As so many people have pointed out, changing one's IP is worthless. I
have never tracked anyone down by IP and I have tracked people who did
not want to be found down.
I've never heard of anyone getting hacked by their IP address either,
and I have had my computers hacked in the past.
Same thing goes for spy/ad-ware. You don't get spy/ad-ware because
someone knows your IP. The computer this message is posted from has a
well-known IP and has had the same IP for probably 20 years. It's the
IP of my email connection host "The World" (previously world.std.com),
192.74.137.5. I know that IP number, because sometimes it is the only
way to communicate to that site when the host lookups get fried.
Knowing that IP address doesn't make them (or me) any easier to track.
Now, I personally know several people who've had their security
compromised, including some who lost money (via identity theft) as a
result. Not one of the people I know had that happen because they
weren't security conscious. However, almost all of them lost it due
to "social engineering" where someone sent them mail (or set up a web
site) that they responded to (clicked on) when they shouldn't have.
Honest people rarely benefit from anonimity. I've used the same public
email address for nearly 20 years and have hundreds of posts you can
probably easily track back to me (look at the comp.compilers archive
for many examples). If you want to know my address, my wife's name,
and a bunch of other information, contact a private investigator.
You'll be surprised how easily they can find out more information
about a person than you would want anyone to know. No amount of
hiding my identity on usenet is going to slow them down one bit.
What are you trying to hide? If you are trying to protect your
identity from identity theft, you are closing the wrong holes. Most
of your identifying information is already easily obtainable without
your using the internet at all. If you are doing something else where
you think you should wish to be anonymous, maybe you should wonder
about the morality of what you are doing.
Your IP address is not a key that opens some secret door, it's more
like a "Hello, I'm ..." nametag. Do you use fake names when you go to
conferences or meetings? Do you change your checking account number
everytime you go to the bank? If you think changing your IP address
is a good idea, you should probably do both of those too.
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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Re: Privacy/Security: How to change my IP address daily or weekly on DSL 
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