Re: How do ISPs know what IP you have?
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Originally posted here by syberdave
[B]Everybody hears how the RIAA and the MPAA can track your IP and ask your ISP for your information.
My question is: how do ISPs know which customer has what IP?
They allocate them, so they log who has which one. Depending on the connection type, this could be relatively easy - chances are their rotuers which allocate IPs to customers using PPP just log each customer's IP and store it centrally on some server somewhere.
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My theory is that they check their DHCP server logs to see which IPs are issued to whom.
Or DHCP if they use DHCP if they have an ethernet-like broadband. Again, their routers will record which MAC address belongs to which customer, and you will have to register the MACs or it will automatically record a customer-MAC address table.
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But, I could just make linux claim another IP and do my leeching from there instead, and dispose of it when I don't need it anymore. Would that make me hidden from them?
If you told your machine it had a different IP address, almost certainly you would not be able to communicate, because their routers would not automatically update their routing tables, so you would not receive any packets.
Not only that, if they detected such spoofing, they'd probably assume your machine was broken and cut it off.
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I know that the MAC address could link it to me, but do routers keep track of the MAC address and which IPs they used?
MAC addresses are only for ethernet. Most broadband providers do not really use ethernet, even if they use something which "looks like" it.
So there is likely to be an underlying address that you cannot change.
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I'm relating these questions to a cable ISP (optimum online).
As I say, they probably don't "really" use ethernet.
If you abuse their service, they have the right to cut you off. If they suspect that you are doing something really naughty, they can report you to the relevant authorities. Either way, attempting to abuse the system is asking for trouble.
It's highly unlikely that an ISP would cut you off if you aren't abusing *their* service, unless they are asked to by some higher power. I'm pretty sure they won't routinely scan every packet for nasty stuff - if they did that all the time, they would not make any profit because all their money would be spent on hardware and personnel to do it.
Slarty