Is it a con

[jonnyfishing]

when you have decided which to purchase, clear all your cookies off the computer before going back to the site to purchase.

That may be worth trying. How do you clear cookies?

Click on-- Tools---Options---Privacy---Show Cookies, delete what you want.

 

[Paul_C]

It certainly happens with airlines...However, it's not just to do with cookies.

Was going to book a budget flight, and got a £105 quote. Went to double check the date and logged off. Logged back on and the price went up to £155. Tried again on a laptop, and the price remained at £155. Then logged on using a proxy, and the price dropped back to £105...

So they also appear to be using ip addresses to sometimes 'hide' the cheaper seats after you have already visited...

Another thing with using the online insurance quote sites to watch is that some of the companies providing quotes to the comparison sites will start to reject requests from a given name & address if too many are received within a relatively short period of time.

It pays to use various false names and slight variations of address and date of birth when getting a lot of quotes to avoid being blocked in that way. And you should always be using throwaway e-mail addresses for these anyway to avoid getting inundated with junk later.

 

[cantaloup63]

Do these sites also store IP addresses? If so then turning your modem off and on will probably create a new one for you since I think most are dynamic and static.

 

[Paul_C]

Do these sites also store IP addresses?.

I don't know, but it would certainly be possible. Whether any of the comparison sites would actually forward your IP address to the insurers' system is another matter though. As you say, with most home users having dynamically assigned IP addresses, there's no guarantee that an IP address in use by one person isn't going to be used by somebody else with the same ISP a short time later. But they could still check for multiple requests from a given IP address with "close match" street addresses, I suppose. Whether they do or not, I have no idea.

But certainly I know that making multiple requests for different vehicles with the same name and address can result in some insurers then blocking the requests and not returning quotes. Change the name, date of birth, and address very slightly while leaving all other details the same, and that insurer "mysteriously" starts providing quotes again.

It's clearly just another part of the insurance racket to try and deter people from trying any and all options to get lower premiums.

 

[Susiejb]

Do these sites also store IP addresses? If so then turning your modem off and on will probably create a new one for you since I think most are dynamic and static.

I thought your IP adress was assigned to your home address ..... I imagined it always stayed the same ..... is that not so ?

Pauls post (above) appeared after I typed this ...... so that answers it.

 

[Paul_C]

I thought your IP adress was assigned to your home address ..... I imagined it always stayed the same ..... is that not so ?

No, unless you have requested a static IP address, which most ISP's will charge extra for.

By far the majority of home users have dynamically assigned IP addresses. Each time your modem connects, your ISP selects a free address from its allocated pool of addresses and assigns that to you. That's then your IP address until such time as your modem disconnects from the network, at which point "your" IP address is then returned to the free list to be used again. The next time you connect, you're almost certain to get a different IP address.

 

[cantaloup63]

Do these sites also store IP addresses? If so then turning your modem off and on will probably create a new one for you since I think most are dynamic and static.

I thought your IP adress was assigned to your home address ..... I imagined it always stayed the same ..... is that not so ?

Not always. Your ISP may have a load of them which it allocates to given areas, so if you searched for your IP location (google "what's my ip") you'd end up finding yourself located somewhere within the vicinity of your home, but not specific. If you turn off your router then when you tun it back on you'll be allocated a new IP from this pool.

This is why it's not always so simple to ban or even trace an individual since by banning one IP address (or even a block of addresses) you may well end up banning a fair few entirely innocent individuals who are allocated with the offending IP.

I guess that that's why cookies are downloaded to individual PC's, since there can be no doubt then.

EDIT - thanks Paul. I'll leave my post since it has a couple of other outcomes mentioned

 

[Paul_C]

Yes, I think we're all busy typing at the same time here!

 

[Susiejb]

Yes, I think we're all busy typing at the same time here!

Yes I think so

 

[ellal]

You could of course use something like this

It does slow things down a tad though...

 

[Susiejb]

.....what I don't understand is ...... if you can hide your IP address ..... how does a forum like this manage to ban anyone, surely they need a set point of contact to activate the ban

 

[cantaloup63]

.....what I don't understand is ...... if you can hide your IP address ..... how does a forum like this manage to ban anyone, surely they need a set point of contact to activate the ban

If your account is disabled then you need to set up a new email address etc, which is a bind. Personally I'm not in favour of permanent unilateral bans since IMO a persona/username on here is largely only a small part of the character and characteristics of someone. If the subsequent input/posts etc is of little value and desultory beyond the pail, then it is entirely reasonable to remove that particular username and allow him or her to come back using a different and modified internet character.

We all have different sides to our personality - it sometimes takes a while to ascertain one face that fits.

 

[Susiejb]

......so basically it is impossible to totally ban someone as they will just set up a new email address and user name and come back again
......hopefully with a totally new persona.

susie oooops almost reinvented myself !

 

[cantaloup63]

......so basically it is impossible to totally ban someone as they will just set up a new email address and user name and come back again
......hopefully with a totally new persona.

Not necessarily - it is also possible that some people are too set in their ways or unwilling to show a more conducive side to their character. Or they may come back and get banned repeatedly until they go away permanently or have served a sufficient "sentence" and completed enough Hail Mary's on their rosary beads

 

[Alarm]

I thought your IP adress was assigned to your home address ..... I imagined it always stayed the same ..... is that not so ?

No, unless you have requested a static IP address, which most ISP's will charge extra for.

By far the majority of home users have dynamically assigned IP addresses. Each time your modem connects, your ISP selects a free address from its allocated pool of addresses and assigns that to you. That's then your IP address until such time as your modem disconnects from the network, at which point "your" IP address is then returned to the free list to be used again. The next time you connect, you're almost certain to get a different IP address.

Which is why banning an IP does sod all.