"#2 Aluxe" <nottelling@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1icvfthw91ic2.1dqcmo5ov2kwt.dlg@40tude.net...
> On Wed, 18 Oct 2006 18:29:56 GMT, Stuart Miller wrote:
>> There is a lot of interesting technical discussion here, but I would like
>> to
>> take a different approach
>> From all the posts here and on the 'firewall' newsgroup, I believe I
>> understand what Aluxe is after.
> ...
>> [changing the IP address] has nothing to do with security, but does grant
>> a measure of privacy.
>> Comments?
>
> Hi Stuart Miller,
>
> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
> Thank you for being a voice of technical reason here.
> I agree, we are not talking about security (that was my fault for equating
> sescurity to privacy in the original subject line) as you fully
> understand.
>
> We are only talking about a simple additive action to privacy.
>
Agreed

But I will give you a few more things to ponder - some of these are
referenced in other parts of this thread, but I am not going to locate those
references.

1. IP address
I do not believe you can separate two or three 'aspects' of you life by a
change in IP address.
I mentioned one solution, another may be easily available
I have an old cable modem - circa 1999 or 2000. It goes back to the days
before an affordable home router/firewall. It is smart enough to support 4
different IP addresses - you connect the rj45 plug on the modem to the
uplink pulg of a hub, and each unit (computer or router) plugs into the hub
and takes an IP address from the router. This is how the cable co allowed
multiple computers on one cable connection. They allow 2 free addresses, and
so much a month for each additional one. This method is documented on their
web site.
If you have this capability, you have your privacy. You can post your
personal stuff on a simple, slow (under $100) machine on one IP address, and
your real stuff on your regular machine.
I know this works, because I have a linux web server on one, and my router
which feeds the other 5 machines here on the other.

2. Web servers
As mentioned above, I run a hobby apache/linux web server. I did this partly
to learn about html & web site design, partly to learn linux, and partly to
learn about internet security from the other side.
Yes, I do log the IP address of every visitor, along with how they got to my
site, and whatever else their browser will tell me. I record each web page
they visit. I keep the logs about 6 months
When I allow a POST operation, I record that it happened, but I do not log
the contents at the server level - the application (message board, blog,
perl/cgi script, or whatever) does that.
Some places like message boards and Yahoo chat announce that they are
recording IP addresses, some don't announce but they all do some form of
recording.
Other replies have explained how to work with that.

Also as mentioned, sone sites (usually ad based) link back to your computer
with 'persistent connections'. They have figured out how to send to you -
that is the way they get the pop up ads to appear. Since the whole proxy
server business is to prevent that, any time you get a pop up you may have
been 'id'ed. In addition, you may not get your idle time. When I had isdn
service here, I logged sites calling my browsers for hours after I had
closed the browser. The job of the 'bot was to keep the connection active so
the site could get the ads to me faster. For a few years I 'owned' a block
of 8 IP addresses - gave me a static address with no means to change it even
if I wanted to. It had problems, because the 'bots could always find me.


3. The need for privacy
We have covered the lack of privacy in the internet fairly well - that is
the price we pay for using that medium for communication.
What about privcy at home? Without enquiring into you family situation, I
will just remind you that windoze records all kinds of things in all kind of
hidden places. And NO, I will not discuss what and where those are. You
should consider some steps to secure the information hidden on your
computer.
I repair/recondition donated equipment for disability organization - it is
amazing (sometimes disgusting) what I find on these machines.

For me it is easy - anything sensitive gets done on the linux machines.

4. IP addresses
My experience is that the IP address is tied to (amongst other things) the
MAC address. When I change the NIC in an older machine connected directly, I
get a new IP address. When I put the old NIC back in, I get the one I had
before. When I clone the MAC address with the router, it gives me the IP
address that the NIC had. I have about 20 old NIC cards here - that would
give me a fair pool of addresses to clone if I wanted to change IP addresses
frequently. When I upgraded my web server, I make sure that the NIC moved
into the new machine, so I kept the same IP address.

One reason for dynamic IP addresses is to prevent home users from setting up
a permanent business web server. The cable co figures that as long as the IP
address will change frequently (in my case, about twice a year) that will
make it much more difficult to use a home account for business use. Lets
avoid the topic of dns forwarding.

As mentioned, your ISP has a pool of IP numbers available to 'lease' You may
find you are circulating amongst the same 5 or 10 numbers when you keep
changing. And you may get an IP number that has been flagged by the crackers
as being 'open' for attacks.


Cable/ADSL

Different technologies - different restrictions. Cable can give you multiple
IP addresses for one account, but as far as I know, ADSL can not. Also, ADSL
requires you to register your MAC address before you get an IP number. New
MAC address - 30 min to 1 hour to get it 'registered'

Some considerations for you.

Stuart