IP tracing

My understanding is, owners of private estates do have the ability to record IP. They don't have the ability to find the end user, though.

And yes, law enforcement agencies, with the help of ISPs, have the ability to track IP, right down to your pc - everything you do is logged on a server somewhere. For an example, look at the news over the last week. A european website was hacked and kid porn images were shown. Police, worldwide, are now arresting / investigating every person that accessed the site.

Your Internet Service Provider probably has policy about the way it uses your personal information, that you can probably find by accessing your ISP's main web site.

In the U.S., I believe that most states, perhaps on the federal level as well, have some laws regulating what ISPs can do with your personal information, to protect your privacy.

Tracking IP addresses is one way to create a digital "paper trail." Whenever you contact any portal using the internet (web site, online game), that portal has your IP address. The ISP that owns the IP address can keep the information of which customer was using that IP address at a particular time.

Typically, an ISP is only going to give out that information when it is forced to do so. In the U.S., probably nothing short of a court-issued subpoena or warrant is going to pry customers' personal information, including IP address use, out of the ISP.

ISPs fear civil liability for giving out personal information too easily. At least one ISP (I think it was AOL) has been successfully sued for cooperating too freely with police, by giving out customers' personal information to police made upon police request alone, without the backing of a court-issued warrant.

Plus, ISPs don't want to pay their staff to handle endless requests for information by internet stalkers and busybodies.

AKA Linden Lab can track you if you're a known griefer with multiple alts.

Just to clarify: all avatars logged in from your computer at any given time will appear (in SL) to have the same IP address. Avatars logged in from different computers ( let's say at your home, school, or work ) may or may not appear to have the same IP address in SL.

They don't actually.

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The web tab in your profile could be used to get an IP too and it's easier to get someone to look at your profile than it is to get them onto your land and turn on the stream.

Damn! I was gonna post one of those!

SO! Might as well post this one:



BTW- its not even CLOSE to where I'm living!

What color is the dot then if it's not red?

Plus, if you're working on a laptop (or feel like lugging your desktop computer around), it will get a different IP address anytime it changes networks.

On the other hand, if you're on a home network with multiple computers going through a router, they'll all have the same IP address to the outside world (unless you've done something special, in which case you don't need this explanation anyway). So it's not quite true that the IP address alone will narrow things down to a specific computer (but it could probably be identified from logs on the individual computer).

If you are totally worried about someone getting your IP address, one line of defense is to use what is called a "proxy server." Basically a proxy server masks your IP address and uses its own IP address at any sites your visit. Google "proxy server" and you'll get a list of sites. But you'll probably find using a proxy slows down your connection speed, and some functions on some websites may not work properly going through proxies.


BTW, as an aside, if you use P2P and you have copyrighted videos or music in your shared folder for others to download, the RIAA and MPAA can easily get your internet IP address and cause problems for you in the form of lawsuits. So be especially careful with that stuff.

This issue of IP scanning inworld still has me a bit freaked out as well as curious ... I was wondering if a script could be placed in a dance pad or camping chair that could convey to the owner the IP address ....

Certainly true. Haven't you seen *any* movies? Then they hack into your computer by playing a variant of Tetris, and then the pictures of those who live on the same street flickers by one after the other, until it stops on you.

My question... What are all of you doing that you're worried about who knows what about our internet connection point? (o.o)

I mean, if there's no crime committed, why worry? Coming from someone who is an admitted deviant, what is the fear factor here? (o.o)

And, the best firewall is the one put in place with a pair of scissors. (^_^)y

That's not the way it works, but that doesn't mean there aren't other things that should concern you.

The only thing a dance pad or camping chair have in common is that you sit on them. Sitting on something doesn't help find your IP address at all.

The primary mechanism that can enable someone to get your IP address from within SL is to get your computer to connect to a computer that they administer. When you use SL, you're primarily connecting to computers operated directly or indirectly by Linden Lab, and they're not going to give out IP information to just anyone. However, when you listen to parcel music on SL, for example, you're connecting directly to a stream server operated by some third party. Likewise for TVs or the embedded browser.

So if someone can get you to listen to music on their parcel, and if they're using a stream server that lets them get at the access logs, they'll have a list of all the IP addresses that accessed their server, including your IP address. It only takes a bit more cleverness to match up the time stamps or use multiple connections to figure out which of those addresses is yours.

Simply keeping music turned off via the play button in the lower right isn't enough, because a scripted object can enable music or media for you independently of those buttons, if you have them enabled at all. You'd have to go into preferences and totally disable music, media, and in-world browsing.

But if IP addresses only give rough geographic information at best, what's the worry, exactly?

Not necessarily...

Some corporate connections (eg your work connection) will have a block of IP addresses assigned to them. The WHOIS database for RIPE, ARIN will easily show the owner of the block of IP addresses along with the address and telephone number...

Try it ( this will work best if you try it from work, as they are more likely to have an block of IP's):

Go to http://www.whatismyip.com and note down your "public" IP address - this is the IP address other people see you connected on.

Now go to http://www.geektools.com/whois.php , enter your IP address in the "Whois" field, enter the CAPTCHA and click Whois.

Most people will get a result with details of their ISP, but some may be suprised at the details that come back.

Gomez

Not Necessarily, I turn my computer on and off all the time, and I've had the same IP address for ages. It all depends on how your ISP configures it's DHCP servers. I don't pay for a static IP address, yet, for the most part, I have one, although I'm sure it could probably change at any time.


http://www.secondscripter.com/

Also, no one's mentioned a word about IP spoofiing or proxy servers, so, no, the police and such cannot always run you down all that easily. Alot of users stealing stuff with copybot and reselling it are using alts and spoofing their IP address so LL can't ban their IP address.

What episode of Law and Order did u see that flashing red dot on the giant map? Me thinks you watch a bit too much tv....

I can think of a few

Suppose you are a griefer and get banned
You create an alt to go back there to do some more griefing
You want to know if people can find out that you are the same person

Or you start an enternally loving and faithful relationship
But you create an alt to be not so eternaly faithful with
You want to know if your love of your life can find out...

Anyway, the IP address is not linked with your avatar, but with the computer you use to log in with.
If you have a fixed IP address, that will stay the same, else you will get one random within a certain range every time you newly connect

So, if you want to be dishonest about your greifing or loving...
...or, consider being honest