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Windows OS, Services and Apps: Network Connection Target Hosts (2021)

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Re: Windows OS, Services and Apps: Network Connection Target Hosts (2021)

#41

Post by indymike »

rob_c wrote: post #31
norman784 wrote: post #27

I read a lot of comments here wanting to block the connections, but wouldn’t be easier/better to switch to an OS that doesn’t spy you? The answers possibly is no, because they might use X or Y that requires them to use Windows, so a better question is, what holds you back to switch to Linux? (macOS also talks to a lot of servers and collect telemetry as Windows, maybe in a different scale, so isn’t an alternative if…

> I personally prefer Linux, but what’s holding me are the streaming services Yes but then these turn off, drop the content you were watching with little/no warning and are unreliable. Buy physical media while you can at least then you have a licence to watch it when you please until the media degrades. (Or better in the territories which allow for backing up across media formats)

I've never had a problem watching streaming stuff on Linux.

Re: Windows OS, Services and Apps: Network Connection Target Hosts (2021)

#42

Post by lelanthran »

norman784 wrote: post #27

I read a lot of comments here wanting to block the connections, but wouldn’t be easier/better to switch to an OS that doesn’t spy you? The answers possibly is no, because they might use X or Y that requires them to use Windows, so a better question is, what holds you back to switch to Linux? (macOS also talks to a lot of servers and collect telemetry as Windows, maybe in a different scale, so isn’t an alternative if…

> I personally prefer Linux, but what’s holding me are the streaming services (netflix, amazon, etc), I can only watch SD content if I’m on Linux,

I hadn't noticed. Wife's 43" TV is connected to a linux box with firefox that is used for Amazon Prime, Netflix AND Disney+.

I haven't noticed poor picture and assumed it ran at 1096x1080. I will certainly have to check this out.

Re: Windows OS, Services and Apps: Network Connection Target Hosts (2021)

#43

Post by moonchrome »

norman784 wrote: post #27

I read a lot of comments here wanting to block the connections, but wouldn’t be easier/better to switch to an OS that doesn’t spy you? The answers possibly is no, because they might use X or Y that requires them to use Windows, so a better question is, what holds you back to switch to Linux? (macOS also talks to a lot of servers and collect telemetry as Windows, maybe in a different scale, so isn’t an alternative if…

I recently considered installing Linux on my desktop workstation. Then I decided I wanted to buy a wireless card for the machine - and any device I saw available locally had dubious issue/debugging threads online, people unable to get it to work, BT functionality missing, etc.

I've used Linux desktop in the past and it looks like things haven't changed much. I don't like the idea of having to compile kernel modules just to get my machine to work (and then having to do it on each distro upgrade) - I have better things to do with my time.

Re: Windows OS, Services and Apps: Network Connection Target Hosts (2021)

#44

Post by notanote »

jiggawatts wrote: post #26
mananaysiempre wrote: post #17

There seems to be some degree of overcounting in the reported figures: the number of “hosts” is the number of unique hostnames in the table, but the number of “IPs” is a straightforward sum of IP address counts that the table segregates by service, and I refuse to believe that ( e.g. ) the IP address of login.live.com as resolved by OneDrive is always different from same as resolved by Skype. $ curl -fsSL 'https://he…

> DigiCert’s OCSP service A weakness of the OCSP protocol is that it gets sent the certificate hash as an input. This means that to a significant degree, an OCSP provider can track what software you are using, what sites you visit, etc... For the code signing certificates, they could also determine which year (or two) it came from. DigiCert could sell that to marketing companies, and spy agencies / state-sponsored ha…

OCSP is done over plain HTTP (for obvious reasons), so the OCSP provider doesn’t have exclusive access to this data. There is not much value there for DigiCert and others when every ISP can potentially sell the same data.

OCSP stapling helps maintain privacy, so eg. ESNI isn’t completely pointless when stapling is used.

Re: Windows OS, Services and Apps: Network Connection Target Hosts (2021)

#45

Post by baisq »

norman784 wrote: post #27

I read a lot of comments here wanting to block the connections, but wouldn’t be easier/better to switch to an OS that doesn’t spy you? The answers possibly is no, because they might use X or Y that requires them to use Windows, so a better question is, what holds you back to switch to Linux? (macOS also talks to a lot of servers and collect telemetry as Windows, maybe in a different scale, so isn’t an alternative if…

Sure, as soon as an operating system with a good Win32/DirectX/Windows HAL implementation appears, I will be the first one to switch. ReactOS perhaps?

