I'm just wondering ...is there anyway someone knows who you are when you post under an alias ? The reason I ask is not because I use an alias for malevolent reasons. I've seen some people say " I know who you are by your IP address " Really ??? I don't see anything on my screen! Please,could someone clear this up for me??

A few people have been outed when they post using an alias
and then (usually in anger) post again in the same thread using
their TER handle.

Of course staff doesn't need to look at IP addresses.  They
know each TER handle's aliases since it has to be kept in a
database somewhere.

fr

As far as relating to your IP address, I would think that could only be done by TER, but what do I know?

Then again, the way I've been told that you CAN, could also indicate that. But, they would have to know your username's IP address first, in order to compare, I would think.

Agree with Frank, the sight does not show you the ip's that i've seen.  Most guessing is probly made off of the way a person writes.  and even going by ip's you can never be 100 percent sure sence most isp's use dynamic ip's.  the only way to tell for sure is off the mac address sence this is unique to each network card.

YES .. TER staff can see your Alias, see your private message, see your IP ... nothing is hidden from staff.

At most, it would tell a would-be researcher what ISP or company the post originated from.  In the overwhelming majority of cases today, there isn't a simple one-to-one mapping of IP addresses to users, or even to paritcular computers.  Instead, the network dyanamically assigns addresses on an as-needed basis, and will reassign a given address to a different computer when the previous computer is shutdown.

So, the logical chain of associations that would need to be established is:

IP Addr >> ISP >> Computer >> User

Even getting the IP address would be problematical in this case.  TER staff could get this, and perhaps TER's hosting company, but not likely anyone else.  Getting from ISP to computer to user could be done only with the active assistance of the user's ISP.  Few ISPs that care about their bottom line will be willing to divulge this information without a court order.  Some folks may remember the lawsuit between Verizon and the RIAA over this very issue.  The RIAA wanted the data so they could track down the origin of 'pirated' MP3 downloads.

Bottom line:  chances of being traced back through your participation on TER are slim unless you're talking someone with lots of patience and money.  It would not be an easy or casual undertaking.

Cheers!

I too had an incident where someone was able to tell who I was. So it also makes me very curious.

I can sometimes figure out who the poster is just because of their personal writing style or interests.

Any time two computers "talk" to each other over the internet they exchange IP addresses.  In fact they couldn't communicate otherwise.  So when you log onto a website, or even just visit it, that webserver has your IP address and can save it.  So Staff and his staff know your IP address.  But of course they know who every alias belongs to anyway, so why bother.

Once your IP address is known, someone has to have a way to connect it to your name.  That can usually only be done through your ISP and they don't give that sort of information out casually.  Of course if you use UNIX mail, your IP address is part of your mail header.

But it's not part of your message text and I can't see how I, for example, could ever get it from your post.  If some member not part of the office staff claims to know who you are it's probably a guess based on 'internal evidence' or somebody who does know told him.

http://theeroticreview.com/msgBoard/ViewMsgBody.asp?BoardID=12&Messageid=60977

But I got the impression the poster was most concerned about " I know who you are by your IP address " rather than being identified by style or character evidence.

Of course your method only works if there's a long posting history.  Wouldn't help with a relative newbie.

"Of course your method only works if there's a long posting history.  Wouldn't help with a relative newbie. "

Can’t this be circumvented simply by frequently changing you alias so that no pattern will be discernible with an particular alias? Erico (this months alias)

Only moderators and employees of TER can see your TER username when you use an alias.

-- Staff

Thank you , that is what I thought. Those who claim to know your real handle are just using smoke & mirrors to try and out you.

original post.
But, not that I expect a reply from Staff.

As others said, the person(s) with admin rights to the web server can find your IP Address.  And once you have someones IP IP address there are a number of trace tools out there that can track that IP address down to the ISP, etc..

The big question is.........

can someone find your IP address from your posts on discussion boards if they do NOT have access to the server logs?

I would have always answered NO to this question until I had an incident. I posted on another well known hobby board about a girl that wasn't honest in her representation of herself. One morning I wake up and my cell phone is ringing with all kinds of nasty hateful and threatening messages. Her GOON phone guy somehow found the IP address of my post and traced it, which led him to the ISP which is registered in my companies name. Since he knew that I worked for this company from the screening process he knew it was me who made the post. Hence the 15 minutes of hateful messages he left me on my cell phone!

To this day i've been scratching my head wondering how he found my IP address from my post on the discussion board. He pulled it off.

to somebody on the inside with legitimate access seems the likliest explanation.