as safe.
- Googleing for reviews of a site is helpful in making informed decisions about the safety of a site.
- Never, never, never "click through" on a web site address shown in an email. Instead always take the time and type an address yourself on the address bar. What is shown is often not the address that the code in the email will send you to.
- If you have the ability, then checking the path of the sent message and/or source code of the message is a good idea instead of opening a message from a stranger. Embedded code can be a computer killer, or steal your financial information. You will sometimes or frequently find that the address shown in the email will instead go to some other country than indicated in the email.

If in doubt, err on the side of safety.
Dave E., over 19 years of working on computer security issues as a Software Engineer. :D

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i didn't know about those other sites, thanks for the info. It's always better to have more then one source anyway. if you know of any more don't be afraid to post them:) I would like to check them out. again thank you. Chad J

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i didn't know about those other sites, thanks for the info. It's always better to have more then one source anyway. if you know of any more don't be afraid to post them:) I would like to check them out. again thank you. Chad J


I usually just type "review site-name.com" into Google and let Google find reviews for me. I also Google on "review product-name" for stuff I see advertised, especially when the advertisement makes phenomenal claims. If a web site or product exists, then Google is pretty amazing at finding reviews for them. :D

If you have high-speed cable Internet, I also suggest acquiring a hardware box of the category of a Router-Firewall combination that uses network address translation (NAT), which hides your computers' IP (IP just means Internet Protocol) addresses behind the router's IP address. It sounds complicated but basically the script kiddies end up attacking the Router-Firewall box instead of your computer(s). Once I installed the Router-Firewall, the software on my computer that warns of attacks informed me that the attacks changed from dozens of attacks per minute before the firewall, to zero attacks reaching the computer after installation of the router-firewall.
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Great advice UF!

Do you have any source (or brand) recommendations for the Router-Firewall hardware? Once set up, do they need a lot of technical oversight to keep them going?

I've got a number of friends who (they're not real tech savvy) could use the extra protection.

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I'm using a Belkin wireless router with 4 wired ports. You log into it from a wired machine following the directions, set up network name, password(s) and wireless encryption. Every few weeks I need to pull the plug and let it reboot because wireless gets flaky, but I otherwise ignore it. I dunno if it really increases my security, but it makes life easy with the desktop, laptop, and guests. I use an easy to remember phrase for a public password. I have it plugged into the battery back up with the modem. I have cable telephone through the same modem.

I had an old Microsoft router before, but gave it to my mom when I upgraded to this one. Make sure you get wireless G or better, I think N is the current best standard. The newer stuff is faster, more secure, and works with older equipment.

Phil

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pkrankow has good description. I use a Belkin router-firewall, but not the wireless variety. I wired my house for Ethernet because wireless requires another level of security to keep the kiddies out. I never had any problems with my Belkin router-firewall.

Just about any brand should do (I avoid Linksys brand as it is the only brand that I have had problems with their equipment), the more expensive boxes have capacity for larger business level of use, but the less expensive models and brands should be sufficient for the home or small business user. You just establish the settings on these devices once and they take care of themselves.

That said, put the router-firewall box and the cable or other modem on a surge strip as they need protection from spikes in electricity, and the set-up needs periodically to be turned off then on again whenever your service provider re-boots their equipment because the router-firewall box needs to request a new connection whenever your service provider fixes a problem with *their* equipment.:D

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p.s. snopes.com isnt an office full of researchers sniffing out the truth... it is a stay-at-home husband and wife team that run the site and do all their own research, earn their wage from ads. It is well known to be not nearly as reliable as people would like to believe.

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