Info WGA sends to MS

[kurttrail]

Agreed - somewhat.
The wording makes it incorrect.

And MS can afford to pay the brightest marketing people in the world.
That the wording is incorrect, makes it a deliberate lie. Just like the
PA message that falsey claims that XP's PK has been installed too many
times.

Perspective or not - every website/email server/ISP/etc has some
information that can be used to get back to the user in some fashion
and possibly - identify said user. In some cases - it can be made
more difficult, etc - but if you have an IP address - you can usually
trace it back to some place - and with the right access - trace it all
the way back to the
user.

And as an ISP, MS has more of the right access than most.

--
Peace!
Kurt Kirsch
Self-anointed Moderator
http://microscum.com
"It'll soon shake your Windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'."

 

[Robert Moir]

Vulnerability???? Show me one Linux box that has suffered in anyway
from this "vulnerability". Windoze boxes are crashing constantly due
to vulnerabilities. Linux boxes ... haven't heard of one yet. So, cut
the crap. Trying to makeup things doesn't make it in the real world.

Thought so. You didn't understand the link.

The idea that Ken Thompson would make up things or "talk crap" just shows
you up as the clueless trolling idiot that you are.

I'll give you a free clue shall I? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Thompson

That funny feeling you have right now is egg all over your face. Cya!

 

[Gaoler]

Every time you download Linux, the people supplying it know your IP address.

But the difference is that you are voluntarily going to the site to
download linux, which means that the user is choosing to let them have
their IP, or the user is using an anonymous proxy, etc. It's not the
same as what ms is doing with WGA. What if the user does not want ms to
have their IP? In order to find out what information WGA sends to ms
you need to go to their website, where they get your IP anyway. All
this just to find out what info it sends. What a crock of shite!

Go play with your mac! I'd be surprised if it is anything more than this:

http://www.smorty71.com/2005/11/my-apple-iwipe.html

 

[Leythos]

It's not the
same as what ms is doing with WGA. What if the user does not want ms to
have their IP? In order to find out what information WGA sends to ms
you need to go to their website, where they get your IP anyway. All
this just to find out what info it sends. What a crock of shite!

Sheesh, you had to validate windows to start with, so they know your IP
at that time, you had to have automatic updates enabled or you manually
downloaded them in order to get WGA, so they know your IP every time you
get updates, etc....

You are tracked by your ISP and by web hosting companies by your IP, you
are tracked by your bank and phone company, by your credit card company
that then provide the info to it's sub partners....

If you are really "Paraniod" about WGA, you've lost it completely.

 

[Ghost In the Machine]

The only information collected in the validation
process is:

* Windows product key
* PC manufacturer
* Operating System version
* PID/SID
* BIOS information (make, version, date)
* BIOS MD5 Checksum
* User locale (language setting for displaying Windows)
* System locale (language version of the operating system)
* Office product key (if validating Office)
* Hard drive serial number

That's actually a lot of information. Why does it need information
about my hardware to determine if my copy of Windows is genuine or
not? What does that have to do with it?

It's almost like having to activate Windows every time you start your
computer!

GITM

 

[Leythos]

That's actually a lot of information. Why does it need information
about my hardware to determine if my copy of Windows is genuine or
not? What does that have to do with it?

If you read their site where the explain how WGA works, you would know
that they save this information so that they can tell if your key is
being installed on a bunch of computers in order to invalidate them. So,
if you are the first to validate a key against the hardware specifics,
it would be used to invalidate the same key against some unknown number
of other configurations. At least that's my take on what they describe.
So, it means that your key won't be stolen and used by pirates and then
cause your own key to be invalidated on your hardware.

This happened in the MS Universal products a year ago or so, they found
that a group of MSDN keys were being used all over the place and they
invalidated them without notifying the real key owners - but they re-
issued new keys when asked....

 

[Alias]

If you read their site where the explain how WGA works, you would know
that they save this information so that they can tell if your key is
being installed on a bunch of computers in order to invalidate them. So,
if you are the first to validate a key against the hardware specifics,
it would be used to invalidate the same key against some unknown number
of other configurations. At least that's my take on what they describe.
So, it means that your key won't be stolen and used by pirates and then
cause your own key to be invalidated on your hardware.

This happened in the MS Universal products a year ago or so, they found
that a group of MSDN keys were being used all over the place and they
invalidated them without notifying the real key owners - but they re-
issued new keys when asked....

