Ask Leo! by Leo A. Notenboom

Getting all worked up over IP tracing

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Not scary at all, because as I've been saying ALL ALONG it shows the location of the ISP, NOT YOU.

Verified myself - I have a static IP that resolves to the DSL line to my house - and yet, the site is WAY WAY off. Didn't even get the city right.

Again, you CAN NOT identify the physical location of an IP address without the help of the ISP.

Posted by: Leo at March 26, 2006 9:42 PM

Leo,

It shows a map. It shows a dot on that map that is exactly where my residence is. It shows my exact latitude and longitude which they calculate to be with 99% accuracy (some come up with less accuracy).

No, it's not my actual physical address, but it shows city and area, and with the ability to determine longitude and latitude (say a GPS system), it's within feet! Why don't you get this? Why do you want people to feel safe when they are not?

E.g., say a woman is hiding from an abuser who thinks she's moved to Montana but she's actually still in New York or wherever, her IP address will reveal all.

Posted by: Emersonian at March 26, 2006 10:54 PM

Addition to above ... It appears that you did not go to the link given in first email. Because your reply ignores all the facts of an actual visit to the site.

Posted by: Emersonian at March 26, 2006 10:56 PM

I did in fact use the link you provided, and the locator on the map and the lat/long was nowhere near my home. IT WAS WRONG - in a very predictable way. (My IP shows at my ISP's node in Redmond WA. While that's quite expected, that's not where I live.)

Knowing how IP addressing and internet providers work, my statement stands.

General area? Sure. But what I'm talking about is accurate location - something that would allow someone to physically find you or your home. An IP address cannot do that without the help of the ISP.

Posted by: Leo at March 26, 2006 11:14 PM

You are no longer relating to the facts, but rather intransigently defending an erroneous position. Try the IP addresses of 20 different people from around the country and around the world at that site (note the stated percentage of accuracy for each), to see how it works. Beyond that I give up, because facts and reason are not getting through.

An example to help you "get" this: E.g., if a woman is running from an abuser, and the stalker is able to obtain the IP address he is now in the neighborhood. Do I have to explain this any further? Do you give a hoot? It does not appear that you do. You are stubbornly stuck in a denial of danger that does a disservice to your readers.

Posted by: Emersonian at March 27, 2006 8:51 PM

I can see the point of an abusive women who may not want someone to even know the city that they are located. But is it not also reasonable that this can be used to someone's advantage by having a friend or even a service send e-mails from another city for these women, maybe people who are really concerned could come up with an idea for free for these women and forward e-mails on their behave to confuse or throw these people off by using IP addresses that are not within their actual city.
Maybe ISP's can have special IP addresses assigned to them that would not be connected to any city but just by country or something for people who have a legal right to hide their location, such as abused women's shelters or other such agencies.

Posted by: Victoria at April 12, 2006 7:55 PM

Hello,
Is it possible for one computer to have more than one ip address?

Posted by: jamie at April 15, 2006 5:57 PM

Yes. IP addresses are actually assigned to network cards, so if you have more than one network card, you can have more than one IP address. There are probably other approaches as well.

Posted by: Leo at April 15, 2006 6:18 PM

Emersonian....I doubt you have researched the way that you suggested Leo did because he's right. My location on the map is NO WHERE NEAR where I live, not even in the same city, nor a nearby one PERIOD. So I did what you suggested and ran 5 different IP's of people that I know and know where they live. ALL OFF by more than 20 miles each.

Geocities has the same program and while it's fun to know the general area, it is in no way anywhere near ANY of the IP's I checked out and YES I went down to the street level. So calm down and worry not.

Posted by: Matt at April 16, 2006 10:21 PM

by using a program called neotrace, i am able to get a reletive distance from a set point. I am currently attempting to trace the address of a person who is scamming my company by selling merchandise under the table. I basically can take a set point (in this case the lat long combo of 32.783N, 96.800W , which is dallas city center. the program uses pinging to acquire a reletive distance, and while not stating this distance or the EXACT direction, it does give a line in a reletive direction (for example, a line 1 inch long at max zoom from the point in a SW direction). i can then use the map to find the distance to another known point, say it be my house. i compare the 2 lines to find a scale for the map, be nice if it was included but meh w/e... i can then apply trig and geometry to find a general circle that the location lies upon. i know what you are thinking, its not the person, simply the ISP, this is NOT true, for i have 2 people that we are "looking into" both with the same ISP using different ports, on different ip addresses. the location is the same on each trace up until the last, where it goes from ISP to location. the end location is different per person, and shows up accurately for my own, even tho my ISP is in forney, not dallas, nearly 50 miles away. I can then take this circle, apply to a map, and note any houses in lets say a 1 mile distance from any point on the reletive circle in about the right direction... apply known addresses of employees, and it has been narrowed down, possibly pinpointed. theft stopped. it is possible to do this, and i am working on the math at the current time. difficult, YES, impossible, no... i have been working near 6 hours on this, and am finally getting to the point where i can apply the map and find houses that match the general location of the perpetrator (who has intelligently changed his IP address). easy from here out...

btw, for all of you wanting to change your ip address, follow the following.

1. go to run
2. type "command"
3. in the DOS prompt, type ipconfig /renew
4. type exit to return to windows.

takes no more than 30 seconds, problem solved for anybody wanting to get away from a stalker... gg dawg gg.

Posted by: bkls at April 24, 2006 11:50 PM
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