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Nothing sinister in this question but I wondered if you submit a comment to a blog webpage or similar (like the comments after articles on newspaper websites) can the webpage user trace you in any way? I've visited webpages that show your own ip address and know it is possible to find details of a company website with that information but what about private individuals?
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They will know the IP address of the Internet connection used to post the comment. And you can trace that via the ISP to find out who it was registered to/used by at the time. But to get the ISP to trace this, you're going to need to ask them for cooperation which rules out individuals and companies I'd have though - leaves the police, intelligence services, etc.
But, most IP addresses will be shared. For home Internet use the IP address belongs to the router and all computers share that one IP address. For a company, there will almost certainly be a proxy server (or multiple proxies) and everyone will be using that and that is the IP address used for the 'blog post'. If you post from a mobile phone then the same IP address is probably used by everyone on the same network.
So in reality, you're not going to track who posted something.
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If you are using your real name, not too difficult to find you via Facebook, LinkedIn etc.
Usually when you post, your IP address, browser type etc. noted.
If you are posting from a corporate network, your individual PCs IP address may be recorded.
If you are posting from home and using a proxy server (or IP anonymizer application) your fake IP address will be record and quite difficult to identify someone from that.
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>> If you are posting from a corporate network, your individual PCs IP address may be recorded.
More likely to be the IP address of the proxy server. Most companies will use private network addresses so recording that is useless. Anything starting 192.168.x.y or 10.x.y.z are private address ranges.
>> If you are using your real name, not too difficult to find you via Facebook, LinkedIn etc.
Not everyone is on those are they ;-)
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Not long ago I read that someone had been able to trace the poster of some rather unpleasant personal remarks on a website, but had to obtain a court order to do so.
Sorry to be so vague.
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I suspect those able to trace info might include an order from a civil court as well as police and more secretive law and order bodies.
The blog host might also increasingly want to protect themselves by getting closer to poster's real identity. Ryanair were aggressive in pursuing Aviation Herald after disliking the tone of reports/comments following a serious incident at a German airport.
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Thanks all. As I said nothing sinister so it won't become a security services issue! Just want to set up a major birthday event for a relative and knowing I could post something on their blog thingy under a random username and not be rumbled would be a great help.
Last edited by: Fenlander on Wed 30 Jan 13 at 12:54
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Yes you can trace something to an IP address. But to get the ISP to disclose that information you're going to need a court order. If someone tried tracing something I posted they could figure out the IP address my router uses and then request BT to say who had that IP address at the time of interest.
But this won't tell you which computer/phone/tablet in the house might have posted something offensive. And then the BT HomeHub is also a BTFON/BT Openzone hotspot as well.... so in theory it could be anyone connecting through my hub.
If you posted something using a mobile network connection, less chance of locating the device used because everyone on a mobile network will share a single IP address. This is why you cannot host services on a smartphone via the mobile network - you don't have a 'real' IP address.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Wed 30 Jan 13 at 12:53
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>> And then the BT HomeHub is also a BTFON/BT Openzone hotspot as well.... so in
>> theory it could be anyone connecting through my hub.
If so, that is an over-riding reason never to use BT HomeHub.
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It's not a problem, it provides two networks, your own private network and the BT open network
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To use an Openzone hotspot you have to be logged in to a username/password combination. Whilst it is not specific to the hub you are using, it is unique to you.
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Nobody can access your network and they do need to logon. Max download speed that is provided is 500Kbps.
But it will be sharing the same IP address assigned to the router (there's not enough IP4 addresses for BT to provide 2 or 3!)... so my point is it makes it more difficult to say it was someone in the house that posted something on a website.
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>> To use an Openzone hotspot you have to be logged in to a username/password combination.
Not with my Tesco phone contract. I just had to enter my mob number. I only have access to some Openzones though.
The Openzone hotspot can be disabled by the customer via their router settings if they so wish.
Last edited by: VxFan on Wed 30 Jan 13 at 18:31
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>> The Openzone hotspot can be disabled by the customer via their router settings if they so wish.
You have to opt out via the BT website. Opting out means you cannot then make use of free access to FON and Openzone hotspots yourself. Hence not opting out. But would they know if my router didn't offer this... I might say no but the router knows it's enabled so may be reporting back.
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I don't think it would normally be all that difficult to trace any anonymous poster on anything if you thought it worth putting in enough detective work.
People let slip slip an awful lot of information over the course of a period of posting on different threads. On this forum we often know roughly, or sometimes quite precisely, where someone lives, his car, his family circumstances, his house description, his route to work, job.
He may use the same alias in another forum, perhaps a specialised interest where he is more forthcoming about his circle of aquaintancies, describes group meetings, etc. Tie them all together, and the seemingly infinite number of possibilities becomes quite small, and feasibly traceable if someone wants to do the legwork.
Then there is more subtle stuff like comparing language use, sentence structure, favourite words. etc to detect authorship.
There's no hiding place if someone is determined to find you, so why bother hiding?
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Indeed. We had a chap come to the house and do some odd jobs last year, and he did them well enough that we thought we'd send him a Christmas card. All I knew was his first name, a rough idea of the town he lived in (choice of three or four) and that he had talked once about both cricket and fishing.
He has no online presence in his own right, but even that was sufficient to find his address and send him the card, which he rang up about as he appreciated it.
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Twice I've managed to look up someone address that we met on holiday because of what I knew about them. Didn't ask the first because wanted the card to be a bit of a surprise for an anniversary. The other we'd asked for the address to send a birthday card but the wife hadn't done it - so I found it... easily. And for those I didn't even know a surname.
As you say if you know a little about someone then you might find them.
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I don't do that. I use two different routes ot and from work and even different vehicles - me paranoid ???
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>>The other we'd asked for the address to send a birthday card but the wife hadn't done it - so I found it... easily.
I'd pay for a picture of husband & wife faces when they got the card (and to hear the conversation).
"I thought I told you not to give the crazy man our address!!"
"I didn't!"
"Well, he's found us....."
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I traced an individual on a beekeeping forum - really nasty individual - by searching for the names of people thrown off other beekeeping forums.
Took 10 minutes..
(and I found the event which caused his expulsion, his full name, where he lived and his blog entries)
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Well don't keep us hanging! What did you do? Set up a sting?
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I think you'll find that BT log the hotspot use, so they can tell whether that was one of your devices or someone hopping onto the hotspot.
Actually, having an open WiFi network is a good idea for these purposes - plausible deniability........
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>> I think you'll find that BT log the hotspot use, so they can tell whether
>> that was one of your devices or someone hopping onto the hotspot.
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>> Actually, having an open WiFi network is a good idea for these purposes - plausible
>> deniability........
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Yes I just happen to have one.
That nasty post I will not post about someone was written by a woman on a laptop whilst parked near our house collecting/delivering offspring to school or posting a letter...
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Being traced through a blog comment? - rtj70
