Welcome to ShieldsUP!

If you have not visited for some time, please note that:



If you are new to this site and our services:

Please take just a moment to read and consider these three points:

Your use of the Internet security vulnerability profiling services on this site constitutes your FORMAL PERMISSION for us to conduct these tests and requests our transmission of Internet packets to your computer. ShieldsUP!! benignly probes the target computer at your location. Since these probings must travel from our server to your computer, you should be certain to have administrative right-of-way to conduct probative protocol tests through any and all equipment located between your computer and the Internet.

NO INFORMATION gained from your use of these services will be retained, viewed or used by us or anyone else in any way for any purpose whatsoever.

If you are using a personal firewall product which LOGS contacts by other systems, you should expect to see entries from this site's probing IP addresses: 4.79.142.192 -thru- 4.79.142.207. Since we own this IP range, these packets will be from us and will NOT BE ANY FORM OF MALICIOUS INTRUSION ATTEMPT OR ATTACK on your computer. You can use the report of their arrival as handy confirmation that your intrusion logging systems are operating correctly, but please do not be concerned with their appearance in your firewall logs. It's expected.

The text below might uniquely
identify you on the Internet

Your Internet connection's IP address is uniquely associated with the following "machine name":

18-97-14-88.crawl.commoncrawl.org

The string of text above is known as your Internet connection's "reverse DNS." The end of the string is probably a domain name related to your ISP. This will be common to all customers of this ISP. But the beginning of the string uniquely identifies your Internet connection. The question is: Is the beginning of the string an "account ID" that is uniquely and permanently tied to you, or is it merely related to your current public IP address and thus subject to change?

The concern is that any web site can easily retrieve this unique "machine name" (just as we have) whenever you visit. It may be used to uniquely identify you on the Internet. In that way it's like a "supercookie" over which you have no control. You can not disable, delete, or change it. Due to the rapid erosion of online privacy, and the diminishing respect for the sanctity of the user, we wanted to make you aware of this possibility. Note also that reverse DNS may disclose your geographic location.

If the machine name shown above is only a version of the IP address, then there is less cause for concern because the name will change as, when, and if your Internet IP changes. But if the machine name is a fixed account ID assigned by your ISP, as is often the case, then it will follow you and not change when your IP address does change. It can be used to persistently identify you as long as you use this ISP.

There is no standard governing the format of these machine names, so this is not something we can automatically determine for you. If several of the numbers from your current IP address (18.97.14.88) appear in the machine name, then it is likely that the name is only related to the IP address and not to you. But you may wish to make a note of the machine name shown above and check back from time to time to see whether the name follows any changes to your IP address, or whether it, instead, follows you.

Just something to keep in mind as you wander the Internet.



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