Also the ISP assigns the IP address to my router, not each PC behind the router. The router assigns an IP address to each machine, but the Internet does not see these IP addresses. Although it would not matter for identification purposes which specific PC in my home I am using, it does matter if the router belongs to a company. Then there is no way to identify the specific employee, only the company.
Thus, I don't understand how people here can identify individuals based on their IP address, especially if they use dial-up, or only have one PC which they log in and out of daily.
You've got it
partially right.
The device your ISP issued you is often incorrectly called a "router." It is actually a
modem. Your modem is assigned an IP address from a block that your ISP has available - this is called DHCP or "Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol," that assigns IP's "on the fly." Even though it
may assign you a new IP after each reboot (this is not necessarily so) only the fourth octet of the address changes and the first three octets are tied to a small geographic area due to network segmentation/architecture.
Your
router is the multiport device connected
behind the modem to which individual PC's connect. You set the IP address for your router (or maybe you used the default which is usually 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1 depending on the manufacturer) which, in turn, deals out IP addresses to DHCP eanabled PC's (192.168.0.x or 192.168.1.x, where x is a random number between 2 and 255).
SO... Your
internal network consists of your router and PC's which are normally not seen by outsiders as your IP address. They see your modem's IP.
Also, if you have java enabled (or some other features) many times your
individual computer information can be viewed by outsiders.
Typically I'd say that most IP tracing done on BBS like this one are done by a combination of actual IP address and content of posts. Also, this is a relatively small site, so the odds of posters sharing the same ISP and same IP block are very, very small. In addition, your login name is attached to every IP address you've used to connect, so one can see the "pool" of addresses for each user. Also, specific IP addresses can be traced to specific LAN's or domains from where the poster posts (like Hidden Lake Academy :wave: ).
There are also other identifiers that can be passed by your PC including the computer name (randomly generated on install of Windows OS or set by user) or MAC (Media Access Control) address which is the
absolutely unique physical address identifier of your Network Interface Card - you can't hide from that one, ever.
It is wise to remember that every transaction you make on the internet is traceable, even through proxy servers (a LOT more work). I always advise people to imagine that every thing you post or email will be read by a judge.
Hope this helps!
