| Can one be traced to their ISP (computer),
Posted: 5/15/2008 2:57:54 AM | This is still the same info that can be obtained by using traceroute.
In the workplace, the ISP is frequently the organization. Every computer within that org connects to the Internet through a host computer (this is simplified). The host computer has the IP address which is included in employee emails etc.
A forum owner and I got into a discussion about this and he asked if he could try to find me as a test. I trusted the guy, and I was at work, so I said yes.
In less than 30 seconds he gave me the name of my employer and the address of the building I worked in. He said he could not trace it to me specifically within the company.
IP's contain the hostname - the name of the computer through which you access the Internet, that is, your ISP. For home users, the ISP is the business you pay for Internet access. However, many organizations are their own ISP, so the hostname may be the name of your company. The company address is found by looking up the company name on the Internet.
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| Can one be traced to their ISP (computer),
Posted: 5/15/2008 6:01:43 AM |
I've got a story like this too. While working on a story I was looking for a source to corroborate some information. I was on a message board when I read a statement about exactly what I needed confirmed. Of course, the post was anonymous.
I clicked on the message and was taken to a backdoor page that was all code. There I found the ISP number and a bunch of other data relating to the poster of that message. I took it to the IT department at the newspaper and asked the guy if he could track it for me. Less than an hour later, he told me the computer belonged to the state, the department where it was used and the address of the building.
After a FOIA request, the state had to tell me the name and other pertinent information of the employee using that computer. It was regarded as public information.
I bet she will forever be careful about what she does when on her work computer.
Great story! | |
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| Can one be traced to their ISP (computer),
Posted: 5/15/2008 6:03:44 AM |
IP's contain the hostname - the name of the computer through which you access the Internet, that is, your ISP. For home users, the ISP is the business you pay for Internet access. However, many organizations are their own ISP, so the hostname may be the name of your company. The company address is found by looking up the company name on the Internet.
A company or person's address can also be found by using a WHOIS database. | |
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| Can one be traced to their ISP (computer),
Posted: 5/15/2008 6:13:44 AM | | its easy to track down the computer in which a person is typing on. Iknow that for a fact. each computer has some number which identifies it. i know this becuaes somoene went into a chat room trying to be me and playing dirty with the men. I began getting emails like mad of men wnating to have sexual fun. I was in disbelief but anyway i went to all the chat rooms in that site and told them it was not me. an investigation took place by someone adn they found out it was nto me becuase the computer id numbers were diff even though he had same internet service provider. so his little scam was over. | |
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| Can one be traced to their ISP (computer),
Posted: 5/15/2008 8:09:38 AM |
A company or person's address can also be found by using a WHOIS database.
That is false... the whois lookup database if for domains. Domains have very little to do with the ISP being used. If they use a personalized email address or tell you their website then yes, you could potentially find out their address, but even then that's not accurate. I use an anonymous service to protect my personal information, something almost all providers offer for a small fee. Do a look up on sherilyn.net and you still won't have any idea as to my personal information. | |
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| Can one be traced to their ISP (computer),
Posted: 5/15/2008 8:12:40 AM |
its easy to track down the computer in which a person is typing on. Iknow that for a fact. each computer has some number which identifies it. i know this becuaes somoene went into a chat room trying to be me and playing dirty with the men.
What you are referring to is an IP address. That IP can only work though if you're computer is actually directly connected to the internet and not going through a router. The router will have a different IP than your computer and will block them from seeing that number or accessing that computer. Just because they could see the IP that recorded the information was different than the other one doesn't tell them where you live. All it did was prove that the activity did not come from your computer. | |
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| Can one be traced to their ISP (computer),
Posted: 5/15/2008 8:29:36 AM | Yes it is very easy to trace someones ISP through their email. That is how I am able to check these scammers. They can't get your exact address and all that info unless your server is through your address but they can tell you live in the city you claim you are in. For instance I work in Collinsville which is just across the river from St. Louis MO. If you trace my ISP it says I am using Charter capable with a location of St. Louis.
Don't worry, most people don't know how to do this and it would be a very in effective way to stalk someone. I would be more worried about someone you meet on the streets than someone you haven't yet met online. | |
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| Can one be traced to their ISP (computer),
Posted: 5/15/2008 8:46:08 AM | It generally isn't much trouble to find out what city someone lives in, based on their IP. All they need to do is log your IP from any connection between your computer and theirs, such as MSN (or a decent firewall can log it too). Then google "ip to location" and input your IP into one of the sites that come up.
It cannot get any more specific than the city (you won't find someone's street address, not here in Canada anyways) without more details than the IP. | |
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| Can one be traced to their ISP (computer),
Posted: 5/15/2008 11:28:26 AM |
This is still the same info that can be obtained by using traceroute.
In the workplace, the ISP is frequently the organization.....
....The company address is found by looking up the company name on the Internet.
