TER General Board

LE Can Track You Down From Your IP Address
10v3sf3114t10 100 Reviews 457 reads
posted

Exposing your true IP address from an Internet connection registered in your real name leaves you just about as vulnerable to LE as using a phone number registered in your real name. LE can track you down by going to the Internet service provider and learning which customer used a given IP address at a given time.  

In the context of the hobby, there are two main ways in which you could expose your IP address:

1) The IP address from you send an email to a provider or a client will be in the header of that email.  

2) A website on which you have an account - such as TER or the verification services - typically logs the IP addresses from which you log in. If there is a compromise of such a website (remember Ashley Madison?), or if LE gains access to those logs, they could use that information to find the users of those accounts.

I recently have been looking into VPN's lately and wanted to know for those of you that use a VPN Service, which one do you currently use or which one would you recommend? I'm not sure if asking which one you use is a smart question, forgive me if it is not. As I said, I'm learning about them.

I could have sworn there was a post about VPN's this summer but when I search I'm not coming up with anything.  

It's also a topic that I would like to talk about on my next blog, so I thought all of you would be a good resource

I'm always on my phone or tablet and I believe there are a few VPN apps that are free and very easy to set up. The one I use is called betternet and it pretty much sets up itself.

Tor (the Onion Router) is a more effective means of concealing your true IP address than a VPN, and it is also free. It transmits your Internet traffic to and from its destination in encrypted form and through a series of proxies. Anyone who looks at the IP address from which your traffic originated - say, from which you sent an email to a client, or from which you logged into TER - will only see an IP address of one of Tor's exit nodes from around the world. The downside is that it is often slow.

Thank you all so much. I also had no clue there were apps for this stuff too.  

What sparked this interest in the first place was a conversation I was having with a friend of mine that works at a hotel. She was giving me advice as to not check my email or go to any adult sites while using free wifi. I began asking more questions and found all her advice to be helpful.  

When I learn something that may help someone in the hobby, I generally put it in my blog. I like to help people when I can. Long story short, whether a provider or hobbyist...use your phones connection to check or surf adult sites. Hotels can see how much your using their "free wifi" and what your using it for.

Thanks again everyone.

CuriousSort481 reads

1) Use a VPN in a foreign country.  Make sure they don't store log files.

2) Use an email address from a foreign email service provider.  Don't use GMAIL!

Anonymity doesn't exist on the Internet.  If the law wants to find you they will.  The best you can hope to do is make it difficult for them.  One of the ways is to use foreign services which is tougher for records to be obtained from.

A VPN alone doesn't do it.  If you're running antivirus software, for example, that phones home it may show your VPN IP and your real IP coming from the same computer.  

There is a whole bunch of stuff that needs to be done beyond just a VPN.  I half thought of putting together a hobby system on a stick and selling to people.  :)

I like that idea very much.
Who has time to look up all this information?  
It's easier to have a one stop gadget or solution.

Register Now!