This thread has grown quite considerably since last I posted in it. The reason that you most commonly associate's "Hackers" with viruses, malware, fraud and other general terms of malcontent is that the media is ignorant. They feed off of people's fear of the unknown, in this case what they themselves are not capable of, and group an entire "culture" of people into another, i.e. Hackers into "crackers" (A word most commonly associated with the people that do the above listed "bad things").

very true. The term "hacker" used to be a term for someone who was really good with a computer and could hack the computer code to do with it what He/She pleased. then it was turned into a derogatory term when some kids started using this skill to break into things that they where denied access to. they gave these people the name "cracker" and as stated above the public already new about hackers so they just grouped us all together.

some people have actually used cracking for non harmful reasons. For example, about 10 years ago a man cracked into the CIA Main Server and sent a message to all the computers on the network saying "Im In" He gave them his name and address. they arrested him. when they asked him what his intentions were he said he saw a fault in the security so he exploited it before someone with malicious intent found it. needless to say they hired him and he is now the head of computer security division.

The moral of this story is that not even all crackers are out to get us. it is just like any gift/talent, the way it is used is up to the person that controls it. so just because Hacker/Cracker is considered a bad thing it can be used for good.

Here is a link I think should help in answering your question Raj... link

Hey thanks Maydhyam, although i ll have to go home and check out the link as the site is restricted form my workplace...but i ll definitely have a look at it, cheers

Raj

It is also restricted in my workplace as well...well, Happy Reading...
:):):)I like this description of the topic in our earlier discussion within this thread.....Just came across it and thought I'd share....

*AN ENTHUSIASTIC COMPUTER PROGRAMMER OR USER:

this is the original meaning of the word hacker. A hacker is someone who enjoys learning and exploring computer and network systems, and consequently gains a deep understanding of the subject. such people often go on to become programmers or administrators or system security consultants. Since they spend most of their time pointing out and securing against system security holes, are sometimes referred to as white-hat-hackers.

*A PERSON WHO TRIES TO GAIN UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO A COMPUTER OR TO DATA HOLD ON ONE:

This is the most conventionally understood meaning of the word hacker as propagated in Hollywood films and tabloid newspapers. A lot of people who are quite happy to call themselves hackers by the first definition regard the second group with suspicion, calling them "crackers," as they specialize in "cracking" system security. Such crackers, who spend all their time finding and exploiting system security holes, are often known as black-hat hackers.

Our IT guy is too stupid to block sites like this. he hadn't even blocked myspace or facebook or youtube till i told him it was killing our bandwidth.

LOL

Our IT guy is too stupid to block sites like this. he hadn't even blocked myspace or facebook or youtube till i told him it was killing our bandwidth.

LOL

We are allowed 1 hour per day (10 minute intervals) for the socializing sites (facebook and myspace included) but since facebook got the chat feature, it's totally blocked now :D:D:D

My outlook on the major ISP's warning their customers about not utilizing "hacking" tools is that it's all show. They're doing it to look good to both the general populace and the government. I could be wrong but this is my personal opinion. Some ISP's do actually look for bandwidth spikes and the like, just like some monitor for p2p downloading of illegal content or content that is being downloaded illegally. I don't think it's something they're too serious about yet. I'm going to look for a link to one of my favorite articles, and definitely a reason explaining vista's presence (I know that's a bit offtopic, but believe it is very much relevant.)

The following is the description of a software application for download.....
Network Packet Analyzer CAPSA is an advanced network traffic monitoring, analysis and reporting tool, based on Windows operating systems. It captures and analyzes all traffic transport over both Ethernet and WLAN networks and decodes all major TCP/IP and application protocols. Its advanced application analysis modules allows you to view and log key communication applications such as emails, http traffic, instant messages and DNS querries. The powerful filtering module allows you to focus on the information that you are looking for. The comprehensive reports and graphic views enable you to understand network performance and bandwidth usage quickly, to check network health and identify problems in a few simple steps.
It's amazing how easy it is to obtain these types of applications...

Can you download stuff through a Proxy Server? and if you could, would that make it harder to track?

I would like to think yes, you can download through a Proxy Server (I have been able to download stuff here in the office...and it's through the server), as well as it is definitely easier to track what you are downloading, when you downloaded it, how much bandwidth you used...

Your ISP keeps a list of everything that your IP address downloads.

so no matter how you download it your ISP will keep a record of it. i guess that makes sense. the proxy would only allow you to get to the item you want to download and not really mask anything.

actually you aren't downloading anything. It is streaming online.

That's why whenever you are looking at videos online it has to buffer before playing....the buffering is the download to the temporary folder...