Exactly. Moreover organizations use static IP addresses in general to run services like a webserver, these IPs mostly have a whois/DNS record containing some additional information as address, contacts (names, phone numbers, email, postal addresses), aliases... whatever. This information is public.
Most ISPs assign dynamic IP addresses to home users. Usually this IP is different each time you login, thus these IPs don't have a dedicated whois record (only a few ISPs give their customers the same IP each time, for instance if they also want to run a webserver)
A forum owner and I got into a discussion about this and he asked if he could try to find me as a test. I trusted the guy, and I was at work, so I said yes.
You said it... a forum owner whose webserver you contacted from a static IP of your company (public information). This is pretty much the level to give someone your card and he tells you who you are. You had direct contact, no third party was involved. And even this only works under certain conditions... if you don't use an elite proxy or an anonymity network as TOR or JAP (always be careful whose service you use if submitting sensitive passwords)
Its very easy if you know how to do it; I could do it in 30 seconds.
If the one who claimed this isn't the one who administrates the POF webserver it would be already pretty interesting how he would aquire the IP address that appeared on POF... if he could, well I wonder how he would access the proxy (somewhere in the States, England, Denmark) that hides my public IP (and protects me from some nasty malware as well) when using the internet from work... maybe he even can accomplish this somehow... how would he identify my computer that is hidden by the firewall beside many others (all appearing as one)... and finally... if he really overcame this too I think he would have a hard time to convince my employer (or my ISP) to give him my address...
...no reason to worry too much because of using POF  | |
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| Can one be traced to their ISP (computer),
Posted: 5/15/2008 11:44:29 AM | Just relax, OP... the biggest risk you are running into is freaking people out with this attitude. Completely understandable given your background, but still.. changing that ought to be a priority on your personal "to do" list. Now, it COULD be that you are just incredibly intuitive and the guy was real danger... don't know.
Can you be traced to your ISP? Yup, within seconds. Will that give him your EXACT location? No, unless the guy hacks the ISP (or maybe your PC), which is illegal and takes a certain level of skill. The only people who posess those skills are 1) teenagers, 2) professional computer people. Is he either? Moreover, hackers tend to be pretty harmless in their personal lives. Just kids fascinated with technology and abstract models to the point of addiction. They usually outgrow their desire to hack Pentagon and their love's computer by the time they are 18, and move on to making their 6 digits. They don't "glance" at you and stuff... they are all virgins by the way.
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| Can one be traced to their ISP (computer),
Posted: 5/15/2008 12:26:25 PM |
A company or person's address can also be found by using a WHOIS database.
That is false... the whois lookup database if for domains. Domains have very little to do with the ISP being used. If they use a personalized email address or tell you their website then yes, you could potentially find out their address, but even then that's not accurate. I use an anonymous service to protect my personal information, something almost all providers offer for a small fee. Do a look up on sherilyn.net and you still won't have any idea as to my personal information.
You are absolutely correct and I stand corrected.
Thanks for catching that, I don't like posting wrong information.
Also, you do a good practice. Those who are worried about privacy can pay a small fee to kept private. | |
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| Can one be traced to their ISP (computer),
Posted: 5/15/2008 1:12:40 PM | | every computer has an id number. assuem two people are both using computer with say cox internet service. well both are cox but when u look up the isp it also has a number after it. that number identifies the computer. | |
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| Can one be traced to their ISP (computer),
Posted: 5/15/2008 1:38:30 PM |
A company or person's address can also be found by using a WHOIS database.
That is false... the whois lookup database if for domains.... You are absolutely correct and I stand corrected.
...really?
From Wikipedia: WHOIS (pronounced "who is"; not an acronym) is a TCP-based query/response protocol which is widely used for querying an official database in order to determine the owner of a domain name, an IP address, or an autonomous system number on the Internet.
Well, the owner can be a company (e.g. an ISP) or a person. Why should this be wrong? | |
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| Can one be traced to their ISP (computer),
Posted: 5/15/2008 1:51:38 PM | The OP never said she worked at the grocery store?????????
What I don't understand is if she was at work and using her WORK computer the ISP address would be her work address not her home computer personal address to trace. So, this whole story does not make any sense and makes me go hmmmmmmmmmmmmm! | |
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| Can one be traced to their ISP (computer),
Posted: 5/15/2008 2:08:38 PM | The simple fact is, it is unbelievable easy to track someone down if you are very determined. And you don't have to have special computer knowledge to do it.
For example, I had a person threaten me. He even told me the name of the town I lived in. He thought that would intimidate me. My response? I literally laughed.
Why? Because threats don't mean anything to me. Also, though he thought I did not know who he was or where he lived, I knew his first and last name and his exact home address. I knew what university he attended, but not the campus. I did not know what he looked like, but I knew he was a "big strong man" and that he was the only male living at his home address.
How did I know this? Was it through hitech hacking? No. It was through a face to face conversation with someone else. Like I said, tracking someone down is very easy to do.
As myself and others have pointed out, local nut jobs are as much as so-called "danger" as non-local nutjobs.
