Website Tracking.

[jimmy101]

or, you can just have your computer continuously change its IP address... My friend's uncle's computer changes its IP 5 times a minute. There is no way to track that...

You can't change the web address of a permananent site.

How would any other computer on the internet find your web site if it's address changed every few minutes?

[PCGUY]

Looks like we all need a bit of learning!

First off, if spud cannons are illegal to possess in your country (or state or whatever you may have), and selling them is also illegal, then just don't do it! If you run a website, the owners name/address/phone number is all kept on record. All of that information is required anytime you run a website.

Can an IP be tracked? YES! No matter what you do, something can be traced back to you. Your best prevention is to route traffic through various proxy servers. Yes proxy servers are SUPPOSED to keep logs of everything that happens, but in many foreign countries no info is kept, or it's too big of a hassle to obtain the info.

Example, you are in the USA and you download something going through a proxy server in China. Lets say it's real bad, typical file sharing won't cause this but say your a huge child porn fanatic.

The US would have to figure out where that proxy server is located in China, then convince China to order the host of the proxy server to turn over information to the US (if there is any that is). There is more involved, but lets just say it's a huge political/world police type of issue that is usually way more trouble than it's worth (aside from special occasions).

Problem with proxies is that they are often slow/unreliable/and unsafe if your trying to transmit any sensitive information across one.

Lentamentalisk, if your friends uncle is just wasting his time. Your ISP knows what IP you have, when you have it, period. Even if you request a change (which I am for sure they won't change it that often, maybe every few days at MOST.. he probably receives the same IP nearly every time), they still have a log of what IP you had and when.

This is how the RIAA/MPAA/other evils get you. They see an IP on say Bittorrent (they usually target the largest uploaders since they are "doing the most damage") then they lookup the IP to see what ISP it is coming from. If your behind a proxy server, they will get the proxy servers IP address instead (this is how a proxy can be handy). If your IP is there however, a few legal papers and drawn up, then a subpoena gets sent to your ISP for your information. Your ISP has no choice but to give you up. At this time either A, your ISP will just ask you to stop or B, they will turn over your information and the RIAA/MPAA will ask you to either stop or they will straight up sue you. Depends exactly what ya did/how crabby someone is that day.

One more issue, probably the most important one here. Redcoat please read the rules, you can not advertise other stores here! So please do not add anything to your signature suggesting for people to email you to build them things. You can do custom stuff if you wish, as long as BCArms does not provide it, and it is not a full cannon, then you should be OK. If you do this, then please make a post in the Classifieds for it.

[Gepard]

or, you can just have your computer continuously change its IP address... My friend's uncle's computer changes its IP 5 times a minute. There is no way to track that...

You can't change the web address of a permananent site.

How would any other computer on the internet find your web site if it's address changed every few minutes?

You can, everytime you type in a URL it looks up the associated IP address for that webnsite. The idea is that everytime you get a new IP address your computer tells a server and the server updates it's records.

In theory, depending on your ISP you can get a new IP everytime you connect so all you have to do is disconnect.....

But as PCGuy says the ISP keeps a record so it's fairly pointless.

[Redcoat]

THanks PCGUY. Hat answered all of my questions.

ANd thanks for everyone else's posts

[HaiThar]

I would also like to point out, that though you may have a dynamic(or changing) IP address, your provider WILL keep records of who was using which one of their IPs and when. This means, that if the government or the person prosecuting you, goes to your ISP and gives them the IP address and times, they can give them your name, address, location, ect. If your IP is static(never changes) it's obviously trackable.


If you go through a proxy such as TOR(The Onion Router) it is VERY possible to make it VERY difficult to find you, but they CAN trace the source if they really want to. Another thing to point out is many proxys are UNSAFE and the information isn't transferred securely.

[jimmy101]

or, you can just have your computer continuously change its IP address... My friend's uncle's computer changes its IP 5 times a minute. There is no way to track that...

You can't change the web address of a permananent site.

How would any other computer on the internet find your web site if it's address changed every few minutes?

You can, everytime you type in a URL it looks up the associated IP address for that webnsite. The idea is that everytime you get a new IP address your computer tells a server and the server updates it's records.

In theory, depending on your ISP you can get a new IP everytime you connect so all you have to do is disconnect.....

But as PCGuy says the ISP keeps a record so it's fairly pointless.

Nope, that is not correct. If you are hosting a web site you cannot change the IP address dynamically. In order to change the IP that is associated with a particular domain name the change has to be communicated to all the name servers in the world. This typically takes a day or so to happen. The people that maintain the name servers will not be happy about a domain requesting a new IP address on a daily basis.

Individual web surfers can, and frequently do, get a new IP address assigned to their machine every time they connect to the internet. In most cases, the IP address is the physical address of some piece of hardware downstream of their computer (usually owned by their ISP). It is that downstream hardware that temporarely assigns the IP to the users machine. Nobody else in the world really knows what IP is assigned to a web surfers machine. Like PCguy said, it is possible that law enformecement could trace a particular web transaction back to a particular user via the ISP's records.

