Does plesk have "spyware" it seems to me that they know how many domain you have on a server that they have not logged in before, if they do, hould this not be in their TOS that the server will report to an outside source on its contents.

I am looking through my logs to se how they do this, however when i do find it, IPCHAINS - lockdown :-)

Plesk reads other files like httpd.conf in order to load their domain information. You don't have to enter a domain using plesk to show up on the domain list.

Plesk was calling home back in version 1.3.0, I haven't used it since.

http://www.penguinrack.com/thefaqs.html

The first FAQ.

Yeah, i was aware of this too, but do later verison "call home" 2.0.* 2.5.* etc, if so does anyone know the IP or server used this time?

oh my god, plesk and cpanel call home verify the license key :(


lets all get in the corner and soil ourselfs over it :eek:


thats one of the reasons at least one static ip address is required for cpanel... so basicly im saying, its not spyware, and as long as you arent running a warezed copy, who cares? its simply verifying the key... no different that what microjunk is doing right now on that windows system you might be posting with...

The only problem I see is that it was done without informed consent.

Originally posted by bitserve
The only problem I see is that it was done without informed consent.

So? Windows does this all the time.. vBulletin does it.. And countless other software companies do the same practice.. Its nothing special or new :D

I see no problem with this. They're creating an amazing control panel and giving us upgrades and all they want in return is a verification that you bought it and not warezed it. I don't know why they would like to advertise "Beware: Our countrol panel will send us a few characters a day to make sure you're not using an illegal copy" and give hackers a task to crack that for fun.

Originally posted by The Prohacker
So? Windows does this all the time.. vBulletin does it.. And countless other software companies do the same practice.. Its nothing special or new :D

Microsoft's Windows license agreement allows them to do pretty much anything they want. But what exactly in windows are you referring to? My windows machines don't call home at all.

I've never used vbulletin, but does it's license agreement mention this?

All software that calls home should notify the user that it is being done along with a list of the information that is being collected. If you guys don't think that this is a privacy problem, then here let me give you this program. It's a really fun game. Please make sure you don't have any internal firewall up when you run it please.

Thank you.

I like windows update. When you update, a messages appears:

"Please wait. We are collecting data from your pc so that we can customize a catalog for you. No information is being sent to microsoft" or something like that.

:D

Originally posted by bitserve


Microsoft's Windows license agreement allows them to do pretty much anything they want. But what exactly in windows are you referring to? My windows machines don't call home at all.

Hahahhahaha... A windows box that doesn't call home... Good one....

Ever heard of XP activiation?? Maybe you don't run XP, when 98 first came out, we set it up on a network, and sniffed all outgoing packets on it, just to see if the call home rumors were true...

Low and behold... They were.. The first few packets the box sent out were to MS, and we didn't goto a MS website :D

I haven't looked to deeply at Win2k, but I'm sure its there too...

The only way to stop windows from calling back, is to firewall it in so tight, it won't send any stray packets....

Wait wait... I think I found a windows version that doesn't call back!!!! Windows 3.11 :D

For me the poblem is privacy, if companies are allowed to collect information without consent, this to me is simply put WRONG...

it would be different if all they got was the licence key BUT NO, these guys will even know how many domain names you have on the server and God knows what else, Some dude at Plesk is sitting there going " Business is a quite good at xyzhost.com and hahaha look, abchost is sinking"

The point is, its SPYWARE plain and simple and you guys should not accept it..............

It boils down to Privacy...

I would agree, if it were just to verify a license key, that would be fine, but as history has proven, it is never stops at just license verification

you people right above this post are forgeting something else, unless you buy an unlimited license, you are limited to the amount of domains... so regardless, they have justification for doing it... you need to think about two things...


option 1. they check the keys, keep everything strait, everything is all fine and dandy.
option 2. they dont bother to check keys, someone warez a copy. that copy is distributed. prices go up. plesk goes out of bussiness.


oops, there went plesk. if your so worried about what they get, go start up ethereal on your box and check it out.

I understand that they need to protect their copyright and trademarks in terms of warez, but they need to disclose what they are doing, are they sending passwords, logins etc?

i would very seriously doubt they are sending any information other than whats needed, such as the key...

Originally posted by The Prohacker
Hahahhahaha... A windows box that doesn't call home... Good one....

Could you tell me what I'm missing? I'd like to think that I would have noticed it in my firewall logs after this many years. What exactly in windows is "calling home"? Is it just an application? I swear that my Windows isn't calling (or even trying to call) home, but if you can tell me how do duplicate it, I'll gladly report that you were correct.

I have a couple of boxes with Windows 2000 Pro and one with Windows ME.

I don't run Windows XP, particularly because of it's license agreement and privacy issues. Like I said before though, at least the Windows license agreement includes this type of consent. You're pretty much agreeing to let Microsoft do whatever they want.

You are all free to love spyware, but that doesnt' make it right. If you ever hire a developer to do some work for you, make sure you mention that you don't mind that they put in some hidden feature that sends all of your information out over the Internet, because you're such a big fan of that.

There is a very simple solution to this one.

If you don't like it don't buy it...

see simple :)

Originally posted by DanielP
There is a very simple solution to this one.

If you don't like it don't buy it...

see simple :) Couldn't have said it better.

Agreed. Hopefully us letting everyone know that Plesk does that will let consumers make that decision of whether or not to buy it based on that information.

AS a system admin, you need to know what leaving your network and its not unreasonable to ask that potential buyers be informed that once in a while your server will be in communication with an outside source........we are not saying they need to get into the details of whats happening, but failure to disclose this information to me is in simple english SPYING...