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A search engine salesman told me that his company can determine the location of a user by their IP address. Is this true? The only way I know of is by writing code (such as in PHP) that captures the IP address and then runs a trace, but as far as I know, it will only take you to the ISP, not to the actual computer.
I was also told entering text in any HTML form or in any forum could be traced back to the actual computer that entered it. Is this possible?
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
If the salesman said it, it must be true. :)
Not the "physical address" (meaning not pin-point to someones house no) he is a sales men alright. Hes selling you a story ;)Quote:
A search engine salesman told me that his company can determine the location of a user by their IP address. Is this true?
Exactly, what if they used a proxy server? This would assist a little bit. :)Quote:
it will only take you to the ISP, not to the actual computer.
Also, a lot of people *register accounts* with their ISPs with "P.O. Boxes" instead of giving them there real physical address. It's fairly cheap for a P.O Box. ;)
I have heard about tracking laptops with GPS chips... and maybe a MAC addy...as for tracking exact location from an IP...uummmmmmm no...cause I could phone long distance to europe and connect to an ISP there...
Vendor could put some call home software on it...where it would connect to the vendor or some tracking site....the vendor would then need to get ISP records ...and proxie logs...which arent given out to just anyone
if you are doing something illegal and the authorities REALLY want to find you...they can request the records from the ISP (where you connected from and what account you used)
as for the html stuff...isnt that tracked in .dat files :shocked:
MLF
You might want to try this www.hidemyass.com
;)
Hi websteve and welcome to AO.
#1, Yes, the computer is located on planet Earth (in all probability).
#2, Everything can be traced given enough determination and co-operation on the part of those with the information. However, you have to ask yourself if that trace goes back to the real perp, or just the poor sucker whose unsecured WiFi I just leeched:D
Tell the salesman not to give up his day job, he could well be relying on it pretty soon;)
Ok, thanks guys. You all confirmed what I thought. There is no way (except maybe through law enforcement and a warrant to the ISP) that a user (or a system) can pinpoint exactly where any computer is located or who owns that particular machine. Come to think about it - it would be out right crazy if anyone could easily trace back to who you are!
- Steve
You are Steve, and I claim my $20
Johnno :p:D
Hahaha, I just realised, I just changed my phone plan so I don't pay for long distance within the US...So I could connect to a free ISP in California if i want without paying a cent...or in Europe for that matter like morgan said.(i live on the east coast)Quote:
Originally Posted by morganlefay
[edit]...speaking of which...Anyone in Europe that knows of some free ISPs out there?
Don't let this make you feel invincible, if they are executing something on your system, things get a bit more complex.
"There is no such thing as a free meal" ;)
In the UK, the "free" ISPs require you to open an account...........OK you can do this with false information, as they get paid by the Telco, when you connect.
I have never tried to get to one of my accounts via an international call, but I can certainly use UK long distance. This is usually a "national rate" which is a low-end composite, so everyone pays the same no matter where you are in the UK. This would be a bit like a "pay as you go cellphone".......... they could trace the connection, but not who was using it..............other than that it was the fake account that I had set up.
Now, I do get free calls and 1 hour for 1 cent and stuff.............. I don't know what happens there, presumably the Telco still pays something to the ISP?
I do recall connecting to one dial-up account using broadband.......... they closed that hole pretty quickly as they weren't getting paid ;)
Its totally not possible?
"Google Maps server is used to translate IP information to pinpoint the machines' physical location."
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,12...s/article.html
There is no way you can track location by IP....
I could call an australian ISP...get an Australian IP address...and I am Canada...
A trace on my IP from work shows Ottawa....wrong, from home shows Toronto...wrong again....
:rolleyes:
MLF
Hi Morgana~ looks like we might have a minor bug? your last post duplicated with exactly the same time stamp :confused:............. I will keep an eye on it as I have seen that happen once before in the last few days.
Derekeftink: it is totally not possible, particularly for the likes of Google. Let me give you an example. I am in the UK using a common broadband provider who is also my Telco. They know my name (they think) my address & phone number...........which must be right, and the bank details from which I pay them.
When I connect to the internet I am assigned a volatile IP address from their address block. This will change every time I log on, and all it will tell a third party is who is my ISP, and which node I am using. All of these are many miles from where I really live.
Similarly, my 56.6 dial up can be contacted from anywhere within the UK and will only give the location of the node that I have selected, when I set the link up.
The only people who could run a trace would be law enforcement and National Security Agencies.............and they would need a court order. And I really wonder how much good one of those would be if I used my account in Hanoi :D
The only absolute security is to leech someone else's connection. That does not make it untraceable, but means someone else gets the blame ;)
As for geographical location, you will only find that of the ISP.......... assuming that the tables are up to date.
http://visualroute.visualware.com/
this works some of the time. you can also do a few tricks in terminal
It can easily be traced down to the city, just with the IP address. In some instances, the exact location, even with a dynamic IP scheme, like ADSL. Proxy servers/addresses can be easily bypassed also.
