Since last week I have had inexplicable internet connection problems: some sites simply refuse to respond to a ping from me. I’m posting this by having logged on through a web proxy service. Does this present any security problems for the board?
Well, the proxy could sniff out your login if they wanted to. But I don’t think it presents a particular problem for the board besides that.
If your ISP’s DNS server gets screwed it can cause this kind of behaviour. But you can change your adapter’s TCP/IPv4 settings from “Obtain DNS server automatically” to “Use the following DNS server addresses” and enter 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 (Google’s DNS) or two of the addresses supplied by OpenDNS (or even use one Google and one OpenDNS to be sure). Usually clears up that kind of issue.
It won’t cause the board a problem but it might cause you problems. Over the years we’ve banned a lot of proxy IPs due to abuse. Depending on what proxy server you use, you may or may not end up being able to access the SDMB based on what IP you end up with.
Are you saying that people have used proxies to logon to the board with socks?
Socks, trolls, and spammers often come in through proxy servers.
Ironically, using a proxy server to hide who you are and where you are posting from puts you in a very small subset of SDMB users (most folks post from home or from work and/or school or from their mobile phone) and makes it much easier for us to identify you as a sock.
Spammers often use proxy servers to hide their country of origin and avoid the country bans that many message boards use.
I think it’s the other way around. People using sock puppet identities use proxies to hide the IP association with their “normal” identity. A common sock-puppet-outing heuristic is to see multiple identities from the same IP address, although that has severe limitations. E.g., if I’m posting from work, I’m posting from a proxy server, because that’s how the security posture is set up. (All web interaction from the administration/general-use network passes through a proxy filter to “protect us”, so it all looks like it comes from a proxy. However, we’re big enough that we have several geographically disparate proxy gateways, so I don’t always look like I’m coming from the exact same proxy server all the time, and likewise if one of my colleagues posts here she may not come through the same server.)