Again, they should go after the people who steal the keys not force the
customer to play cops and robbers in their game with the crackers. And
what's to say that replacing a failed hard drive or flashing the BIOS
wouldn't trigger a message every time you reboot that you have a
counterfeit copy of XP? Has anyone tried that yet?

Also, what is PID/SID?

Alias

 

[Jeff]

PID=Product id SID=Security ID

Again, they should go after the people who steal the keys not force the
customer to play cops and robbers in their game with the crackers. And
what's to say that replacing a failed hard drive or flashing the BIOS
wouldn't trigger a message every time you reboot that you have a
counterfeit copy of XP? Has anyone tried that yet?

Also, what is PID/SID?

Alias

 

[Alias]

PID=Product id SID=Security ID

Those being unique to the Product Key version of the XP I have running?

Alias

 

[Jeff]

yup

Those being unique to the Product Key version of the XP I have running?

Alias

 

[Leythos]

Computers running the Windows operating system use a Security ID (SID)
to uniquely identify themselves.

MORE INFORMATION
During installation of Windows, a machine SID is computed to contain a
statistically unique 96-bit number. The machine SID is the prefix of the
user account and group account SID'S created on the computer. The
machine SID is concatenated with the Relative ID (RID) of the account to
create the account's unique identifier.

It does not appear to have anything to do with your product key.

 

[Jeff]

ok smarty-sid Does stand for Security id- which I stated.

 

[Leythos]

ok smarty-sid Does stand for Security id- which I stated.

Yes, and I didn't have a problem with that. I've had to change computer
sid's before so I wanted to make sure that it was understood that it's
not based on the key so that it would not become part of another path in
the WGA thread.

If you reinstall Windows XP on the exact same hardware your SID will be
different than the first time you installed it.

 

[Jeff]

yup i know, work with them all the time;along with network protocols osi
;tcip X-25; pvc's svc's etc. blah blah blAH just getting tired; oh; and am
done with wga by the way
Jeff

 

[Ghost In the Machine]

If you read their site where the explain how WGA works, you would know
that they save this information so that they can tell if your key is
being installed on a bunch of computers in order to invalidate them.

Okay, I give up. What's the URL for that site? I've googled it and
also tried searching within Microsoft's web site but can't locate it.
All I can find is a page regarding the information they collect.

GITM

 

[Leythos]

Okay, I give up. What's the URL for that site? I've googled it and
also tried searching within Microsoft's web site but can't locate it.
All I can find is a page regarding the information they collect.

I'm sorry, but all I remember is that it was something to do with the
advantages of installing WGA.

 

[Ghost In the Machine]

I'm sorry, but all I remember is that it was something to do with the
advantages of installing WGA.

Okay, thanks anyway. If I find it, I may just come back here and post
it for others to see.

GITM

 

[NoStop]

If that's the best you can present by idea of rebuttal then you obviously
haven't got anything worth listening to.

Incidentally, if you think that _was_ any kind of rebuttal, you've failed
to understand the article.

I didn't read the article. Why should I waste my time reading an article
that is 11 years old as some kind of proof that access to source code
doesn't allow what I originally said it would allow?

--
The ULTIMATE Windoze Fanboy:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2370205018226686613

View Some Common Linux Desktops ...
http://linclips.crocusplains.com/index.php

 

[kurttrail]

Sheesh, you had to validate windows to start with, so they know your
IP at that time, you had to have automatic updates enabled or you
manually downloaded them in order to get WGA, so they know your IP
every time you get updates, etc....

You are tracked by your ISP and by web hosting companies by your IP,
you are tracked by your bank and phone company, by your credit card
company that then provide the info to it's sub partners....

If you are really "Paraniod" about WGA, you've lost it completely.

I dare to say that the vast majority of Windows Users didn't have to
Validation until long after the purchase of XP. Hell, SP2's EULA
doesn't even mention Validation (WGA).

It wasn't until after the majority of computer users had switched to XP,
that MS inflicted WGA malware on its paying customers.

--
Peace!
Kurt Kirsch
Self-anointed Moderator
http://microscum.com
"It'll soon shake your Windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'."

 

[Leythos]

I dare to say that the vast majority of Windows Users didn't have to
Validation until long after the purchase of XP. Hell, SP2's EULA
doesn't even mention Validation (WGA).

It wasn't until after the majority of computer users had switched to XP,
that MS inflicted WGA malware on its paying customers.

I agree with the above, except the "Malware" part.