Im very disgruntled with this..

ICBM · 01-26-2007, 01:35 AM

Every website or forum I visit can track me or know who I am from my ip address. It's not that im doing anything wrong, but I don't like the feeling of being noticed or tracked. I was wondering if there is anyway to mask or hide an ip address so that forums or websites can't see them. Thanks!

pip22 · 01-28-2007, 09:02 AM

I believe there is software that can hide your IP address by routing your connection through a proxy but your connection speed takes a big nosedive in the process. I read a test report last year on this one and the connection speed dropped to less than 60% of the norm:
http://www.anonymizer.com/consumer/p...ymous_surfing/

stirling · 01-29-2007, 11:35 AM

what info do you think web sites/forums can gather about you from your IP address?

MattBro · 01-31-2007, 08:13 PM

There is no possible way to hide your IP address from a website. For a webserver to be able to communicate with you it needs your address.

For an anology. If you sent mail in the post to someone, and expected them to reply, you would have to include your address, wouldn't you?

The only possible way to hide your personal IP address is to use a third-party gateway (Such as a proxy server).

crazijoe · 02-01-2007, 05:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MattBro

For an anology. If you sent mail in the post to someone, and expected them to reply, you would have to include your address, wouldn't you?

This is not an exactly true statement. There are a number of ways to "spoof" an email address. This is done a number of times with phishing and spammed emails.
It is true that you would have to use a proxy server, however the logs in a proxy will usually point right back at you.
If you feel that your privacy has be threatened, the only true way to surf anonymously is not to surf at all.

MattBro · 02-01-2007, 05:13 AM

Email is a bit of a different story to an IP address.

Unless I gave the impression I was talking about email when I say "mail", I was actually talking about snail-mail. Sorry if I diden't make this clear.

stirling · 02-01-2007, 05:58 AM

I suspect we may be talking to ourselves here... I think maybe ICBM is long gone - However

My question above is still open. I Don't see how any info other than country and perhaps city (ooh and maybe OS) can be gleaned from an IP. Not exactly personal info. (Discounting law enforcement agencies with a warrent - who even then would have to ask my ISP who was using this IP at this time etc. etc.)

With regard to phishing and spam. Both phishing and spam are an attempt to con me into giving personal details or whatever - neither of them can or do glean any info about me from my IP.

MattBro · 02-01-2007, 06:01 AM

Yeah I fully agree.

crazijoe · 02-01-2007, 06:20 AM

Normally, personal information can be passed legally through rootkits or spyware of the sorts. How can this be possible you ask? Spyware and rootkits are only illegal if they are not disclosed to the user, when being installed. When was the last time anybody read the EULA on a program you have purchased.

The only information that can be passed from IPs is the ISP hosting the address. With that information you can usually narrow it down to the country and most probably the city.

stirling · 02-01-2007, 06:30 AM

rootkits and malware are again complete red herrings to the question. These are more examples of social engineering (i.e. not reading the EULA in the case you give) - this has nothing to do with gleaning personal info from an IP address.

**8210GUY** · 02-01-2007, 06:46 AM

At the end of the day you can never hide who you are, I ran a site where it was spammed by sick porn, they thought they were clever hiding their ip address, or so they thought, the end result is some of them lost their phone lines let alone their isp, I don't know how these things work, I just know no matter what you do you can be found if someone wanted to bad enough, all you can do is make it as awkward as you can, search google for anonymous surfing and the like to see loads of so called solutions, as to which is good or bad I couldn't say, I just know none of them can hide you totally.

crazijoe · 02-01-2007, 06:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stirling

rootkits and malware are again complete red herrings to the question. These are more examples of social engineering (i.e. not reading the EULA in the case you give) - this has nothing to do with gleaning personal info from an IP address.

Perhaps you did not read the post fully.
The only information that can be passed from IPs is the ISP hosting the address. With that information you can usually narrow it down to the country and most probably the city.

stirling · 02-01-2007, 07:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by crazijoe

Perhaps you did not read the post fully.
The only information that can be passed from IPs is the ISP hosting the address. With that information you can usually narrow it down to the country and most probably the city.

Sorry crazijoe - the reason I didn't comment on this was that I'd already said that above. I thought you were agreeing with me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by stirling

I Don't see how any info other than country and perhaps city (ooh and maybe OS) can be gleaned from an IP.

stirling · 02-01-2007, 07:08 AM

Hi 8210GUY

This is exactly my point. This is clearly a case where law enforcement agencies would have been involved. Thats why I made the ONE exception in my post above.

