How far do you go to reduce the chances of picking something up, or being attacked while online?
I spoof my browser, OS version and referrer. Consequently, I get advised my OS isn’t supported.
It has benefits, as well as the odd problem with one or two sites, but do you go to these sort of lengths?
My original response was going to be something like, “I don’t like hats, especial ones made of tin foil” lol.
However, I just applied Opera’s Browser Identification option on one site that claims only Firefox works with it and guess what? It worked ;D
Yep, It’s handy. Try these tests
http://gemal.dk/browserspy/
It may reveal more than you expect! (:WIN)
LOL
I just tried the basic information test and it couldn’t detect my real IE version or my CPU speed, and this isn’t a result of my intention to hide, but inadvertently as result of so many deleted dll and system files in my quest to slim down XP ;D
Ha Ha ! Mine too ! ;D
Variable Setting
appName Netscape
appCodeName Mozilla
appVersion 5.0 (Windows; sv-SE)
appMinorVersion Property not supported or blank!
IE real version Not Internet Explorer or version is undetectable!
UserAgent Googlebot/2.1 (+http://www.googlebot.com/bot.html)
Security Policy Property not supported or blank!
Browser Name Mozilla t
Operating System Windows NT 5.1
Platform Win32 - Windows 32-bit platform
CPU Property not supported or blank!
Online true - The system is in global online mode
Connection Type Property not supported or blank!
Vendor Property not supported or blank!
Language sv-SE
System language Property not supported or blank!
User language Property not supported or blank!
Variable Setting
Windows Media Player installed No or unable to detect…
Windows Media Player UniqueID Player not installed…
Detect via MediaPlayer.MediaPlayer.1 Player not installed or unable to detect…
Detect via WMPlayer.OCX.7 Player not installed or unable to detect…
Detect WMP 6.4 via classID Player not installed or unable to detect…
Detect WMP 7 and 9 via classID Player not installed or unable to detect…
How to spoof OS version to DOS 1.0? ;D
And how to make it think I use 8-bit and not 32-bit? ;D
I’m not surprised it can’t detect my CPU speed, not even Windows can do that.
Cheers,
Ragwing
Easy. Just mask your IP as Ganda’s range.
LOL @ Soya!
How do you do it without masking the IP? 
appName
appCodeName Mozilla
appVersion 0.001 [GTF] (Mac67; X; SK)
appMinorVersion 0.001 [GTF] (Mac67; X; SK)
IE real version Not Internet Explorer or version is undetectable!
UserAgent Enterprise/0.001 [GTF] (Mac67; X; SK)
Security Policy Property not supported or blank!
Browser Name Netscape Navigator s
Operating System Mac
Platform Win32 - Windows 32-bit platform
CPU alpha
Online true - The system is in global online mode
Connection Type Property not supported or blank!
Vendor Property not supported or blank!
(:NRD)
Rolf ! Complete nonsense ! ;D
I don’t like to spoof Opera unless necessary for a site to work, and that leaves me a very bad opinion of that site. The way to go is designing web content according to W3C standards, but many designers code some junk, then work around the dozens of errors so that it display okay in IE and FF, and call it a day. Then they tell you that you can’t enter their sites with your browser of choice unless it’s IE and FF. (It’s true however that most times it will work okay in other browser if you spoof the identification, at least if those developers didn’t indulge too much in their wacko version of dynamic web design.)
If Opera users spoof their browser identification, webmaster’s statistics will tell them that nobody uses Opera, and they will continue the practice of coding non standard junk and work it around for IE and FF.
Same here. I even forgot about this trick until this thread was posted. Grateful for this so I don’t have to install another browser (:HUG)
Well said, Japo. I have a button on a toolbar that cycles between the 3 browsers and very rarely use anything other than Opera for this reason.
Gosh I have just noticed that Opera even offers some neat free web developing tools:
http://help.opera.com/Windows/9.27/en/devtools.html#console
http://dev.opera.com/tools/
http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/introduction-to-opera-dragonfly/
I’m so mad at web designers who don’t get their butts in gear–at least the professional ones, who’re quite a lot. 
The stats are a concern, but I do it to throw any exploits and downloads targetted at specific items in my headers and javascripts.
Good one. (:KWL)
Nope. I do not. I have a hardware router that ranks with the best, and some other tricks. I think im good.
Care to share these tricks ? 
appVersion is now ‘appVersion 5.0 (Windows; Linux; Mac OS X; Solaris; Mandrake)’.
It’s not always good. I’m banned at The Free Dictionary 
Cheers,
Ragwing
Nope I don’t fake any of that stuff, hackers seem to leave me alone, I wonder why 88)
Well first off you don’t want to venture to the darker areas of the internet. Second of all I don’t share too much information about my set up. Third, all of my computers are properly protected, so there aren’t any malware breeches. My hardware ‘security suite’ protects my network at the gateway. There are some other small things that really add up:
I patch, avoid shady places, proxies.
Some others too, but those I wont let out.