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Good stuff, Leo.
An IP address can tell us when the same Internet connection is used repeatedly, such as tracking a browser from page to page in server logs. However, as you said, and contrary to what many hope or believe, tracking down an individual by IP address is nearly impossible.
Posted by: Will Bontrager at August 9, 2011 11:10 AM
Looking up UP addresses by Geolocation, I've sometimes gotten as close as a couple of miles, and as far as the wrong country.
I'd also like to highlight something you said. You can get the assistance of the courts by asking a judge to issue a subpoena - but you don't have to use law enforcement. If you are being harassed online, or some unauthorized person has gotten into your email account, it is fairly straightforward to get a judge to issue a subpoena to ISP to reveal who a given IP address is assigned to at a given time. At least, that's what attorneys I've worked with on computer forensic cases have told me. Law enforcement has far too much to do than to act on a user's suspicion without evidence of real harm. (May I link to a story about one such case? The Case of the Teacher and the Trickster )
A fun read.
10-Aug-2011
Posted by: Steve Burgess at August 9, 2011 11:40 AM
TOR will route your e-mail through various and sundry relay 'nodes' (is that the right idea?) so your IP address is anon. So I understand.
Check it out yourself and see.
Posted by: Snert at August 9, 2011 12:55 PM
For fun I googled 67.225.235.59
A couple of clicks later I got:
(I exchanged some numbers with "x's)
Registration Service Provided By: Simple Online Solutions
Contact:
Visit: http://simpleURL.com
Domain name: ask-leo.com
Registrant Contact:
Puget Sound Software
Leo Notenboom ()
Fax:
P.O. Box 2xxx
Woodinville, WA 98072
US
Administrative Contact:
Puget Sound Software
Leo Notenboom ()
+1.20677xxxxx
Fax: +1.20677xxxxx
P.O. Box 2xxx
Woodinville, WA 98072
US
Technical Contact:
Puget Sound Software
Leo Notenboom ()
+1.20677xxxxx
Fax: +1.20677xxxxx
P.O. Box 2xxx
Woodinville, WA 98072
US
Status: Locked
Name Servers:
ns1.pugetsoundsoftware.com
ns2.pugetsoundsoftware.com
Posted by: Dennis Kelley at August 9, 2011 1:45 PM
ANYONE RECIEVING A E-MAIL-can they determine which Country it came from.
Also im "Miffed"that the country that has been tracked keeps throwing up sites in the foreign language-can this be stopped from haappening
Posted by: pirate22 at August 9, 2011 5:22 PM
I got an add-on for Mozilla Firefox called WorldIP. When you go to a web site it tells you what country it is from, at least it is supposed to. There is a little U.S. flag etc. Very unobtrusive. I would recommend it.
Posted by: Margaret Louk at August 9, 2011 7:05 PM
My daughter had a very embarrasing moment, her and her friends were trying to start a blog and decided to send out questionares from an idependent email dedicated to the blog for intrest topics. They received back alot of comments and downloaded them into comment sheets on various topics. When they decided to send out another folloe up report the wrong document with some of these comments that had been received was sent by mistake. One of the comments although it did not mention a name was a little racy and was sent to the person it concerned. That person's mother had someone trace the email (she sai# and announced the finding with my name attached at a school meeting. I don't understand how she did this and got my name!! or did this at all?? our service in our home is in my husbands name. From what the girls told me, #i wasn't at the meeting# she mentioned when the email was set up not sent and showed this on some fancy phone. my name was showed with: #Malito). We have since tried to apologize and say there was no maliciosness behing it, but this person tends to be a mean conspiracy theroist and it is just such a headache.
Posted by: beatrice at December 9, 2011 5:46 PM
@Beatrice
In order to register for an email address, the email provider usually asks for a name and other personal information. If an email is sent out through the webmailer, this name is typically added to all emails sent out. If you use an email program, the name you set up the account with in that program is included in the sent emails. This is a feature, as most people want it that way. If you prefer to remain anonymous, you would have to include a pseudonym.
Posted by: Mark J at December 10, 2011 1:22 AM
Read the article that everyone's commenting on.
Subscribe to the RSS Feed for comments on this article.