Quote:

Originally Posted by stirling

Discounting law enforcement agencies with a warrent - who even then would have to ask my ISP who was using this IP at this time

**8210GUY** · 02-01-2007, 07:49 AM

Hi, not sure who did it, they never told me, I just remember seeing the offenders taking about it on their site and mentioning what had happened to some of the others, I just made the reports with all the info to all the authority's I could, but it was really funny watching them all running scared once they realised what could be done to them for what they did and panicking about what their parents would do when they got their phone lines ripped out lol.
There is a security site around that actually shows you what details you are giving away with every page you visit, unfortunately I can't find it ATM, but those who try using free services can find they are giving even more info away than they would without it, it's suggested you only get what you pay for, and seems to be one of those times it rings true.

stirling · 02-01-2007, 08:07 AM

8210guy - try this one - http://ip-address.domaintools.com/

**8210GUY** · 02-01-2007, 08:30 AM

Yep thats similar to the one I was thinking of.

MattBro · 02-01-2007, 09:10 AM

Alright, maybe it's time for a little clarification.

An IP address such as "192.168.0.2" is the texual representation of an actual IP address. Each token of the texual form (Ex; "192") is converted to a byte (A byte can have the values 0 - 255). Therefor, this forms a 32-bit value (In big-endian) which is precisely what an IP address is.

A packet (identifyible unit of data) has two important fields, the source address (identifying where the packet came from) and the destination (where the packet is to be sent to).

When you send information to a webserver your IP address is the source, and the webserver's address is the destination. The only way for the webserver to know where the information came from is via the source address, without it, the webserver could not communicate with you. Therefor, no matter what, your IP address must be provided.

As mentioned, an IP address is nothing more than a unique value identifying you. The only person who can identify you any further is those from your ISP, as they manage assigning you the address in the first place, and need to know information about you.

Therefor, the only people with any 'real' information about you is your ISP, and by law they are not allowed to disclose any of it.

stirling · 02-01-2007, 09:46 AM

I'll not comment on this rather pompous explanation of the beginners guide to IP

But..

Quote:

Originally Posted by MattBro

The only person who can identify you any further is those from your ISP, as they manage assigning you the address in the first place, and need to know information about you.

Therefor, the only people with any 'real' information about you is your ISP, and by law they are not allowed to disclose any of it.

Which bit of this havn't I already mentioned?

Oh go on then, I'll make one comment... 4 bytes make a 32 bit value regardless of whether they're treated as big-endian, little-endian or little-red-indian

Oh go on then, here's another... The web site doesn't need to know your IP address, if it did then proxy servers and hardware firewalls couldn't work.

MattBro · 02-01-2007, 09:48 AM

It's just a little bit of insight, as I've heard many whacky stories on what an IP address is.

Yes, using an intermediate such as a proxy is the only exception.

P.S. Networking hardware uses big-endian exclusively.

01-26-2007, 01:35 AM	#1 (permalink)
ICBM Registered User Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 3 OS: Windows XP Media Center SPT 2	Im very disgruntled with this.. Every website or forum I visit can track me or know who I am from my ip address. It's not that im doing anything wrong, but I don't like the feeling of being noticed or tracked. I was wondering if there is anyway to mask or hide an ip address so that forums or websites can't see them. Thanks!

01-29-2007, 11:35 AM	#3 (permalink)
stirling Registered User Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 139 OS: xp	what info do you think web sites/forums can gather about you from your IP address? __________________ Bang head on keyboard to continue...

02-01-2007, 05:58 AM	#7 (permalink)
stirling Registered User Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 139 OS: xp	I suspect we may be talking to ourselves here... I think maybe ICBM is long gone - However My question above is still open. I Don't see how any info other than country and perhaps city (ooh and maybe OS) can be gleaned from an IP. Not exactly personal info. (Discounting law enforcement agencies with a warrent - who even then would have to ask my ISP who was using this IP at this time etc. etc.) With regard to phishing and spam. Both phishing and spam are an attempt to con me into giving personal details or whatever - neither of them can or do glean any info about me from my IP. __________________ Bang head on keyboard to continue...

02-01-2007, 06:20 AM	#9 (permalink)
crazijoe Registered User Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Omaha, The Center of the Universe Posts: 7,632 OS: WinXP, Win2K3 My System	Normally, personal information can be passed legally through rootkits or spyware of the sorts. How can this be possible you ask? Spyware and rootkits are only illegal if they are not disclosed to the user, when being installed. When was the last time anybody read the EULA on a program you have purchased. The only information that can be passed from IPs is the ISP hosting the address. With that information you can usually narrow it down to the country and most probably the city. __________________ Microsoft MCSA + Messaging, MVP, A+, Network+ http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b3...other/Help.jpg Do you want a real Republican? HDD diagnostic tools / HDD data recovery software

02-01-2007, 06:30 AM	#10 (permalink)
stirling Registered User Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 139 OS: xp	rootkits and malware are again complete red herrings to the question. These are more examples of social engineering (i.e. not reading the EULA in the case you give) - this has nothing to do with gleaning personal info from an IP address. __________________ Bang head on keyboard to continue...

