Why Ip Address?

[WWEFreak666]

this is something i don't understand.. you enter a room or if the host or any admin types like for RCMS or a command like !printip 555.555.555 its really annoying i don't know why they need to make it so every sees your IP.. Winmx needs to change that because more people are getting hacked by the day.

[Me Here]

First off let me welcome you to the forum WWE Freak..

Let me tell you this your ip being displayed in a room is gonna happen anyroom you go to on WinMX nearly... and its just the admins of the room that see it normally...

When I first began using WinMX I had concerns also regarding this, however I can tell you that your computer is in no mortal danger just because your ip is known by admins in a room you go into..

Its like this:
An ip is an address of your computer, much like the address of your house..now if I know where you live thats one thing.. I can find certain information about you yes.. nothing that anyone walking down the street can't learn tho.. It doesnt give me a way in unless you leave your house unlocked and unwatched at all times..

Having your ip of your computer is no more dangerous than that.. I can get your ip from this forum but it doesnt let me into your computer especially if you have even the slightest firewall pertection up..( Which is like having locks on your door).  Its just common sense to have locks..

All this said.. its like the average joe.. I am no master thief nor do I have the desire to harm or rob you.. so knowing where you lived the worst an average person might do is know ... On the other hand there are people that are not average.. I wouldnt write off to a prison and tell them my address...

So, what I am saying is its all in the company that you keep, if admins are breaking into your computer.. (I doubt this) report them to thier isp and put a stop to it.  Make sure you have a good firewall like your XP firewall or Sygate and dont hang around the room the hackers visit..

You also need to know that even with good protection if a theif just happens to find your house he may well break in.. these ppl are not usually one you find over places like WinMX so put your mind at ease and make sure your protected is my best advice..

Also remember anyone can get your ip all they have to do is do a browse on you or a whois on WinMX and convert the hex numbers to your actual ip..

Like I said.. been on WinMX for over a year and never have I had anyone use my ip against me.. so I think your really safe..

[KM]

its not even like that, with an address of your house i can do various things like egg your house or spraypaint offensive words all over the walls or such, although i've never been convicted so dont worry about it

basicly a computer does what its programmed to do,

if you shout at your computer and tell it to cook you dinner, you can yell and scream all you want but it wont cook your dinner for you no matter how loud you shout.

I can send data to your computer saying "Format the hard drive damn you!" and it doesn't matter what font size i use, it hasn't been programmed to do anything, so it does nothing - i could also try and tell it "give me all your credit card info" and again is has no idea what the hell i'm on about so does nothing.

Unless you have installed and run programs that would allow someone to do things on your computer, nobody can do anything on your computer - firewall or no firewall, and if you have done that then in all honesty someone in a chat room knowing the IP Address you're currently using is hardly your biggest concern that plus if you'd done that then i seriously doubt your computer would still be functioning after this long to be reading this post

Another myth that is common is that the IP Address you are currently using identifies you - unless you are a large company who own your own block of IPs (to use the un-technical name) then thats not an issue, as the IP Address you are currently using is not yours, its nothing to do with you as its owned by your ISP and registered to your ISP. Anyone looking it up can find your ISP, and certain ISPs also use different IP Addresses for different areas so in some cases it may be possible to have a good guess at which city you are in for large cities, or a nearby city for anywhere else - although not in all cases.

If someone could just go and do anything to your computer just by knowing the IP Address you're using then there would be a small problem with the Internet, as the IP Address is the identifyer used to identify which computer data is addressed to - such as where to connect to to get a web page or where that web server should send the page to when its requested.

oh well, if you are still worried about it by now then no doubt you're going to love my signature  

[Sutenkh]

One of the reasons that admins want your IP is to report you if you are share things that they don't want in the room namely childporn so the report people that are share that just report the IP the authorites could I guess track a criminal down by IP with help from the ISP

[guest]

other things are that people join rooms spam or do other stupid stuff an are banned bit can change the nick an join the room again therefore ip banns are great )

have a nice day

[GnarlySnarly]

this is something i don't understand.. you enter a room or if the host or any admin types like for RCMS or a command like !printip 555.555.555 its really annoying i don't know why they need to make it so every sees your IP.. Winmx needs to change that because more people are getting hacked by the day.

Sometimes it can be more than just annoying.  It enables stalking and profiling, and worse.

I had such an experience.  I had posted to a forum which exposed my IP publicly.  I was merely adding to/correcting some mis-information that another person has posted.  I guess they were not comfortable being corrected.  A few days later, I got a private message from an admin of an opernap server.  They had taken my IP from the forum, and searched their opennap network for a match and then from that was able to know what nick I was using on their opennap server.  They then posted my 'private' opennap nick back to the public forum [they were not affiliated with the forum in any way - they were just a poster there like me].

I deem that a serious abuse of admin discretion and an invasion of privacy.  Exposing a poster's IP publicly on a forum or in a channel should never be allowed.  Perhaps the forum or channel admins can be trusted seeing ones IP, but it should never be made public for all to see.

What if microsoft posted the IPs of the last 10 visitors to one of their critical update fix pages?  Do you not see the potential for profiling, tracking, stalking, hacking?

[GhostShip]

If folks are abusing the forum they have to be dealt with some way and making an IP public is usually done as a last resort, in fact its only thought about here in the cases of racists or paedophiles posting disgusting content.
There are bad eggs in all strata of society Gnarly.
My advice is that you have to take a good look at a forum and decide if you feel its being run responsibly before posting.

Merely having an IP address gives you no special power over anyone, firewalls have seen to that.

[GnarlySnarly]

If folks are abusing the forum they have to be dealt with some way and making an IP public is usually done as a last resort, in fact its only thought about here in the cases of racists or paedophiles posting disgusting content.
There are bad eggs in all strata of society Gnarly.
My advice is that you have to take a good look at a forum and decide if you feel its being run responsibly before posting.

