I normally don't shitpost, but just look at this...
from emotional_soup_88@programming.dev to privacy@lemmy.ml on 04 Jan 14:46
https://programming.dev/post/43468607

These are ALL the listening ports and live connections on a freshly installed Linux system, this being DietPi. I dare you to do a tcpdump or netstat or whatever on a fresh Windows installation.

The ssh connection I actively chose to enable and the dhclient is a must have for hosts to dynamically get an IP address allotted, unless you set yours statically.

If you are struggling with privacy invading connections on your Windows system but don’t feel like you can or want to switch to Linux, may I suggest safing.io/download/

#privacy

threaded - newest

Telorand@reddthat.com on 04 Jan 17:16 next collapse

I like the idea of Portmaster, but it didn’t work with dynamically assigned VPN IPs when I used it a couple years ago. It’s also not easy to temporarily switch off; iirc, I had to uninstall everything to get my VPN to work again.

Unless they’ve figured out how to fix that issue, it’s a caveat anyone with a VPN should know about.

emotional_soup_88@programming.dev on 04 Jan 18:02 collapse

Yeah it had some rough edges, which made me stop using it when I was still on Windows.

Telorand@reddthat.com on 04 Jan 21:48 collapse

It’s probably still a good option if you don’t have a VPN, though.

…or they should just move to Linux, kill two birds and all that.

emotional_soup_88@programming.dev on 04 Jan 22:02 collapse

Penguins are birds too 🥹

etherphon@midwest.social on 04 Jan 19:22 collapse

I’ll check it out, one of the reasons I switched was I was so sick of Microsoft AntiMalware asking for new firewall permissions every other day, plus random svchost calls I have no idea about.