From NeuMon

Contents 1 How the probe works in details 2 FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions 2.1 Can I contribute to the project enabling a probe? Doesn't it require a registration or an invitation? 2.2 What is the option "Mode: Public List?" 2.3 The probe contacts sites blocked by ISPs. Do I risk to be traced or prosecuted? 2.4 Minimum hardware / software 2.5 How do I enable it? 2.6 Does it need a lot of resources? 2.7 My antivirus detects a virus in the probe! 2.8 Is the software probe open-source? 3 Screenshot

How the probe works in details

The probe, periodically (adjustable):

• Contacts the server to know which test to perform (for example, "www.thepiratebay.org").
• Checks if the resolution coincides with the domain server
• Checks if it can contact the domain, downloads the home page, solving the domain name locally
• Checks if it can contact the domain, downloads the home page, bypassing the provider's DNS (ie, it contacts directly in accordance with the resolution provided by our server).
• Sends test results to the server

This means that people installing the probe will contact the sites which are required by the server.

Furthermore, the results collected by the probes include the IP address of the probes and address of the used DNS server.

Please note that IP address of the probes will not be published. Only the nick of the probe (optional), ISP and DNS servers will be published.

FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

Can I contribute to the project enabling a probe? Doesn't it require a registration or an invitation?

At the moment, especially during this beta test, we accept any probe.

We may change this, depending on likely attack to invalidate the collected data, in order to ensure higher reliability in the results.

What is the option "Mode: Public List?"

With this mode, which is enabled by default, only addresses of the public list will be tested.

Only trusted members of the board are allowed to run the probe on all the lists of service (Private List) or to run reference probes (Reference), in order to avoid that anyone has the opportunity to create "yellow pages" of illegal sites.

The probe contacts sites blocked by ISPs. Do I risk to be traced or prosecuted?

We do not believe that this can happen. If this happens, you can demonstrate that you have not visited those Web sites directly, but rather only our probe contacted them.

Moreover, the public list contains no addresses which deal with child pornography.

Only private listings (not enabled by default) contain addresses with any type of contents (including child abuse).

Minimum hardware / software

The probe is currently available for native Windows (XP or higher), and it works perfectly on other operating systems such as Linux through Wine.

It's a direct, portable, single executable file.

How do I enable it?

Run the program, specify a name for the probe (made public in reports), select how often to perform tests, and finally click "Start".

Does it need a lot of resources?

No, the probe only downloads the requested pages from the server.

It does not even download images or other resources, so each request is a matter of a few KB.

It uses very little CPU, only during the test, and is active as a background process which does not slow down the normal operations on the computer.

Also, you can configure the probe to perform tests only at night, from 4 to 8.

My antivirus detects a virus in the probe!

Technically it is because some websites (usually only those in the private list) return data containing scripts / exploits for web browsers, to inject a virus.

Antivirus warning IS ALWAYS a false-positive: the probe neither receives the code nor displays it in any browser.

Is the software probe open-source?

Yes, the probe is released under GPL and hosted on SourceForge.

Screenshot