Re: TCP port 7 traffic from DoubleClick

[David Lang <dlang () diginsite com>]

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they do not have to do the probe for every connection , they do it
no more frequently then every X sec (usually 600) so it may slow down the
first probe from an ISP, but others will possibly be faster.

David Lang

 On Mon, 5 Jul 1999, C. Harald Koch wrote:

> Date: Mon, 05 Jul 1999 21:55:53 -0400
> From: C. Harald Koch <chk () pobox com>
> To: Chris Brenton <cbrenton () sover net>
> Cc: Greg Nowicki <greg () mikon com>, firewall-wizards () nfr net
> Subject: Re: TCP port 7 traffic from DoubleClick 
>
> In message <3781256D.1D291D53 () sover net>, Chris Brenton writes:
> > The "claim" is that this is being done in order to serve you up data
> > from the closest Web server to your location, but I've seen a number of
> > concerns that this may be yet another attempt by DoubleClick to gain as
> > much information on Web surfers as possible. 
>
> IMHO, the claim is misguided (at best). They claim two things:
>
> 1) They're doing load balancing on their servers. There are better ways...
> 2) They're serving ad images from the closest server. There's no reason to
>    attempt to do this, however: 
>    - The RTT on the echo connection swamps the image download time, and
>    - The RTT on the TCP handshake swamps the  mage download time
>    - Some/Many/Most people have TCP echo turned off, so no useful data can be
>      collected.
>
> In other words, I don't think they can accomplish what they claim to be
> attempting. OTOH, never ascribe to malice what can adequately be explained by
> stupidity...
>
> > Speaking of which, has anyone noticed what Altavista has been up to
> > these days?
>
> Speaking of which, I saw these in my outbound logs a few days back:
>
> my.host.com -> stats.hitbox.com:12343
>
> I haven't tracked down the specific source yet, but it's probably either a URL
> or a JavaScript that is logging hit-counts for a page. The question is, as
> always, what else is it logging? :-)
>
> -- 
> C. Harald Koch     <chk () pobox com>
>
> "It takes a child to raze a village."
>               -Michael T. Fry

"If users are made to understand that the system administrator's job is to
make computers run, and not to make them happy, they can, in fact, be made
happy most of the time. If users are allowed to believe that the system
administrator's job is to make them happy, they can, in fact, never be made
happy." 
- -Paul Evans (as quoted by Barb Dijker in "Managing Support Staff", LISA '97)

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