01-28-2007, 09:02 AM	#2 (permalink)
pip22 Registered User Join Date: Aug 2004 Posts: 82 OS: XP	I believe there is software that can hide your IP address by routing your connection through a proxy but your connection speed takes a big nosedive in the process. I read a test report last year on this one and the connection speed dropped to less than 60% of the norm: http://www.anonymizer.com/consumer/p...ymous_surfing/

01-31-2007, 08:13 PM	#4 (permalink)
MattBro Registered User Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Sydney, Australia Posts: 207 OS: WinXP-Home	There is no possible way to hide your IP address from a website. For a webserver to be able to communicate with you it needs your address. For an anology. If you sent mail in the post to someone, and expected them to reply, you would have to include your address, wouldn't you? The only possible way to hide your personal IP address is to use a third-party gateway (Such as a proxy server).

02-01-2007, 05:13 AM	#6 (permalink)
MattBro Registered User Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Sydney, Australia Posts: 207 OS: WinXP-Home	Email is a bit of a different story to an IP address. Unless I gave the impression I was talking about email when I say "mail", I was actually talking about snail-mail. Sorry if I diden't make this clear.

02-01-2007, 06:01 AM	#8 (permalink)
MattBro Registered User Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Sydney, Australia Posts: 207 OS: WinXP-Home	Yeah I fully agree.

02-01-2007, 06:46 AM	#11 (permalink)
8210GUY TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 1,558 OS: xp Pro	At the end of the day you can never hide who you are, I ran a site where it was spammed by sick porn, they thought they were clever hiding their ip address, or so they thought, the end result is some of them lost their phone lines let alone their isp, I don't know how these things work, I just know no matter what you do you can be found if someone wanted to bad enough, all you can do is make it as awkward as you can, search google for anonymous surfing and the like to see loads of so called solutions, as to which is good or bad I couldn't say, I just know none of them can hide you totally.

02-01-2007, 07:49 AM	#15 (permalink)
8210GUY TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 1,558 OS: xp Pro	Hi, not sure who did it, they never told me, I just remember seeing the offenders taking about it on their site and mentioning what had happened to some of the others, I just made the reports with all the info to all the authority's I could, but it was really funny watching them all running scared once they realised what could be done to them for what they did and panicking about what their parents would do when they got their phone lines ripped out lol. There is a security site around that actually shows you what details you are giving away with every page you visit, unfortunately I can't find it ATM, but those who try using free services can find they are giving even more info away than they would without it, it's suggested you only get what you pay for, and seems to be one of those times it rings true.

02-01-2007, 08:07 AM	#16 (permalink)
stirling Registered User Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 139 OS: xp	8210guy - try this one - http://ip-address.domaintools.com/ __________________ Bang head on keyboard to continue...

02-01-2007, 08:30 AM	#17 (permalink)
8210GUY TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 1,558 OS: xp Pro	Yep thats similar to the one I was thinking of.

02-01-2007, 09:10 AM	#18 (permalink)
MattBro Registered User Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Sydney, Australia Posts: 207 OS: WinXP-Home	Alright, maybe it's time for a little clarification. An IP address such as "192.168.0.2" is the texual representation of an actual IP address. Each token of the texual form (Ex; "192") is converted to a byte (A byte can have the values 0 - 255). Therefor, this forms a 32-bit value (In big-endian) which is precisely what an IP address is. A packet (identifyible unit of data) has two important fields, the source address (identifying where the packet came from) and the destination (where the packet is to be sent to). When you send information to a webserver your IP address is the source, and the webserver's address is the destination. The only way for the webserver to know where the information came from is via the source address, without it, the webserver could not communicate with you. Therefor, no matter what, your IP address must be provided. As mentioned, an IP address is nothing more than a unique value identifying you. The only person who can identify you any further is those from your ISP, as they manage assigning you the address in the first place, and need to know information about you. Therefor, the only people with any 'real' information about you is your ISP, and by law they are not allowed to disclose any of it.

02-01-2007, 09:48 AM	#20 (permalink)
MattBro Registered User Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Sydney, Australia Posts: 207 OS: WinXP-Home	It's just a little bit of insight, as I've heard many whacky stories on what an IP address is. Yes, using an intermediate such as a proxy is the only exception. P.S. Networking hardware uses big-endian exclusively.