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The Mysterious StatCounter Log Proxy Address Entry

We're seeing the occasional evidence of concern, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, from people who spend too much time examining their StatCounter logs.
Why do I see "62.210.181.15:3130", in my StatCounter logs, as a referring site - reported as unknown "pool IP proxy" - and showing full BlogSpot.com and other sites' content?
This sounds scary - but it's not.

"62.210.181.15" is an unregistered proxy server address. It's like me calling myself "nitecruzr".

Google for "free proxy servers", to find such IP addresses listed.
Look for online advertisements (Google is your friend) for proxy servers. You'll see suggestions like "Surf from class, without interference". "62.210.181.15" is probably listed, in one of the suggestions.

"62.210.181.15" is probably some kidz, setting up an old computer, connected to their Mom's Internet service. Some old computers, useless for gaming, can be refurbished - and used as proxy servers. That's a popular activity, for geeks.

Unregistered proxy servers make sense, for various reasons.
By advertising only an IP address, the owners of the proxy can
  • Save money (no name registration, which generally costs money).
  • Prevent name based filtering by the school network admins.
  • It sounds kewl, and attracts more skool kidz.

So, all the kidz in one skool tell each other
Yeah, so what if the admins block FaceBook, just go to "62.210.181.15", and surf from there!

That's all that it is, just people bypassing network security, at the office or school, and surfing. You see the entries in your logs, because they are surfing your blog.

Proxy servers make good tools, when you need to vary your apparent geographical location (for testing). If you're going to use one, just use it for read only surfing.

Only use unregistered proxy servers for insecure, read only surfing.
Internet activity that requires a password and userid (FaceBook, Google+, Twitter) will use SSL - and most free proxy servers do not provide an SSL connection. In no way would I ever use a proxy server, without SSL, and enter anything confidential or secret.

If you use a proxy server for publishing comments on a Blogger blog, for instance, you'll be publishing anonymous comments, because you won't be able to login to Blogger.

The ":3130" changes for every connection, because each number there is used by each different customer of the proxy. Those are outgoing port numbers, on the proxy server.

Get back to work, on your blog.

Comments

decodat said…
mmmm, nice job :)
innocent. not to be concerned when security scans detect strange IP addresses, portals, network shares. just kidz...
Michael Kribbs said…
Re: 62.210.181.15:3130
-
I just saw this today on my Google Stats.
It was less than 24 hours after I posted a video on Sales Call Scams.
-
(Windows Operating Scam - June 17, 2015 - 9:16 am)
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FpVYiLsY78)
-
My stats show only two countries have visited my blogs in the last 24 hours.
-
United States 22
Germany 1
-
I decided to Google 62.210.181.15:3130 and discovered your page.

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