ip address

[Susiejb]

There is a topic in GD about how much information people are able to find out about each contributor on here.
Apparently it is possible for anyone to find your ip address from your posts.....but I assume that is not your email address....is that correct.

Does anyone have the answer.
Thank you Susie

 

[dave.m]

I think only Admin and Mods can see a persons IP address on this forum.

Have a read of this:
What is an IP Address?

It is nothing whatsoever to do with your email addresses.

 

[xr4x4]

You can hack an ip address tho..

Very rare these days what with fire walled routers etc.

Although if you router allows external login, having default use names and passwords to cause problems. 'Admin' and 'sky' for example on sky routers.

'admin' and 'password' on netgear routers.

 

[Monkeh]

You can hack an ip address tho..

You can.. what?

 

[Monsterminty]

also hacking an i.p address is a waste of time effort and legal fees.

 

[skotl]

.....but I assume that is not your email address....is that correct.

Ignoring the blind-you-with-science folks, I want to answer your specific query.

No, your IP Address is not your email address.

If you posted a response to this, or any other forum, from a corporate network then it is probably possible that this corporate network could be identified.
However, just because the post came from your, ahem, corporation does not point the finger at you.
Your organisation may well, though, have internal monitoring that could tie specific web sessions to a PC and, presumably, an individual user.

If you don't work for a big organisation, then the situation becomes murkier.
Let's address the question of email address first. If you posted from an account that was tied to an email address, then it's probably quite easy for the hoster to suggest that it was you who posted the message.

If, on the other hand, you posted "anonymously", and someone is suggesting that an IP Address = an Email Address, then they are simply trying to scare you. There is no guaranteed (in law) method of trying to tie an email address to an IP address.

I'm intrigued as to the background to this story but I would strongly advise you against posting any further information, especially if you are concerned about a legal challenge.
If you would like to IM me about the technical issues, please feel free.

Regards
Scott

 

[Monkeh]

There is no guaranteed (in law) method of trying to tie an email address to an IP address.

Other than the IP address of the box a sent email originated from.

I think you'll find Susie is simply being worried by wildly inaccurate claims by certain people on this site who know even less about the subject than she does.

 

[skotl]

Yep - that's pretty much what I said.

If you work for an organisation with 30,000 employees then it's not possible to tie a single IP Address to an email address, and vice versa.
Even if you have a home account, there is no intrinsic link between IP Addresses and email addresses.

I guess we're saying the same thing, which is that one should ignore the hysterical ramblings of non-IT folks who proclaim that "the man will find you!"

 

[Monkeh]

Yep - that's pretty much what I said.

If you work for an organisation with 30,000 employees then it's not possible to tie a single IP Address to an email address, and vice versa.

Well no, it may well be, but you'd require the cooperation of the operators of the network (and of course, they'd have to be mildly competent, which is a rare thing). Although that generally wouldn't work if they don't operate an internal mail relay or full-fledged mail server, but most do.

Even if you have a home account, there is no intrinsic link between IP Addresses and email addresses.

Indeed, an email would have to be sent to link them.

I guess we're saying the same thing, which is that one should ignore the hysterical ramblings of non-IT folks who proclaim that "the man will find you!"

Pretty much. If you know what you're doing and work hard enough, you can track just about anything back, but the effort required can be extraordinary. Certainly there's little risk of some random forum member knocking on your door..

 

[Susiejb]

Hi,

Thank you for your replies ...... my main point for asking was, as monkeh says, that the site has certain terms stated in the privacy agreement and following some comments on GD I wondered how they were upheld.

Also I wonder how much access to your information the 'moderators' have (I use the term moderators very loosely ...... as I don't think the meaning of the word is quite understood on here at times) I would assume, that other than our name, they have none.

thanks
susie

 

[enyam]

Also I wonder how much access to your information the 'moderators' have (I use the term moderators very loosely ...... as I don't think the meaning of the word is quite understood on here at times) I would assume, that other than our name, they have none.

thanks
susie

I suspect that when you are logged in your ip address is also shown for the mod team to enable them to ban a single user from using multiple names,although after reading the rules it does not state this to be the case on this site.An ip address will only give a general location,I believe mine will show up as in Somerset which is miles away from where I am.Type your Ip in this site and see where it leads you.

http://whatismyipaddress.com/ip-lookup

 

[xr4x4]

Also I wonder how much access to your information the 'moderators' have (I use the term moderators very loosely ...... as I don't think the meaning of the word is quite understood on here at times) I would assume, that other than our name, they have none.

thanks
susie

I suspect that when you are logged in your ip address is also shown for the mod team to enable them to ban a single user from using multiple names,although after reading the rules it does not state this to be the case on this site.An ip address will only give a general location,I believe mine will show up as in Somerset which is miles away from where I am.Type your Ip in this site and see where it leads you.

http://whatismyipaddress.com/ip-lookup[/QUOTE]

Suffolk...ha!

That's about 2 hrs away...!

 

[enyam]

An ip address will only give a general location,I believe mine will show up as in Somerset which is miles away from where I am.Type your Ip in this site and see where it leads you.

http://whatismyipaddress.com/ip-lookup[/QUOTE]

Suffolk...ha!

That's about 2 hrs away...!

Sort of reinforces my point that it's a general location not an exact one ,so any one who says they can tell where you live by that is telling porkies.

 

[Susiejb]

Thank you for the reply, apparently I have a private IP address.

susie

 

[joinerjohn]

Just looked up my IP addy on the link provided by enyam. Closest one is just under 2km away, but the furthest one supposedly puts me in Crawley.