Computer Hope

well, a couple things. first thing is that i just got a 14 day ban for nothing?

*** guest_07 was kicked by BattleCam (a ban is 14 days...respect that)
21:38      !!! You have been kicked from #computerhope

all i said was i have a few suggstions for this chatroom ie the anti swearing bot is a bit too strong, it banned me for saying "*censored*" and it actually logged me swearing as "tihs" they counted that as swearing when i just mispelt this.

patio   At any rate you can't insert it here without approval...though i admire your enthusiasm
21:33   guest_07   but  d a m
21:33   guest_07   that word got me banned
21:33   camerongray   You would have been warned before though several times
21:33   patio   guest_07: Then visit other channels if you don't like it
21:33   Rikai   patio: who might I need to ask? I assume Computerhope, but said person doesn't speak in here
21:33   guest_07   its not that i dont like it
21:33      *** guest_87 quit (Quit: http://www.mibbit.com ajax IRC Client)
21:34   camerongray   Rikai: It would be Computerhope yeah, but he doesn't really do anything for the chat nowadays
21:34   Rikai   sadface
21:34   patio   Go to the Forums...Nathans contact info is all there
21:34   Hopebot   The Computer Hope forum is free, has thousands of helpers, and found at: http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,45928.0.html
21:34      *** guest_04 joined #computerhope
21:34   Hopebot   Welcome back guest_04, you were known as guest_87 earlier.  You recently said: "CPU:46C , Local: 40C, Remote2: -128C, HD0:40C, Temp1:40C";
21:34      *** guest_04 is now known as guest_87
21:34   Rikai   patio: am I correct in assuming nathan is Computerhope?
21:34      *** guest_26 joined #computerhope
21:34   guest_26   hello
21:34   guest_07   is there anyway i can leave suggestions/
21:34   guest_26   I have a question
21:34   Hopebot   Please ask your question guest_26 so we can assist you.
21:35   guest_07   like i respect ur rules and stuff i just wana suggest a few things
21:35   camerongray   guest_07: Chat section on the forum is probably your bes tbet
21:35   camerongray   best bet*
21:35   guest_07   kk ty


thats the chatlog before i went afk to install windows 7 on my pc.. i dont understand what i did wrong.. all i did is kindly ask if there was a suggestion page so i could see what the owner things about it , i said i respect the rules and stuff and everyone took offense to that.

just to clarify i did say the other word for poo once and tihs which i dont even know what it means, the rest were *censored*.

why is d a m n censored..

I did not reset my router or anything to get permission back into the chatroom i simply went back to my house.. i was at my grandmas for christmas as it might be her last.

QuoteI did not reset my router or anything to get permission back into the chatroom i simply went back to my house.. i was at my grandmas for christmas as it might be her last.

Well that would explain why they would assume a Ban Evasion...
My advice ::  Take the 2 weeks off and behave next visit...

okay thank for the reply bro, i understand the ban now, but i would like to clarify i was at my grandma's and i was useing her pc. i will accept my ban thank you u can close

I am using this post I am doing to simply check what IP address shows for me in this post, because my previous two were very odd and my colleague on my site checked our own IP information people and it is not what showed on my own site when I logged into my own admin section.  So let me see what happens with this third post I am doing here on this date.

EDIT:  What's going on around here?  The IP address for this post is different from the one that was displayed for my previous two posts on this site and is not my IP address.  Is this site using some sort of software that hides our real IP address?

An IP might be dynamic or static. And there is even more.
Things are identified by numbers and by numbers.
For general definition:
https://www.computerhope.com/jargon/i/ip.htm

Quote1. The IP (Internet Protocol) is the fundamental protocol for communications on the Internet. It specifies the way information is packetized, addressed, transferred, routed, and received by networked devices.

This is a lot more information.   

QuoteIts development began in 1974, led by computer scientists Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf. It is frequently used in conjunction with the Transmission Control Protocol, or TCP. Together they are referred to as TCP/IP.

The first major version of the Internet Protocol was version 4, or IPv4. In 1981, it was formally defined in RFC 791 by the Internet Engineering Task Force, or IETF.

