Question about IP address'

[Andrew Shaw]

Hello All,

I have a quick question about IP address.

If anyone is fermilier with a forum's control panel, it logs and collects IP address from everyone that is a member of the forum.

My question is... If more then one member share the same IP address, does that mean they are either the same person, or used the same computer? or do IP address' change and it was just a coincidence that two members shared the same IP address at two diffferent times?

Thanks in advance.
Andrew Shaw

 

[Bender]

if two members have the same IP:
-they use the same computer
OR
-they use the same proxy

in extremely rare cases the "coincidence" may occur

 

[Andrew Shaw]

Thanks IT WEB.

Im sorry for my ignorance, Im not too technilogicly savvy...

If they are sharing the same proxy, does that mean they are the same person? I know proxies can be loaded into servers and can be used, but does that come by often?

 

[snicksnack]

If they are sharing the same proxy, does that mean they are the same person? I know proxies can be loaded into servers and can be used, but does that come by often?

It does not mean it is one person. A proxy has an IP and many people use this proxy to go to websites... So if for example 10 people use the proxy at the same time to access your website, you don't see directly if they are the same person or a different person. You could track it via cookies...

Also people might have the same IP, if they use the same network, for example people working for company xyz will normally have the same IP.

Hope that helps.

 

[Andrew Shaw]

Thank you both, it does help a lot.

Are there any other ways to find out if two members are the same person? It seems that proxies can easily inable scammers to do their work undetected.

 

[Bender]

proxies *might* forward the user's real IP - look for the X_FORWARDED_FOR info.
just don't trust too much on it, it can be faked.

 

[RazorNF]

Yeah, companies and campuses have computers on an internal private network, where everything will still have a unique IP. But when accessing sites outside on the Internet, as snicksnack says, it would show all the employees or students as coming from the same place.

So you definitely can't infer that multiple users on your forum are the same person if they share the same IP.

 

[simon]

also Big Universities might have the same IP and many users from the same IP might loginto a site simultaneously.

 

[Andrew Shaw]

Great advice from all of you. Thanks for taking the time.

 

[MrDude]

At home we have multiple computers connecting to the internet via a router, we all have the same wan IP, and in some cases we use the same sites (eg ********, myspace and others..). It could be family members on the same forum, it could be a member with multiple accounts. I know my ISP randomly assigns me an IP everytime I connect and I have on more than one occasion been assigned an IP which is banned from certain places, it could be 2 users on the same ISP

 

[harleyx]

By using a combination of cookies and IP address tracking, you can determine whether it's the same computer or two different computers on the same internet connection the vast majority of the time.

Granted, with enough work just about anything can be faked, but the vast majority don't know how or don't care enough to do so.