A person can be paranoid or they can take reasonable precautions and live a happy live. I choose the latter.
I set up methods to convince people that they really do not want to track me down in a malicious way. So they don't. | |
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| Can one be traced to their ISP (computer),
Posted: 5/15/2008 2:52:32 PM |
From Wikipedia: WHOIS (pronounced "who is"; not an acronym) is a TCP-based query/response protocol which is widely used for querying an official database in order to determine the owner of a domain name, an IP address, or an autonomous system number on the Internet.
Well, the owner can be a company (e.g. an ISP) or a person. Why should this be wrong?
No offense... but if you have to go to wikipedia to find out what the WHOIS lookup is then you probably won't understand what it actually is. You supported my statement with your quote but don't even seem to realize that. You can't look up some random persons IP and find out who they are from that database. What you can find out out is who owns a website and what IP is associated with it. My personal domain address has zero to do with where my internet IP comes from and can't even be linked together. | |
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| Can one be traced to their ISP (computer),
Posted: 5/15/2008 3:48:10 PM |
No offense...
don't worry sherilyn
but if you have to go to wikipedia to find out what the WHOIS lookup is then you probably won't understand what it actually is.
Well, I am willing to learn....
Wikipedia makes it understandable for almost everyone. If you have a look at the RFC and comments (http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1834.html) you won't find much different information, same counts for man pages of tools like whois but until now I didn't even think of to refer to something technical like that in this forum.
You can't look up some random persons IP and find out who they are from that database.
I didn't claim that... none of my posts.
What you can find out out is who owns a website and what IP is associated with it.
Right, I agree. It's still exactly what I was referring to: A company or person's address can also be found by using a WHOIS database. and unlike you I still think this is true.
OPs question was if one can be traced to their ISP, even giving the work example... a whois query on a given IP will lead you to the owner of the domain it belongs to, usually a company or a person. If the result of such a query would be aol.com I would expect that I encountered an AOL user. If the result would be happy-travel.com owned by Travel Agency "Take-Me-Away" Inc. I would assume the one used an IP from this company, probably working for them.
So isn't this exactly the way one would be traced back to their ISP or company they work for? (leaving proxies and such stuff out) | |
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| Can one be traced to their ISP (computer),
Posted: 5/15/2008 4:28:05 PM |
Do a look up on sherilyn.net and you still won't have any idea as to my personal information.
Message me and I'll give you your name, address, email and phone number. It's right there and is public information. | |
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| Can one be traced to their ISP (computer),
Posted: 5/15/2008 6:07:20 PM | Send it away... it is not there, lol.
The information you emailed me was over 8 years old and highly inaccurate. I was still married at that address. I have owned my domain for 10 years now. | |
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| Can one be traced to their ISP (computer),
Posted: 5/15/2008 9:29:06 PM | what they can do Is send you an attachement via email ( photo or story ect ) and put in that some thing that allows access to your computer.
My nephew tells me even 12 yr olds these days can do that .. so yes they can then get any Information they want - read emails and chats ect ect. | |
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| Can one be traced to their ISP (computer),
Posted: 5/16/2008 2:56:03 AM |
My nephew tells me even 12 yr olds these days can do that .. so yes they can then get any Information they want - read emails and chats ect ect.
It's called a keylogger but anyone who opens emails with attachments and doesn't know the person is simply asking for trouble.
Best solution? Don't use a Windows-based email or use a Mac
:) | |
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| Can one be traced to their ISP (computer),
Posted: 5/16/2008 10:58:50 AM | What I find interesting about this thread is that we have several experts on here who are giving you correct information, yet people are still arguing about it. 
Can you trace a HOME user to their home based on their IP address? Not unless you have access to PRIVATE information based at the ISP. This is not publicly available. The best you can do is get an approximation of their location, the accuracy of which can vary wildly.
Can you trace a business user to the business based on IP? Very likely, especially if the business has a dedicated Internet connection, e.g. T-1, metro Ethernet, or something along those lines. Bigger businesses might have even more complex Internet connections that would allow you to get address information about the business including technical contact information. That's quite easy to do.
WHOIS gives you information about domain names, not users. It's becoming more common for that information to be handled by a proxy service that maintains anonymity for the real owners of the domain. Regardless, it would do you no good to try to track a home user. It's just not the right tool for that job. | |
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| Can one be traced to their ISP (computer),
Posted: 5/16/2008 7:05:11 PM | yea someone can trace ur isp to ur computer. ive had guys told me they did that but they never showed my addy and what city i live in! i had this happen to me when i was a teen, i was in a grocery store buying somethin and i saw 2 white guys. one was a redhead and the other was a brunette, never seen them in my life nor did i know they existed! i was wondering why they were still staring at me, i was thinkin i dont think ive spoken to those men on yahoo chat. they got what they needed and left the store, i was in line paying for my stuff. i stayed there for a while, then left the store and went home.
be careful, next time that happens write down his license plate number and report his ass! | |
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