But why does this annoy you?

Firstly, thank you for offering your observation that the manner in which I wrote that post gave the impression that I was annoyed.  That could be useful to me at some point in the future.

EDIT:  I think I see what gave that impression.  It was the: "What's going on around here?" correct?  That does have a ring of annoyance within.  I should be more careful.  I'm not annoyed.  Yet.

Secondly, I am not terribly sure I needed definitions as to what an IP address is, but thank you.

Let me offer that I have posted quite recently on another site that uses the same Simple Machines software and on my own site and at a few other sites over the past few days and I have probably posted on about 30 to 40 (very rough estimate) sites over the past couple of years and at no time on any site was I aware of any IP address other than my own showing as an identifier on any of those sites.

In fact, I have been an admin on three sites and I have never seen my IP address as being any different from what it should have been.  Let's see, that goes back about 18 or 19 years.  I am a member of the ISOC and if I was having any changes of IP address whenever I was involved in an online activity at either the local level, or the international level, they would have asked me what was going on.  For sure.

I think I am using too many words to explain that I have never heard of a customer, or community member, showing a different IP address when they are engaged online in an activity other than the IP address issued to them by their ISP, OR if they are purposely using a technique to purposely hide their IP address.

I don't use anything to hide my IP address.  In fact, if someone were using something to hide my address I think I would have some sort of right to know about that and now I can thank whomever for having that question enter my mind, because I never gave that any thought in the past.

But I now have a number of screen grabs with timestamps and identifying elements of location which indicate that something very interesting is happening on this site when I post.

I actually do not think I am annoyed, by the way; because it is more of an intrigue than an annoyance.

And I don't mind if I am not going to receive an answer here as to what's up because I can just go elsewhere, but rest assured that I will not identify this site as the location of where this mystery entered my finite little world.

Wait, I just realized that I think I have an account over at Simple Machines.  I don't think I have logged into their site in a long time, either.

Oh yes, it was so cute that the first two posts I did here today had me in Military Park in Newark.  A very appropriate thing to do to me.  I haven't checked where the post above had me located because I have other Net responsibilities to attend to, but later I might find time to check that.  But the Military Park one was cute.  See, I was one of the last to get caught up in the draft system for Nam and had to do my military time and now am a life member of the VFW.  That is why I view that as cute.

Not sure how useful it is, but the IP Computerhope displays for me is also not my WAN IP Address- it's not even close, it's on the other side of the continent. It's not even in the right country.

However it looks like it is the IP Address of a Cloudflare CDN, so it's likely related to that. Don't know if this only affects the display to us normal members or if it also affects the logged IP Addresses that the admin and moderators see, though.

I do believe you've nailed it.  And thank you very much.  I think you're right that it has to do with that entity the humans like to call Cloud.  (I don't think Mother Nature likes humans stealing one of her favorite nouns.  She owns the clouds.)

Okay, sorry to try to make light of our wonderful new tool somebody named that Cloud this-and-that.

But I think you probably got it and I really have not properly briefed myself on what that Cloud stuff is all about because I really haven't had time.  But I need to do so in the not too distant future, if I have long enough.

It is amazing how far we've come since the pre-Net days and just having access with our university systems and the government Net they so kindly let the universities get in on.

Obviously y'all can tell I am an old man.  Heck I still have two working TRS80 units and one of those monster manuals that came with the Trash80.  Bunches of stuff on the original true floppy disks, too.  And I'll tell you, folks, if you're going to store a Trash80 you better make sure it is a very, very strong shelf.  Those things are heavy.

Okey-dokey, BC_Programmer, I appreciate you clearing up that mystery.  I think you nailed it.  Mighty interesting, too.  I'll bet it's Top Secret if the admin can see our true IP address.

This forum uses CloudFlare which acts as a proxy for all users, converting their ip addresses. If you want to know what your ip address is or how it shows up on the web, simply open Google and type: What's my ip address

Also keep in mind that Mibbit uses hostmasks so in Chat it may be different altogether...

