Aluxe <nottelling@hotmail.com> writes:
> Huh? You want the same IP address for years? I guess that's fine if you're
> running a web server or an ftp account. But, why not just use the same
> identifying name and email address (however bogus) if you want people to
> reach you via the usenet nntp newsgroups?
No, I want my posts to all be linked, so I use the same host/user id
on all of them (to the extent to which that is possible). It turns
out, that my method of doing so, also happens to give them all the
same NNTP posting host IP (or roughly the same one), or probably does
so; the newsreader software I use doesn't by default show the NNTP
posting host, so I've never looked. However, since I know that the
particular ISP I use has a specific machine and IP address set up as
their host for each function (i.e. there used to be a machine named
ftp.world.std.com at a specific IP address that was the FTP server), I
would be surprised if NNTP host IP weren't constant.
I know that one of the addresses to that host is 192.74.137.5 (that's
the one that accepts ssh connections), because I use that to access
that host when I'm behind a firewall that doesn't know how to do the
name lookup properly, and I need to reach the site by IP address. So,
to answer your question round-aboutly, yes, I do want the address to
be constant over long periods of time, so that I can find the site,
using information I remember. Other than that, I don't care about IP
addresses. They are really like numbers on mailboxes. If you see the
name of the box, you probably don't care about the number. If you
know the number, you don't have to remember the name. (And if you
want something more private, you get a mailbox at the post office,
rather than having it delivered to your home, but that point has been
made to death.)
If I could (easily and cheaply) get an accessible permanent IP address
for my home machine, I would. Then I could use ssh (and rdp) to my
home machine, and that would make my life more convenient, which is
the whole point of IP addresses. However, just as spammers keep you
from using your real email address, hackers keep me from letting
outside traffic onto my home net. And without the ability to get past
my firewall, having the firewall at a known address does me no good.
I don't even know what my cable provider calls my home network,
because there is no use for that information, you can't send traffic
to it (and get past the firewall).
Again, this has nothing to do with your anonymity concerns.
Hopefully, it gives you a better picture of IP addresses and what they
are for, and why when we thought you wanted security, we said changing
it wouldn't help.
I'm still not certain that changing it helps you anaonymity by very
much. Have you searched to see how many postings other than your own
have come from the same IP address(es)? If all the posting associated
with your IP addresses come from you, then perhaps your concern is
valid. If you are merely one of many, then changing your IP address
is not likely to be a benefit.
Note if you are the only one posting with some specific IP addresses,
even if you can get new ones, you still may be the only one posting
from that set--your ISP doesn't have an infinite set of addresses it
can hand to you. (In fact, it is the smallness of the set, that
causes the ISP to hand you new ones. They don't have enough IP
addresses to cover all their customers. If they did, they would just
hand out static IP addresses, like the IP address for world.std.com
above.) Thus, you may find all your postings, even with new IP
addresses, come from a small set of IP addresses that no one else ever
posts from.
Does this help explain that even if the I is small, so may be the R in
the ROI equation? To be anonymous, there must be someone else who
looks similar enough that you can plasuibly say, it wasn't me, it was
him. To be truly anonymous, there must be many others like that.
The point is I don't want you getting a false sense of security. You
may still not be as anonymous as you hope.
Hope this helps,
-Chris
************************************************** ***************************
Chris Clark Internet :
compres@world.std.com
Compiler Resources, Inc. Web Site :
http://world.std.com/~compres
23 Bailey Rd voice : (508) 435-5016
Berlin, MA 01503 USA fax : (978) 838-0263 (24 hours)
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