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Brendan Tompkins [MVP] » People giving comments think they're totally anonymous... Do you think we should tell them the truth?
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People giving comments think they're totally anonymous... Do you think we should tell them the truth?

A while back someone spammed a bunch of blogs with weird comments, possibly thinking that they were totally anonymous.  Now, if you have a blog, and it's run using .TEXT, like the blogs hosted on dotnet junkies, you already know that along with the user's comments, you have access to the user's browser IP address. 

Now, if you know even more about networks,  you know how to find out information about the user who sent you a comment, using this IP address.   Often, with a little luck and guessing, you can get a pretty good idea who that person is. 

Like, earlier today, I got a strange comment from an anonymous person.  Using tools like this one, and this one here, I can figure out the longitude and latitude of the network, generally speaking.  Do you think we should let people know this, before they post crap to our blogs? 

-Brendan

Posted 05-14-2004 10:44 AM by Brendan Tompkins

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Comments

pds wrote re: People giving comments think they're totally anonymous... Do you think we should tell them the truth?
on 05-14-2004 7:44 AM
Do you think the spammers/idiots care? So someone is comment-bombing you (or whatever the kids are calling it). So?

People are actively breaking copyright laws, all day, every day, on the internet, exposing their IPs in the process. And guess what? The vast majority of them get away with it.

Oh, and feel free to look up my IP--like it matters.

Pete
(another semi-anonymous commenter)
Brendan wrote re: People giving comments think they're totally anonymous... Do you think we should tell them the truth?
on 05-14-2004 8:19 AM
Well, I can see that you're in Austin Texas, or thereabouts... Not that it matters, I agree. Sometimes, though, you get someone targeting you, specifically, like an angry ex or whatever. Times like this, these tools come in very useful!

Thanks, for the comment.!
Doug Thews wrote re: People giving comments think they're totally anonymous... Do you think we should tell them the truth?
on 05-14-2004 10:33 AM
You're assuming that the spammers are actually usin gtheir own machines. Quite often they use "infected" machines, leading you to an IP of a dial-up ISP, or a block of IPs used by Covad and leased by some porr unsuspecting grandmother who's just surfing the web on her HP Pavillion (blissfully unaware that someone is spoofing her IP, or worse hyjacking her PC to spam you through a Spyware product).
Brendan Tompkins wrote re: People giving comments think they're totally anonymous... Do you think we should tell them the truth?
on 05-14-2004 2:56 PM
Right you are too Doug. I'm really thinking about people who want to post "fdafa" on my blog comments over and over again. I'm assuming anyone sophisticated enough to spoof and address, isnt' going to entertain themselves by doing this, just to see if my blog comments are live.
Micha wrote re: People giving comments think they're totally anonymous... Do you think we should tell them the truth?
on 05-27-2004 12:59 AM
You're wrong about that tools. Just look what it returns for my IP

http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/netgeo.ch?ip=193.77.157.149

I'm not from Holland.

Check this tool. It gives you more correnct info :)
http://www.geobytes.com/IpLocator.htm?GetLocation

Another thing is. OK. It's not a problem when you have clients all around the world. But having some people in the same company behind the same router it's a problem, because all they have the same IP.
Brendan Tompkins wrote re: People giving comments think they're totally anonymous... Do you think we should tell them the truth?
on 05-27-2004 2:17 AM
Wow! That's cool Micha! Thanks!
Micha wrote re: People giving comments think they're totally anonymous... Do you think we should tell them the truth?
on 05-27-2004 10:17 PM
Hey no problem :) I developed a visitor identification system a few months ago. It's under test now. It's quite capable. Every platform connected gets it's own ID and I acquire as much information from that platform as possible. Including monitor resolution & color depth. This helps the application to recognize a visitor even it does not accept cookies.
Micha wrote re: People giving comments think they're totally anonymous... Do you think we should tell them the truth?
on 05-27-2004 10:32 PM
OK. Whay I did that. I have quite a popolar photo web page. And I also get comments. Some are nice, but some of them are not nice. Well this new platform identification system helped me identify some of the people giving me bad comments and I found one of them was one of my friends. He is just extremely jealous about the success I have with the page.
Brendan Tompkins wrote Again, we know who you are...
on 10-22-2004 1:46 PM
Again, we know who you are...
mahesh wrote re: People giving comments think they're totally anonymous... Do you think we should tell them the truth?
on 12-05-2004 10:57 PM
The referer IP can be faked. The only way to check for the real IP is to use Extended Logfile Format. If you do that, it will show you both the actual and the fake IP address.

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