Tim
Tim,
You are wrong.................it cannot be traced that accurately with confidence............ you would not get within 150 miles of me :D
You get to the nearest ISP node and no closer.
With AOL you are even more out of luck because their architecture is equivalent to a series of proxy servers.
:)
Yep...and my ISP is 300 Kms away...
Not very accurate
and it all goes to pot if I use a proxy....in some other country
unless you can get the proxy logs
MLF
http://www.dnsstuff.com
Show the email contacts for the IP address, call the NOC guy at 2:00AM, tell him "User at x.x.x.x is attempting to brute force my FTP server---are they dangerous? Where are they located?"
Tim
Whaaat! hey, what planet are you living on?.................. "call"............ you think that anyone answers the phone outside of office hours?
Your server.............your problem.
That would get YOU a call in the middle of the night............. the people with access to the information know their data protection laws and the legal penalties for divulging such information without a subpoena.Quote:
are they dangerous? Where are they located?
And don't think that the tekkie garbage have access to financial and accounts data........... they don't. That is called security ;)
Now that can be checked.............and when found to be untrue?.............expect the knock on the door.Quote:
"User at x.x.x.x is attempting to brute force my FTP server"
Do you really want to follow in the footsteps of Kevin Mitnick?..............
All that DNS stuff or any other for that matter, shows is that I use a UK based service :D
ROFL!!!!!!!!!Quote:
Originally Posted by c1sc0m4n
1.) Call the NOC guy at 2 AM = Sent to Voicemail
2.) "User at x.x.x.x is attempting to brute force my FTP server---are they dangerous? Where are they located?" = NOC guy laughs hysteically while call is recorded and traced. NOC guy hangs up and law enforcement arrests you for social engineering.
Any admin that falls for that is a retard.
I need to work on my sarcasm...
Tim
lets kick in wifi nodes...i can use a shotgun style antena and hit wife from long range...then old school modem tricks....hit large company still useign PBX(there are a large number out there) get it to rerout the call, to say eastern europ...if you don't get greedy no one will ever trace you (the dopes caught by mister stole got greedy and stayed on the line way too long)
No one is safe anybody can be traced anywhere, you just need time.
Time is the key. The people who move around the internet like they are god can do what ever they want you know it to be true
Give me Time I know your in long Island Right? R U A doctor or somthing like that?
Your name is Steve Sachs
See who needs IP address only time
It can be scary how much can be found out about sombody
Tracking computers is a complex subject. It really goes hand-in-hand
with tracking individuals on the web. Technology is moving extraordinarily
fast. Wikipedia has a nice overview:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_surveillance
I'm particularly intrigued by some of the newer approaches to tracking
computers, users, and uses. Adi Shamir's technique of tracking high
frequency noise emitted by a CPU (including information about the
instructions being executed) is particularly intriguing, though I have
to wonder about its practicality. Also, IBM's research regarding keyboard
emissions (each key emits a slightly different noise when pressed) being
individually identifiable under some conditions, making it possible to
log key strokes without logging software run on the associated computer
holds a lot of paranoid promise. :p
I wouldn't count on computer anonymity unless you are freely able to
jump from computer to computer and network to network and have a
good grasp on networking. On larger networks, corporate and gov't, there's
often quite a bit of surveillance. More and more of that's coming to ISP's,
IMHO.
There have been many posts I have seen on this subject, and one in particular I remember is about Microsoft knowing everything, if you are running a Microsoft OS or Microsoft software...
Tim
brokencrow
your russian proverb is interesting.just ending is missing which i dont know if it was added latter:
a fish rots from head but is cleaned from tail.:)
Here's a Russian proverb...my great-grandmother used to say it...
"Ni popri hovno, lebu budj smerdet"
Tim
High frequ. noise from the cpu that would be very interesting to me..
althought it might not help the war agaist computer intrusion but being able to find out what sombody is typing just by the sound of the keys on a keyboard now that is high tech. I recored the keystroks of this post with a mic conected to my machine. I looked at the freq on a graph. I found only some keys make diff sounds. The biggest problem is that some keys are hit harder or softer than others making it very diffacult to try to figure out what sounds the diffrent keys make. If you hit the keys with the same amount of force then you could seperate the keys into diff sounds. But the human factor makes noise freq. keylogging unreliable...
There's other ways, a bit more obtuse, to track keyboard usage, say,
on a website like this. I believe javascript can be used to do it,
and that is to track typing patterns and speed. If you think about
it, everyone probably has a unique style of typing. Of course, the
way around that is composing in, say, notepad, then cut-and-paste.
But then, how paranoid can one get? :)
As for fish rotting from the head, I always took it as a metaphor about leadership.
The proverb I posted is actually Slovak, but some have said it was originally Russian. It means...
"Don't mess with sh*t, because it stinks."
Tim