Comments
Read the article that everyone's commenting on.
Subscribe to the RSS Feed for comments on this article.
Good stuff, Leo.
An IP address can tell us when the same Internet connection is used repeatedly, such as tracking a browser from page to page in server logs. However, as you said, and contrary to what many hope or believe, tracking down an individual by IP address is nearly impossible.
Posted by: Will Bontrager at August 9, 2011 11:10 AMLooking up UP addresses by Geolocation, I've sometimes gotten as close as a couple of miles, and as far as the wrong country.
I'd also like to highlight something you said. You can get the assistance of the courts by asking a judge to issue a subpoena - but you don't have to use law enforcement. If you are being harassed online, or some unauthorized person has gotten into your email account, it is fairly straightforward to get a judge to issue a subpoena to ISP to reveal who a given IP address is assigned to at a given time. At least, that's what attorneys I've worked with on computer forensic cases have told me. Law enforcement has far too much to do than to act on a user's suspicion without evidence of real harm. (May I link to a story about one such case? The Case of the Teacher and the Trickster )
10-Aug-2011
TOR will route your e-mail through various and sundry relay 'nodes' (is that the right idea?) so your IP address is anon. So I understand.
Posted by: Snert at August 9, 2011 12:55 PMCheck it out yourself and see.
For fun I googled 67.225.235.59
A couple of clicks later I got:
(I exchanged some numbers with "x's)
Registration Service Provided By: Simple Online Solutions
Contact:
Visit: http://simpleURL.com
Domain name: ask-leo.com
Registrant Contact:
Puget Sound Software
Leo Notenboom ()
Fax:
P.O. Box 2xxx
Woodinville, WA 98072
US
Administrative Contact:
Puget Sound Software
Leo Notenboom ()
+1.20677xxxxx
Fax: +1.20677xxxxx
P.O. Box 2xxx
Woodinville, WA 98072
US
Technical Contact:
Puget Sound Software
Leo Notenboom ()
+1.20677xxxxx
Fax: +1.20677xxxxx
P.O. Box 2xxx
Woodinville, WA 98072
US
Status: Locked
Name Servers:
Posted by: Dennis Kelley at August 9, 2011 1:45 PMns1.pugetsoundsoftware.com
ns2.pugetsoundsoftware.com
Creation date: 05 Sep 2003 23:57:38
Expiration date: 05 Sep 2012 23:57:38
ANYONE RECIEVING A E-MAIL-can they determine which Country it came from.
Posted by: pirate22 at August 9, 2011 5:22 PMAlso im "Miffed"that the country that has been tracked keeps throwing up sites in the foreign language-can this be stopped from haappening
I got an add-on for Mozilla Firefox called WorldIP. When you go to a web site it tells you what country it is from, at least it is supposed to. There is a little U.S. flag etc. Very unobtrusive. I would recommend it.
Posted by: Margaret Louk at August 9, 2011 7:05 PMMy daughter had a very embarrasing moment, her and her friends were trying to start a blog and decided to send out questionares from an idependent email dedicated to the blog for intrest topics. They received back alot of comments and downloaded them into comment sheets on various topics. When they decided to send out another folloe up report the wrong document with some of these comments that had been received was sent by mistake. One of the comments although it did not mention a name was a little racy and was sent to the person it concerned. That person's mother had someone trace the email (she sai# and announced the finding with my name attached at a school meeting. I don't understand how she did this and got my name!! or did this at all?? our service in our home is in my husbands name. From what the girls told me, #i wasn't at the meeting# she mentioned when the email was set up not sent and showed this on some fancy phone. my name was showed with: #Malito). We have since tried to apologize and say there was no maliciosness behing it, but this person tends to be a mean conspiracy theroist and it is just such a headache.
Posted by: beatrice at December 9, 2011 5:46 PM@Beatrice
Posted by: Mark J at December 10, 2011 1:22 AMIn order to register for an email address, the email provider usually asks for a name and other personal information. If an email is sent out through the webmailer, this name is typically added to all emails sent out. If you use an email program, the name you set up the account with in that program is included in the sent emails. This is a feature, as most people want it that way. If you prefer to remain anonymous, you would have to include a pseudonym.
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