And you can do what with an ip address?

[Drklabyrinth]

Ok, I know how to trace one. I know what it is.


But what is the big deal if someone gets it? I mean what can you do with an ip address? How do you go about accessing someone elses computer? Its rather phinominal that you can do soo much with something you can obtain so easily.

[nihil]

Would you feel so casual about your SSN?

It depends on what the IP is and what security you have................ for example if you get my proxy IP it is pretty much useless, dynamic IPs are useless after a while...............

How do you go about accessing someone elses computer? Its rather phinominal that you can do soo much with something you can obtain so easily.

Please be careful about asking such questions, particularly having made a comment such as I quoted above

[er0k]

simply having the ip address doesn't mean much. all it is is an "address." The hype it gets is due to skiddies talking **** to their friends online, saying **** like "ooo dude im so 1337 i got your ip address."

Of course it used to mean a lot more, back when security was well, nonexistent. But those days are over and most of the time having an ip means about as much as knowing where someone lives.

Overall, however, its entirely contingent on the security of the computer, whether its behind things like proxies etc. that nihil mentioned. But at the very most its just a starting point for an attacker. (besides things like DOS attacks, etc, of course).

[NeuTron]

How do you go about accessing someone elses computer?

If thats the end goal of your research, you will probably never be successful. Learning how to gain access into someone else's computer is usally a biproduct of learning how to protect one. I would suggest you start with researching routing. IP addresses will make much more sense after you know how they are used. A CCNA course would be a great way to learn about routing, IP addresses, etc. This page looks promising.
-NeuTron

p.s. Please dont neg this person, he doesn't realize that his question seems very malicious.

[nihil]

Hi NeuTron ,

Thankyou for your support, as I did not feel that the question was malicious in its intent. That is why I urged him to be cautious.

I have seen nasty things happen where children have been allowed access to small business machines Particularly with a FIXED IP address.

Drklabyrinth I am quite prepared to help, but may not feel comfortable just posting on the site (the wrong sort of people may read the answer?). Please enable PMs (personal messages) in your preferences and ask that way in the first instance. It is a purple tab at the top of a post, or look for a member in the membership list query on the front page.

[Drklabyrinth]

That was not meant to be malicous, but if you took it that way i'm sorry. I am on a quest for knowledge. I want to know everything. From the entire internet to the very first circut put into a computer.

[nihil]

Hey Drklabyrinth , I was not having a go.................. just a comment that there might be some who would attempt it?

That is why I suggested that if you wanted you could always use private messaging, as I will try to make time to answer promptly (different lifestyles and timezones permitting )

gore is your man for operating system stuff............ I am more comfortable with hardware and applications.

Hey! I have still got some programs written on 80-column punched cards I did back in 1970

EDIT: Sorry, forgot to give a basic answer:

1. If you have a fixed IP address then you are always in the same place and people will know that. You may want this to be the case with websites, e-commerce, e-mail, games servers and the like. In fact, a guaranteed fixed address is generally more expensive.

The downside is that your computer is a "known target" to be probed for weaknesses such as open ports/ vulnerable services, or subjected to a denial of service attack.

Also your address could be "spoofed" specifically rather than at random.

2. With a dynamic IP address these are far less likely, although you could compromise yourself, and you would still be open to "bots" that are randomly searching for responses across blocks of IP addresses.

In both cases you need to protect your system and make sure that it is fully patched.

[kcore]

You want to know "EVERYTHING"? That's a large goal. Let me know when you get there.

[steve.milner]

As a starting point visit:

www.samspade.org

Type the IP into the box on the screen to the left of the 'Do Stuff' button and then press the button...

Enjoy.

Steve

[brokencrow]

An ip address is just that...an address. Every PC tied into the net has one, just like every house on your street (or any street) has one (an address).

So, you may not want everyone to know where you live, you may not want everyone to have your ip address. On the other hand, anyone who matters can get their hands on it. Your ISP (who assigns it!), law enforcement, the sites you visit. OK, maybe your Mom can't get her hands on it, but you see what I mean? Now, having said that, there's ways of hiding and/or masking your ip address.

The best place to start is to start paying attention to your PC's ip address. Just bring up a command prompt and type in "ipconfig".

After you've played with that awhile and picked up some of the switches ("ipconfig /all" for instance), download a little app called ShowIP. If you're behind a router, that one'll give you your LAN ip address and another (different) WAN address.

You wanna learn everything? Be patient...