Re: Windows OS, Services and Apps: Network Connection Target Hosts (2021)

#46

Post by kekebo »

norman784 wrote: post #27

I read a lot of comments here wanting to block the connections, but wouldn’t be easier/better to switch to an OS that doesn’t spy you? The answers possibly is no, because they might use X or Y that requires them to use Windows, so a better question is, what holds you back to switch to Linux? (macOS also talks to a lot of servers and collect telemetry as Windows, maybe in a different scale, so isn’t an alternative if…

It can come down to one program that doesn't have a good alternative on another OS, my version of that are the DAWs / music production tools I know and love. Wine solves a lot of this (but not all) for Windows programs, the macOS equivalent Darling[0] seems to still has some way to go until GUI programs are reliably supported.

[0] https://github.com/darlinghq/darling

Re: Windows OS, Services and Apps: Network Connection Target Hosts (2021)

#47

Post by norman784 »

indymike wrote: post #41
rob_c wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I personally prefer Linux, but what’s holding me are the streaming services Yes but then these turn off, drop the content you were watching with little/no warning and are unreliable. Buy physical media while you can at least then you have a licence to watch it when you please until the media degrades. (Or better in the territories which allow for backing up across media formats)

I've never had a problem watching streaming stuff on Linux.

It might be changed? I remember back in 2020 when I wanted to watch something I was dual booting to windows, because Amazon was streaming at 720p and Netflix 1080p, so the only option to watch in a good resolution UHD was an OS that has a browser with a signed DRM system.

Re: Windows OS, Services and Apps: Network Connection Target Hosts (2021)

#48

Post by sph »

moonchrome wrote: post #43
norman784 wrote: post #27

I read a lot of comments here wanting to block the connections, but wouldn’t be easier/better to switch to an OS that doesn’t spy you? The answers possibly is no, because they might use X or Y that requires them to use Windows, so a better question is, what holds you back to switch to Linux? (macOS also talks to a lot of servers and collect telemetry as Windows, maybe in a different scale, so isn’t an alternative if…

I recently considered installing Linux on my desktop workstation. Then I decided I wanted to buy a wireless card for the machine - and any device I saw available locally had dubious issue/debugging threads online, people unable to get it to work, BT functionality missing, etc. I've used Linux desktop in the past and it looks like things haven't changed much. I don't like the idea of having to compile kernel modules j…

There's just one brand of Wifi that's crap under linux and that's broadcom. Are you telling me you can't find an Intel wireless module anywhere?

Also, if you use a modern distro instead of, say, gentoo, you don't have to compile anything yourself, there's packages and dkms available if you really have to go with broadcom. Do you not install drivers on Windows?

Re: Windows OS, Services and Apps: Network Connection Target Hosts (2021)

#49

Post by norman784 »

lelanthran wrote: post #42
norman784 wrote: post #27

I read a lot of comments here wanting to block the connections, but wouldn’t be easier/better to switch to an OS that doesn’t spy you? The answers possibly is no, because they might use X or Y that requires them to use Windows, so a better question is, what holds you back to switch to Linux? (macOS also talks to a lot of servers and collect telemetry as Windows, maybe in a different scale, so isn’t an alternative if…

> I personally prefer Linux, but what’s holding me are the streaming services (netflix, amazon, etc), I can only watch SD content if I’m on Linux, I hadn't noticed. Wife's 43" TV is connected to a linux box with firefox that is used for Amazon Prime, Netflix AND Disney+. I haven't noticed poor picture and assumed it ran at 1096x1080. I will certainly have to check this out.

Back in 2020 I couldn't stream from Amazon at a higher res than 720p from linux (tried every browser), as soon as I dual booted to Windows the quality improved a lot.

Could it be that you are using Plex, Kodi or similar that might allows you to stream at a good quality?

Re: Windows OS, Services and Apps: Network Connection Target Hosts (2021)

#50

Post by skepticalwaves »

moonchrome wrote: post #43
norman784 wrote: post #27

I read a lot of comments here wanting to block the connections, but wouldn’t be easier/better to switch to an OS that doesn’t spy you? The answers possibly is no, because they might use X or Y that requires them to use Windows, so a better question is, what holds you back to switch to Linux? (macOS also talks to a lot of servers and collect telemetry as Windows, maybe in a different scale, so isn’t an alternative if…

I recently considered installing Linux on my desktop workstation. Then I decided I wanted to buy a wireless card for the machine - and any device I saw available locally had dubious issue/debugging threads online, people unable to get it to work, BT functionality missing, etc. I've used Linux desktop in the past and it looks like things haven't changed much. I don't like the idea of having to compile kernel modules j…

You can find and buy Intel AC series wifi cards meant for laptops on PCIe surfboards with external antennas. They're plug and play and fantasfic
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