An individual web surfer cannot host a web site.

[silverdooty]

Nope, that is not correct. If you are hosting a web site you cannot change the IP address dynamically. In order to change the IP that is associated with a particular domain name the change has to be communicated to all the name servers in the world. This typically takes a day or so to happen. The people that maintain the name servers will not be happy about a domain requesting a new IP address on a daily basis.

Individual web surfers can, and frequently do, get a new IP address assigned to their machine every time they connect to the internet. In most cases, the IP address is the physical address of some piece of hardware downstream of their computer (usually owned by their ISP). It is that downstream hardware that temporarely assigns the IP to the users machine. Nobody else in the world really knows what IP is assigned to a web surfers machine. Like PCguy said, it is possible that law enformecement could trace a particular web transaction back to a particular user via the ISP's records.

An individual web surfer cannot host a web site.

any web surfer can host a website. the server software is not any different from what the rest of the web is running. static IPs are easier but not required. with a dynamic IP you can use services like dyndns.com and little programs/script that update your info each time you log on to the net. these services have been around for quite some time.

[jimmy101]

any web surfer can host a website. the server software is not any different from what the rest of the web is running. static IPs are easier but not required. with a dynamic IP you can use services like dyndns.com and little programs/script that update your info each time you log on to the net. these services have been around for quite some time.

Yes and no. Services like dyndns really don't provide true dynamic domain names. The provide dns forwarding which is not the same thing. My understanding is that you get a name (and IP address) that the dynamic name service owns, their software and servers then forward requests to their static IPS to your dynamic IP when you connect ot the internet. So if you use dyndns.com you get a URL like myweb.dyndns.com. Dyndns owns the IP address, they just forward requests to that IP to the dynamic IP of your PC. In URLs only the last two fields map to a physical machine (or cluster of machines). So xxx.dyndns.com maps to a particular IP. What the "xxx" means is completely up to the machines at dyndns.com and really has nothing to do with URL to DNS mapping. In common useage the "www." at the beginnning of a web address has no meaning to the internet in general, it is a detail of the address directed to the machine located at the last two fields of the URL. I host a web site and I can use fobar.mysite.com or barfo.mysite.com or farbo.barfo.mysite.com as valid URLs that all get directed to mysite.com. It is up to my server to decide what to do with the "barfo", "fobar", "farbo.barfo" part of the URL.

Getting back to the original question of this thread, even with a dynamic IP, if you are hosting a site there is a very easy to follow "paper" trail to your host computer, regardless of if you are using a static or dynamic IP address.

[silverdooty]

don't mis-quote me. i'm well aware of how dyndns.com works. your statement was...

An individual web surfer cannot host a web site.

which is FUD
and mine was...

any web surfer can host a website. the server software is not any different from what the rest of the web is running. static IPs are easier but not required. with a dynamic IP you can use services like dyndns.com and little programs/script that update your info each time you log on to the net. these services have been around for quite some time.

maybe you needed to reorganize your thoughts and edit your post.

[HaiThar]

don't mis-quote me. i'm well aware of how dyndns.com works. your statement was...

An individual web surfer cannot host a web site.

which is FUD
and mine was...

any web surfer can host a website. the server software is not any different from what the rest of the web is running. static IPs are easier but not required. with a dynamic IP you can use services like dyndns.com and little programs/script that update your info each time you log on to the net. these services have been around for quite some time.

maybe you needed to reorganize your thoughts and edit your post.

Looking at this, if you use a site such as no-ip.com an individual surfer CAN infact host a website. I would know, as I use it for streaming radio shows. You CAN purchase domains from sites such as dyndns and no-ip and they will direct to whatever you put(No-IP comes with a program that automatically updates your IP-Address, as it changes)

[jimmy101]

don't mis-quote me. i'm well aware of how dyndns.com works. your statement was...

An individual web surfer cannot host a web site.

which is FUD
and mine was...

any web surfer can host a website. the server software is not any different from what the rest of the web is running. static IPs are easier but not required. with a dynamic IP you can use services like dyndns.com and little programs/script that update your info each time you log on to the net. these services have been around for quite some time.

maybe you needed to reorganize your thoughts and edit your post.

Nope, my thoughts and statements are all correct. An individual web surfer cannot host a web site since surfing and hosting are two different things. Being able to do one does not mean you can do the other. It is possible for a generic PC to both surf and host but the two activities require different software. Netscape/Internet exploder etc. can not host a site, they only browse. You have to install Apache or IIS or some other server software (or write your own) to host a site. So, just because your generic PC can browse does not mean it can host. Just because a PC can host does not mean it can browse.

Only host software can host a site. Only browser software can browse a site. <i>"Any web surfer can host a website"</i> is not true, "any web surfer who adds hosting software can host a site".

[TurboSuper]

Hrm, having a little war over semantics are we?

The fact is, if you plan on hosting a web site, prepare to be traced. Sure you could use some shady, underground server in China, but then all the credit card info that people input to buy things from your site will be bounced off that shady, underground server in China...and that's bad.