IP Addresses

[Alison556]

We're having bother with some nutter that keeps joining our club and posting annoying, harassing and often obscene comments.

I keep deleting the account and banning the IP address that is used to join up but somehow this person keeps on joining but the IP address is different every time they join up - and I know it's the same person.

Anybody know how they're managing to do this?

I tried a "Who Is" with the IP address and they all seem to come up as BT Broadband.

Sorry if this isn't making much sense - I'm really not sure what information I should be looking at in the Who Is thing.

I just want to know how to get rid of this fruit loop once and for all.

 

[Monkeh]

Most broadband services use dynamic IP addresses. All he has to do is restart his router and he gets a new one.

You could try reporting him to BT as abusive, you'll need to provide proof of his behaviour, the IPs, and the exact (and correct) time he was using the IP.

 

[Alison556]

Thank you. We'll get the relevant information together and try that. It's blinkin annoying.

 

[dave.m]

The first three numbers before the first 'dot' will probably stay the same as they indicate the ISP who is providing the IP.

If you get the dates and times and IP adress being used, BT will be able to trace him. They will NOT inform you who it is but can terminate his service, and his address could be blacked by other ISPs so he would need an internet cafe or library or some such open broadband to get on line.

 

[Monkeh]

The first three numbers before the first 'dot' will probably stay the same as they indicate the ISP who is providing the IP.

No they don't. Especially as it's not always three numbers..

 

[timtheenchanter]

do they use the same name/easily identifiable same e-mail address???

if so, changing the account system so new members have to be approved could be a way around this

 

[sergeantash]

The first three numbers before the first 'dot' will probably stay the same as they indicate the ISP who is providing the IP.

If you get the dates and times and IP adress being used, BT will be able to trace him. They will NOT inform you who it is but can terminate his service, and his address could be blacked by other ISPs so he would need an internet cafe or library or some such open broadband to get on line.

Unfortunately I think you will struggle to get BT to do anything unless his actions pose a criminal offence due to data protection.

You can try but ultimately most likely won't succeed. I also run a community site, sometimes the best outcome is to either try and 'make friends' with the spoofer or alternatively ignore him. Feed a troll and they'll bite!

 

[joinerjohn]

You could always set your forums up to only accept members with valid ISP based email addresses (like @btinternet.co.uk, virginmedia.com, etc). Don't allow any email addresses from web based providers like yahoo.com, gmail etc. Anyone can set up an email account with yahoo or gmail , But can only set up ISP based accounts with their service provider.
Any offensive posts etc would necessitate you getting in contact with their service provider and could possibly lead to them being refused service with that provider.
My brother has a yahoo.com email account (which he chooses to use as his main account. There are loads of sites he can't register with as they don't accept web based email accounts.

 

[sergeantash]

You could always set your forums up to only accept members with valid ISP based email addresses (like @btinternet.co.uk, virginmedia.com, etc). Don't allow any email addresses from web based providers like yahoo.com, gmail etc. Anyone can set up an email account with yahoo or gmail , But can only set up ISP based accounts with their service provider.
Any offensive posts etc would necessitate you getting in contact with their service provider and could possibly lead to them being refused service with that provider.
My brother has a yahoo.com email account (which he chooses to use as his main account. There are loads of sites he can't register with as they don't accept web based email accounts.

Unfortunately you alienate a significant number of users that genuinely use Hotmail etc - this just wouldn't work unfortunately

 

[joinerjohn]

You could always set your forums up to only accept members with valid ISP based email addresses (like @btinternet.co.uk, virginmedia.com, etc). Don't allow any email addresses from web based providers like yahoo.com, gmail etc. Anyone can set up an email account with yahoo or gmail , But can only set up ISP based accounts with their service provider.
Any offensive posts etc would necessitate you getting in contact with their service provider and could possibly lead to them being refused service with that provider.
My brother has a yahoo.com email account (which he chooses to use as his main account. There are loads of sites he can't register with as they don't accept web based email accounts.

Unfortunately you alienate a significant number of users that genuinely use Hotmail etc - this just wouldn't work unfortunately

Can't argue with you there Sgt, But it would stop the OP's problem in it's tracks. Anyone can set up multiple accounts with a web based email service and keep registering with forums under multiple usernames.

