My server has been getting visits from this particular server cluster. I wanted to identify where the visits were originating from, so I did a tracerout to see. This is the result. What should I make of this particular tidbit?

3    130.152.180.21   6.304 ms   DNS error [AS226] Los Nettos origin AS
4    4.24.4.249       9.351 ms   gigabitethernet5-0.lsanca1-cr3.bbnplanet.net [AS1] GTE Internetworking
5    4.24.4.2         9.883 ms   p6-0.lsanca1-cr6.bbnplanet.net [AS1] GTE Internetworking
6    4.24.5.49        9.609 ms   p6-0.lsanca2-br1.bbnplanet.net [AS1] GTE Internetworking
7    4.24.5.46        8.781 ms   p15-0.lsanca2-br2.bbnplanet.net [AS1] GTE Internetworking
8    4.25.111.1       9.915 ms   p1-0.lsanca2-cr1.bbnplanet.net [AS1] GTE Internetworking
9    4.0.6.206        14.652 ms  p5-3.xlsanca2-sprint.bbnplanet.net [AS1] GTE Internetworking
10    144.232.20.101   16.182 ms  sl-bb24-sj-10-0.sprintlink.net [AS1790/AS1239] SprintLink Washington D.C. / SprintLink Backbone
11    144.232.20.22    187.686 ms sl-bb21-rly-14-1.sprintlink.net [AS1790/AS1239] SprintLink Washington D.C. / SprintLink Backbone
12    144.232.14.70    74.136 ms  sl-gw21-rly-10-0.sprintlink.net [AS1790/AS1239] SprintLink Washington D.C. / SprintLink Backbone
13    144.232.190.78   79.305 ms  sl-uscourt-7-0.sprintlink.net [AS1790/AS1239] SprintLink Washington D.C. / SprintLink Backbone
14 *

This is where it times out.

The destination IP address came from my server logs. What I am doing to get this data is sending is a trace to this particular IP address to see where it originates. Lo and behold, it is coming from a DC server cluster through a Sprint IP address block.

Now why would someone from on a US Court subnet (read that... Justice Department or Feds?) be visiting my web server?

Vewy vewy vewy intewesting.....

Bendover, what have you been doing lately?  Anything illegal? [:D]

This is a normal part of the award ceremony in their "Free Trip to Guantanamo Bay" sweepstakes.

I don't do anything except write software and host a community website for my small home town in Preble County Ohio.

Maybe you should make a tinfoil hat for your server [BD]

its not a tinfoil hat kind of server... that's why I am so curious as to what the nature of it really is

The jack booted computer thugs are sniffing you out. Time to make an example to these right wing extremeist message boards.

Imagine that instead of being a well-known and vocal terrorist who will be hunted down, you are instead just some quiet harmless dude who works in an office and is not on anybody's radar. All guns were private sales, you have no gun mags going to your house, or catalogs for that matter. Everything you bought was in cash. No NRA stickers on anything and in the last election nobody knows who you voted for and you didn't even have a yard sign. By all observance, you're just another lawnmower-pushing sleepwalking sheep.

Your "uniform" is your business suit and your "tactical gear" is your briefcase. Nothing goes "bang" because of the can and the subsonic ammo. So when you meet the "right" target in the men's room, nobody knows about it. You look so average that nobody marks you. You don't even have any excessive head or body hairs that can be left behind at the scene and be used for evidence. All your clothes are generic store-bought and purchased with cash in small stores that lack video cameras.

Maybe you are a doctor or lawyer, a garbage man, or a computer programmer. Maybe a cop. Nobody knows.

This does not sound like terrorism, does it? Sounds more like espionage.

That is the point.

If they come for you, you cannot go home and you will need those caches and field gear. But if you are not on the radar, and can pass yourself off as "the sheeple's sheep", you are in deep cover.

Keep an eye on your phone records too.

hoooo kay. maybe we should switch names? been reading unintended consequences? It might be good to have few guys on our side in that position when voting stops working.

Maybe one of the county commissioners got pissed off at some of the political gabbing on the site and called an attorney??

The constituants are pretty rough, but it's all based upon public record and public information.

That's the only thing I can come up with.

Or maybe they want to recruit me for my amazing super powers of crypto and security analysis.

My dissertation was based on something I read at assault-web.

Well, it's been fun reading your posts Ben.....
......don't drop the soap!
[:D]

Are the feds after you for an illegal machine gun?

only the one they would be forced to plant as evidence because I dont have any illegal "machine guns"

I've got it:

[url]http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20020621/4213628s.htm[/url]





Seriously though, if you have a web server, maybe it was just some fed drone who happened to brows to your website instead of working like our tax dollars pay him to do.

"Testing, testing, 1...2...3.... Uhm yes, we were wondering if you'd be interested in an all expense paid Membership to Club Fed."

JESUS CHRIST! I hope they're not on to us, BenDover! I could'a swore those bodies were buried deep enough. Oh man, and the drugs and explosives! What are we going to do now? I aint doing no time for you bro! I'll spill if they ask me. I sure hope nobody is watching this board.

LOL Man I wouldn't want to be you right now.

Really?  I think a better paper would be on the writings of Makaveli.  I've even got a title for you.  How does this sound?  [b]The Semiotics of Shakur: Deconstruction of a Thug's Life[/b]

What's the IP?

208.27.111.4

Here's what I get.

US Courts (NETBLK-SPRINT-D01B6E)
  1 Columbus Circle, NE
  Washington, DC 20544
  US

  Netname: SPRINT-D01B6E
  Netblock: 208.27.110.0 - 208.27.111.255

  Coordinator:
     Master, Host  (HM457-ARIN)  [email protected]
     (202)502-4527

  Record last updated on 22-May-2002.
  Database last updated on  22-Jun-2002 19:58:42 EDT.

I'm not sure why you'd be getting visits from them, but I wouldn't worry about it.  People at government offices are just as notorious for goofing off on the internet as us normal folks.  A few years ago I had hits coming from various .gov sites and I haven't been arrested yet.  I just figure it was someone who was bored who happened along the site I had up at the time.

Remember the Alamo, and God Bless Texas...

Of course it could fuel the most wild and fantastic tinfoil imaginations, but I am still sitting here on Sunday morning having coffee and bullshitting on AR15.

In all of my years as a programmer with many many websites, I have never had a server log entry from the US Court network in DC. I am not overly worried about it. I just found it to be strange and interesting. Especially because of the times in which we live.