Yep, another 30-day warning thingy. Thank you. Understand.

BUT, a comment to add after so long - - - I see my proper IP address is showing when I post now, so something around here changed, didn't it?

Might be a couple of years have passed, but that odd IP thingy that this thread is about is still an intrigue.

EDIT: Correction that "this thread is about" is off the mark, isn't it? I sort of changed the original intent of the OP, didn't I? So should have written something like how I changed the topic here.

Yes, Nathan was able to modify the settings in CloudFlare so that actual IP addresses are now logged. It helps us with identifying and banning spammers.

Really do apologize for seemingly being a 'big mouth' but this is sort of weird:

QuoteRemember that this information is not identifying, and that most IPs change periodically.

This is what is shown to a member when they click on the "Logged" button and I stumbled upon that while looking for a "Like" button for a post, so wasn't out to cause trouble. <A sort of defense, I suppose.>

Anyway, my IP address hasn't changed in years. Not sure how many, but a fair number of years. In fact, I seem to remember it depends on what sort of service you're paying for. Some IP addresses stay the same and I understand that the person who wrote that used "most" but - - - well, it just feels odd, that's all. It sort of feels like somebody is shutting out those that have the same IP address forever. It feels odd.

Then there is that part about "is not identifying" and that is just plain not right. That IP address can lead to all sorts of "identifying" paths. That one feels more than "odd" --- it feels downright misleading.

I'm also surprised that nobody else has pointed to that sentence as needing some adjustment.

Or do all of you think I am just full of it and that what I've written above is nonsense?

I do fully appreciate that your software and your policy does not allow folks to see an IP address, but the reasons --- well, maybe you think I am just blowing smoke up ... well, I need not complete that, right?

QuoteThen there is that part about "is not identifying" and that is just plain not right. That IP address can lead to all sorts of "identifying" paths. That one feels more than "odd" --- it feels downright misleading.

The idea that IP Addresses are a form of identifying information is a piece of misinformation that has been heavily pushed by companies that want you to subscribe to their VPN services. They make a lot of noise about "IP leaks" and how IP Addresses are masked or hidden or how websites/others online won't be able to see your IP address. As a result, the idea that ones IP Address counts as a sort of private/identifying information has pervaded and thus leads to people believing that IP addresses need to be protected or are some sort of sensitive information, largely because that is pretty much the only thing that a VPN can actually "protect". However, they are not.

Most websites that track users don't even use the IP address. They use a variety of other information that provides a unique "fingerprint" so it can track you through VPNs or using other peoples Wifi and so on. A lot of stuff does ban based on IP Address of course but that's mostly because it's a lot easier to implement and more difficult to circumvent than relying on a relatively easy to change fingerprint, particularly since the latter relies on technologies like Javascript.

Important thing to consider is that unless you are specifically paying for a static IP Address (usually only an option for a business account), your IP Address is going to be dynamic. It will usually change based on ISP maintenance tasks. It could remain the same for a long time, or change every week. Some literature on IP Addresses discusses frequently changing IP Addresses but leaves out how that was an artifact of Dial-Up connections.

Let us take the last first. Some folks most definitely have IP addresses that do not change. Now, are you trying to state here that they just don't count? There are too few of them/us to have any concerns so, "Oh your IP address will change, so no need to worry." is a rightful piece of information to display on a site that is supposed to be providing expert advice to Net Citizens.

I simply don't get that. Most folks don't have static addresses, so those that do just ain't worth any effort to even think about? I mean, really, what in the heck is that telling us? The majority counts on the Net, and to heck with you who aren't in the majority.

Then we go back to the first paragraph and ... What in the heck!?

That IP address provides more information than would otherwise be available if it weren't known. That is a fact! Why in the heck's name would you want to be downplaying that!?

I guess you're just looking to bust my chops, because what you wrote is . . . Well, I better not complete that sentence. MY GOD! Your first sentence really freaks me out!! I'm reading it over and over and you are supposed to be respected for your advice in this community? Oh well, now that your true stripes are showing we know what to do, don't we?