Merely having an IP address gives you no special power over anyone, firewalls have seen to that.

Publicizing posters IPs is not an issue on this board.  Even mischief is no reason to publish it.  It someone is abusing the board, then warn them  and if they continue the thing to do then is file an abuse complaint with their ISP.  

It was in reference to KMs insustance of listing the IP of each post on his old kingmacro forum, and his refusal to this day to understand the need not to publish an IP.

And, you seem to take the same narrow focus that IPs are only used for 'hacking'. hence a firewall will suffice.  If you got the point of my prior posts, IPs can be used for much more than hacking.  They are a basic component of tracking, stalking and profiling.  Firewalls do nothing for that. as I explained from an untoward experience I had b being stalked from a forum posting to an opennap server.  Possible ONLY because that forum exposed my IP to everyone.

While all the admins of this forum can see my IP, I accept that risk and just hope this is not an RIAA data mining sting operation.  But if each posters IP was publicly shown with each of their posts, as it was on the old KM forum, then the RIAA has a simple task to log everything here and build an evidence stock pile that could be combined with their p2p file sharing data.  Who would want to speak so freely here if it could all be recorded by the RIAA or ? with an actual identity link?  IP = personal identity, at least to the registered account holder or 'family head' if a residential account.  All RIAA needs is IP, date and time get the actual name registered for the account from the ISP.  Without the IP they have nothing.  If your going to post the IP publicly, you might as well drop screen names and use your real name and give your mailing address while you are at it.

Know too that some governments monitor internet postings and arrest people who say the wrong things in forums.  They are tracked by their IP.  I doubt this forum would be the type to be so monitored, but you never know.. Things can get weird when people in authority want to make a 'federal case' over something or target someone.

Keeping IP confidential is not just for computer security, but far more important, for personal anonymity, as it is a basic tool for stalking, profiling and worse..

Why would there be do many sites offering anonymizing service for people to surf the web with their IP masked, if IP privacy was of so little concern?

[GhostShip]

For most people it is of little concern, some folks worry about such things and maybe they feel that big brother is there with access to all their secrets, the reality is we are of virtually zero importance.

In the EU area it is illegal to gather lists of IPs as this is covered by many data protection laws, we show respect for the posters here as that is one of the responsibilities of running a forum.

One point I disagree on mind you, if you feel its ok for a paedophile etc to continue posting on sites while  we wait for his ISP to act then you really are not looking to the welfare of the community.

[GnarlySnarly]

One point I disagree on mind you, if you feel its ok for a paedophile etc to continue posting on sites while  we wait for his ISP to act then you really are not looking to the welfare of the community.

Sheeesh.. what a red herring.

Where did I ever suggest such a thing?
I haven't see any here, but can imagine your post delete button would do the job. ... after you make a copy to forward to the ISP and authorities that handle such.

This has NOTHING that relates to anything I posted.

And whatever laws may exist in EU, it didn't stop that EU resident from tracking my IP from another forum which displayed the posters IP back to the opannap server where they had admin powers.  They then determined the nick i was using on opennap with that IP and posted it back to the forum.  Just a minor example i know, but internet stalking can get much worse and have far more serious consequesnces.

[KM]

if you want to keep a static IP Address like that then don't do anything you wouldn't want people to know about...

and the internet wouldn't function very well if every packet your system sent didn't contain the IP Address that can be used to address return data to

[..Ñøßߥ..]

i tried a few times to post on this, but the sites been down more often than km's pants on a night out with Vladd


IP's:

If you dont want your IP to be known, go pull the internet cable out the wall.

Rooms & forums:

If you dont like the policy of a particular room or forum, press exit and dont go back there.

End of....

[GnarlySnarly]

if you want to keep a static IP Address like that then don't do anything you wouldn't want people to know about...

and the internet wouldn't function very well if every packet your system sent didn't contain the IP Address that can be used to address return data to

doesn't matter if it is dynamic or static, both can be used for stalking  and tracing.. etc..

I understand IPs are the neture of the internet, but they don't have to be and should not be exposed more than necessary.  And if you can't do things you wouldn't want certain people to know about, life wouldn't be worth living.

for those who resist the status quo, challenge the bosses, life is difficult enough without enabling thousands of net-nanny vigilante types to take up tracking and tracing as a hobby.


anyway, I am happy that this site does not attach an IP to every post.

^5 for that progress

[GhostShip]

This has NOTHING that relates to anything I posted

I was aware of that Gnarly but its nice to have the extremes out in the open as well as the general points.
I think that helps forge a consensus.  

[guest]

hi ive just opened a new room and ive loaded the config, but channel name hasnt changedon the top of page and nobody can enter the room pls help

[Anonymous]

hi ive just opened a new room and ive loaded the config, but channel name hasnt changedon the top of page and nobody can enter the room pls help

[Me Here]

Usually if you close the room and restart this will fix that problem, ofter reload of the config doesnt work, also be sure that you have not changed the port number on the config and forgot to open that port in your router, dsl modem or firewall...

[guest]

ive config xp firewall port and xpsp firewall rebooted comp reloaded config in channel no change /channelname comes up but still hasnt changed and nobody can come in.  

[Me Here]

That sounds strange for sure,  I would make sure the config is loaded into the correct folder,  and if that doesnt work you may have to reinstall the server.... Save your config into say "my documents" or somewhere to save it tho so that you dont loose it.. let me know..

[guest]

the config is in winmx folder in c drive restarted winmx and did another config for the channel i dont know whether this as anything to do with it...im unable to get a channel list in primary connection.....a friend says my channel is on the list but unable to enter...i can get my chat bot in tho