 

[sergeantash]

You could always set your forums up to only accept members with valid ISP based email addresses (like @btinternet.co.uk, virginmedia.com, etc). Don't allow any email addresses from web based providers like yahoo.com, gmail etc. Anyone can set up an email account with yahoo or gmail , But can only set up ISP based accounts with their service provider.
Any offensive posts etc would necessitate you getting in contact with their service provider and could possibly lead to them being refused service with that provider.
My brother has a yahoo.com email account (which he chooses to use as his main account. There are loads of sites he can't register with as they don't accept web based email accounts.

Unfortunately you alienate a significant number of users that genuinely use Hotmail etc - this just wouldn't work unfortunately

Can't argue with you there Sgt, But it would stop the OP's problem in it's tracks. Anyone can set up multiple accounts with a web based email service and keep registering with forums under multiple usernames.

True, but even Virgin and BT don't stop you from creating multiple aliases, I don't think it would cure the problem mate. There are also those with their own domain (me for example) and I create a new alias per site that I register with.

Unfortunately other than visiting their houses and ripping out their ADSL router, there's no way to stop this sort of vermin

 

[joinerjohn]

"

True, but even Virgin and BT don't stop you from creating multiple aliases, I don't think it would cure the problem mate. There are also those with their own domain (me for example) and I create a new alias per site that I register with.

Unfortunately other than visiting their houses and ripping out their ADSL router, there's no way to stop this sort of vermin

I have 3 email addresses set up with Virgin, but my IP address stays the same. Just because you have multiple emails on a land based service provider doesn't mean you'll have multiple IP addy's

 

[sergeantash]

"

True, but even Virgin and BT don't stop you from creating multiple aliases, I don't think it would cure the problem mate. There are also those with their own domain (me for example) and I create a new alias per site that I register with.

Unfortunately other than visiting their houses and ripping out their ADSL router, there's no way to stop this sort of vermin

I have 3 email addresses set up with Virgin, but my IP address stays the same. Just because you have multiple emails on a land based service provider doesn't mean you'll have multiple IP addy's

You're forgetting the fact that all of those providers supply webmail access to the multiple aliases created, therefore hiding your physical IP address.

There simply is no solution to this issue other than making friends with the enemy and asking them politely to comply with your forum rules.

Many forum technologies use the IP or email address to detect someone that has reregistered or has been banned - generally someone that gets banned from a forum has minor intelligence, not sufficiently enough to understand the principle of a 'cookie' is, therefore you could add a script to your forum pages that will detect the presence of a 'ban' cookie and redirect that user.

 

[Alison556]

Sorry to take so long to get back on this - been frantic as I was running an online auction for charity.

I've looked at a lot of the e-mails this person sent (the begging ones to get back on the club after I had banned her, the offensive ones when we ignored her and the downright stupid ones) and from what I can see, a lot of them were sent from a Blackberry. Is this how the IP address changes a lot?

We were having to go through new members several times a day and try and keep on top of things but it meant she was still getting to join and in the short time she was there, cause mayhem.

Our members did try to make friends but the nicer people were, the more offensive she got - almost like she was pushing and pushing to see just how far she could go before somebody told her to sod off.

If she wasn't being offensive, she was just being plain stupid, posting up the most ridiculous comments.

We also have a rating system, which although doesn't bother me, some members are proud of having a 10 out of 10 rating - she was going through the members and absolutely decimating their ratings by giving them all zeros.

We've had the site owner change the settings so that every e-mail address requires verification - in the hope that she gets fed up having to verify her e-mail every time.

We had a break of a week or so from her, but she managed to get back on but I've chucked her again.

It looks like it's going to be an ongoing battle. The original sign up IP belonged to a very large company so I e-mailed them with the e-mail addressed used and the IP address and asked them to deal with it. I've not heard anything back from them, but I'm hoping that they'll deal with it at their end.

It wouldn't be feasible to not allow web based e-mail addresses - I use Yahoo myself as opposed to my ISP account and a lot of people do - so I guess we just have to keep on doing a nutter check several times a day.

I even contacted Live and Hotmail with copies of the e-mails to report abuse and heard nothing back from them either.