AOL and IRC chat....

Hey guys, this is my first post and I have heard a couple things about how to get the ip from these chats, but not quite sure. anywayz, I deal with people all day long that might be identifying themselves as more than one person, so it would be helpful to be able to identify who is who if they are posting under other names! In no way do I want to use this for any bad purpose, just so I know who I am talking to! Thanks for your help. By the way, I hope to contribute a lot to this forum as well as am looking forward to hearing others expertise!!

dont know about aol, but in irc you can just
/whois nick
where nick is the name of the person you are trying to get info on. if i was chatting under the name "{1337d00d" you could just /whois {1337d00d and get my hostmask. compair hostmasks. if they match you either have the same person or sombody on the same isp. if the part before the @ matches you most definatly have the same person.

note: this will NOT get their ip, usually just their mask.

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hostmask. compair hostmasks. if they match you either have the same person or sombody on the same isp. if the part before the @ matches you most definatly have the same person.

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Don't you mean the part after the @ symbol? Before the @ symbol, isn't it the identd string? AFAIK the identd-value is not a good way to determine who is who, because on clients without identd servers it will often appear as their nickname anyway, save with a tilde in front... So if they log off, change nicks, log on, then it will change (if identd off). They could also change the identd information manually.

I think using the IP/Hostname (did you mean hostname?) is far better, so long as you give consideration to static/dynamic issues. If the IP/Hostnames are the exact same, then it is probably the same person (but not necessarily, given dynamic IP allocation). If they are similar except for the first part of the hostname or the last number of the IP address, then it is possibly the same person, if it is a dynamic IP scheme.

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Originally posted by Terr
If the IP/Hostnames are the exact same, then it is probably the same person (but not necessarily, given dynamic IP allocation). If they are similar except for the first part of the hostname or the last number of the IP address, then it is possibly the same person, if it is a dynamic IP scheme.

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BUT, if the ip/hostname is different but similar and the ID is the same, it may just be the person closing their connection and re-dialing if they are dial-up.

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Originally posted by 8*B@LL


BUT, if the ip/hostname is different but similar and the ID is the same, it may just be the person closing their connection and re-dialing if they are dial-up.

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Not necessarily. There are lots of @home users out there who just log on with the default user@ip from mirc, ircle or another irc program. Hence, you'll see lots of [email protected] (an example of one of the subnets). It's very easy to change the ID and information about user.

If someone is looking to see if another person has logged on twice you can use a combination of the techniques above:

1. check for hostname for matches
2. check for ip for matches
3. watch for similar writing style
4. watch for scripts
5. watch exit messages (when the user quits they can put a message in. Many people forget to change this when they are attempting to be someone else).

ok Ms.Mittens, ill give you that one, but mIRC(which is just about the most popular irc client) uses the first part of your original email address that you signed up with. the only time i'd say to ignore the id is
1) when its something that looks like a default, such as "guest" "IRCuser"...stuff like that or
2) when it is the name of a script, such as "Acidmax" and "P&P2000"(peace and protection 2000)

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Originally posted by 8*B@LL
ok Ms.Mittens, ill give you that one, but mIRC(which is just about the most popular irc client) uses the first part of your original email address that you signed up with.

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No it doesn't. You can put whatever you want in the ID portion of mirc. That's a convention in irc. I've often used bobcat@ipaddress. My actual email starts with something else.

You have the option to put whatever you want in. That's why one doesn't go solely based on the id.

Come visit in the AO chat sometime and I will show you. I've used many of the popular chat clients including mIRC (windows), ircle (mac) xchat and bitchx (linux).

O.k., so I knew about the whois function on irc, but a lot of times that doesn't tell you the whole ip, so I was just seeing if there was another way.

Thanks for the info. Also, what about AIM? Is netstat the best way?

A lot of people come in here asking about tools for AIM and MSIM, but unlike ICQ, these guys tend to communicate through the server all the time, except when actually moving a file. So you could find their IP address when they send you a file (and you accept), of if you send them one (and they accept), via netstat, but otherwise it's pretty unlikely.

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Originally posted by MsMittens
No it doesn't. You can put whatever you want in the ID portion of mirc. That's a convention in irc. I've often used bobcat@ipaddress. My actual email starts with something else.

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arg...i gotta start thinking about being more clear and complete in my thoughts.... mirc by DEFAULT uses the first part of your email that you give it. sorry i was kinda unclear(ok, really unclear:-P)