User:Big universe/notes

Technical problems, 9/28/18
I'm leaving this info here in case I'm locked out of my account.

I suspect that somebody tried to hack my computer/account tonight while I was using wifi at a restaurant. Long story short, have been trying to shake off a creepy stalker, and for almost 2 months, have been going out on weekend evenings by myself to prove that I'm not with him. It's a weird story, and there's obviously more to it, but the point is that my account may have been compromised as a result of using public wifi. That is, while editing WP tonight using the wifi at the restaurant I was at, started having problems that were such that I knew my computer was being messed with (took ~10 min. or so to figure it out).

I left once I realized my laptop was no longer secure; but while I was leaving, noticed someone there who had recently arrived, who was also on a laptop. Could be just a coincidence, though. But I'd been going there every week, same time, and never had problems before; and though ppl bring smartphones, nobody (but me) brings a laptop. Also, his laptop was directly in line of sight with where my laptop had been...

In any case, had taken additional steps to secure my connection (it's public wifi, after all). But obviously something got onto my computer anyway (though again, it may not have been because of laptop guy). So...just to be safe, have changed my password.

But there were oddities when changing the PW, so I've just created an alternate account, LavenderRose33, in case I somehow get locked out anyway, and also to maybe use when using public wifi. I put a disclaimer on that account linking it to this one. I've also done some extra security stuff. My account may be fine, so this may be all for nothing; but I'd been meaning to up my security anyway, which I've now done--so that's definitely a plus.

10/13/18
Edited WP on restaurant wifi tonite with this account (same place as before, actually). Started having similar prob's (lost WP connection, computer refused to reconnect to WP or ANY site). Laptop guy wasn't there yesterday or tonite, but now that I think of it, there was an anomaly that could be related. Computer is fine though, didn't act up like before--though did see the same evidence of tampering. Thought I had closed a "hole" but because it wasn't completely closed, was able to verify what was done and how (without taking damage to the laptop). Will check whether anyone else knows about this problem. Also, there was one fairly major problem (security vulnerability) that had just started showing up recently, that I was in the process of fixing--figured I'd surf tonight and finish later. Should've edited with my alt account instead, like yesterday. Hopefully my account wasn't compromised, and I was able to log in fine once I got home. But am still somewhat concerned...

10/19/18
Edited on my alt account tonight on wifi; there was about a stretch of an hour where there were some difficulties. Kept getting kicked off WP again, but finally fixed the problem and was able to reconnect. (Ha!) Had completely reconfigured everything, but realized at the beginning of the night that I had forgotten a few things, so had to install and adjust on the fly. This may have been the source of the problems I experienced later.

Overall, though, the system was robust. Observed and repelled a few intrusion attempts, and would like to say I am victorious (yay!). However I must remain cautious, and am still in the process of finalizing the configuration. Have learned a lot, though, which has helped me to really beef up my systems and overall security.

Weird edit, 10/31/18
Pretty creeped out by something that just happened to an edit I submitted a little while ago. Had rescued and added 2 references that InternetArchiveBot was not able to recover (well, the bot replaced the dead links, but the replacements weren't correct - not the bot's fault, though).

I just so happened to check the diff for that edit after it was submitted, and found 3 other edits which I had NOT made. Hadn't even touched those sections: I only added the two ref's for the year-end charts for 2 countries, New Zealand and Sweden (and those entries are right next to each other). So I was specifically ONLY working in the year-end chart section for the song.

What's even worse is that all 3 "additional" edits were errors! In two of them, the period at the end of a full sentence was deleted. In the 3rd, a pipe was removed from one of the parameters of a reference in the weekly chart, messing up the ref.

And it wasn't just one error - but 3 - so it wasn't like I accidentally hit the wrong key on my keyboard. Or if I did, it was 3 times, not just once--and in 3 totally different places. Uh-huh. And I would've noticed that. And they weren't edits I would've made, because they were errors, not corrections. And very obvious errors, too.

Corrected the errors. Will have to check edits even more carefully now, though it would be really nice to be able to see a diff BEFORE the edit is submitted rather than just after. That would specifically show ALL locations where any changes were made. Currently, before the edit is submitted, one checks the location in the article where the edit was made--but minor edits like the ones above would be nearly impossible to spot. But if the edit could be checked with a diff prior to submitting it, then even tiny edits would be very obvious.

But, am super creeped out. Though possible, it's not likely to be a glitch in the system, so it would have to be something from my end. Was thinking that I hadn't left my desk the entire time I was working on the edit. But actually, took a break to check out some handwashing stuff that was soaking in detergent. And before I submitted the edit, I checked the areas I had edited (i.e. NZ and Sweden chart info) but nowhere else - because I hadn't made any edits anywhere else.

Technically, anyone with physical access to the computer could've made some edits, but AFAIK there is nobody here but me. I don't celebrate Halloween (had actually forgotten it was today), so nobody's here--at least I haven't invited anyone here. I HOPE nobody else is here. But it's even creepier that this happened on Halloween of all nights. I did hear some scraping noises at the door awhile earlier tonight, and there are no trees or tree branches near the door...

It's probably nothing, or at least, there must be some acceptable explanation; but...guess I won't be going to sleep tonight.

Possible explanation for weird edit, 10/31/18
Ok, so when looking at my watchlist, checked out a new edit on the same song that the "weird edit" happened on.

Note that this person's edit was made ten minutes before mine. Theirs was at 1:18, and mine was at 1:28, both on 1 Nov 2018.

The weirdest thing is, that the 3 edits this other editor "fixed" - were the exact same edits that were "undone" in my edit. In other words, they had added a period to the two sentences that were missing one, and they also added the pipe to the reference in the weekly charts section. And those were the only edits they made. So their edits were basically the reverse of what showed up in my edit - as if for some reason the system itself reverted them, but added the reverts to my edit.

In other words, it looks like this other editor corrected what were obviously 3 errors at 1:18. Then, when I submitted my edit ten minutes later at 1:28, somehow the system reverted this person's corrections, re-creating the 3 errors and then piggybacking them onto my edit. Nice. No idea how this might be possible, but it's just too much of a coincidence.

So maybe it was a system glitch after all.

And maybe I can get some sleep tonight, too. :)

Editing problems 1/2/19 and 1/3/19
Ongoing computer and login problems yesterday and today. Spotty internet? *sigh*


 * 1/4: Still having problems :(
 * 1/6: So I think I finally fixed the problem, no more login weirdness. Will wait and see.
 * 3/9: Hacked again, and in the same restaurant I'd been having problems in before. Was able to log in here once I got home, but wanted to note this in case I get locked out.

VPN and rangeblocks
Spent all evening trying to connect via VPN, but found that all the addresses I tried (and I tried a lot of them) are now blocked via rangeblock. Previously was able to connect fine (tunneling when using wifi to protect my login credentials for email, WP, etc.), but the blocks appear to have been placed recently.

Unfortunately, the VPN provider assigns IP addresses randomly, otherwise I'd choose one and then ask for the block for that IP to be lifted. Wanted a dedicated IP, but my preferred provider doesn't offer it. So may have to look into other options. *Sigh* At least I was finally able to get up my driveway alright when I came home tonight. (It warmed up enough yesterday to melt the snow quite a bit, but the relatively hard freeze overnight left a thick layer of ice over everything. Including my driveway. Fun, fun.)

Also note that the rangeblocks were placed due to suspicion of being open proxies. Realized my VPN provider also provides proxy service, which would be why these ranges were tagged as open proxies. Good thing I didn't get a year's subscription...

3/2019 Update : Apparently people are supposed to request an IP block exemption, which allows one to edit through (hard) IP blocks when logged in. This is a whole lot better than trying to get approval for a specific IP. Requested and received the exemption for 1 year; will need to renew in March 2020 if still needed. Almost didn't request it, but am now very glad I did! :)