Dear Forum.. Someone I know has indecent images on their computer

[boyfriday]

It's on TV, it must be true

 

Well there was a Tardis at the side of the Town Hall for years!

[Smithster]

As a rule they don't, but if they have any sort of traffic management then in theory they can. And any ISP who claims not to have traffic management either can afford massive amounts of bandwidth, own their own infrastructure, or they are lying.

 

Again though, ISP traffic management is determined by the transfer protocol being used and not the website visited and content of transferred data packets.

[splodgeyAl]

Again though, ISP traffic management is determined by the transfer protocol being used and not the website visited and content of transferred data packets.

 

Which is why I said "in theory they can". As someone else said, the Ellacoya *can* be set up to read packets' data, but it usually isn't because it makes the network much slower.

 

I used to work at an ISP, and worked on their traffic management system.

 

Also, they know the URL *requested* by a user (or specifically by a computer allocated one of their IP addresses at a given time) as that's how the IWF filter works

[shefffy]

if this guy is as you say a pedo he may have got shut of his pcs but because of human nature it wont be long before he starts again.

traceing ips would be a waste of time because you can use programes to change your ip . as for data on a pc it is not cleaned that easy a format does not delete the data as ppl think it does ,

a good example of this is my wifes pc had gone corrupt so i decided to reinstall windows over the top so files would still be there. to cut a long story short it crashed halfway though so could not reinstall . i brought a new drive and put this drive in a caddy , i run a recovery program on it and recoved over 36gig of data which included files and pics long deleted .

the only true way to clear a hard drive is with a very big hammer

[boyfriday]

Contrary to popular belief, changing IPs only prevents amateurs getting to you, a law enforcement agency has no problem (well ok slight problems but not much) following the digital trail (and one thing ISPs do have to record is who had what IP when if you purely mean changing your own IP rather than using proxies).

 

..going to ask a dim question now..does the IP apply to the account that was used to access the ISP or specifically the machine that was used?

[Smithster]

..going to ask a dim question now..does the IP apply to the account that was used to access the ISP or specifically the machine that was used?

 

Depends. In most domestic cases it will apply to the router that made the connection to the ISP. Static IPs are generally only used for web or mail servers and most people don't run one of them in their own home so they use a gateway and their IP address on the web will be the one dynamically assigned by the ISP to the router.

[boyfriday]

Depends. In most domestic cases it will apply to the router that made the connection to the ISP. Static IPs are generally only used for web or mail servers and most people don't run one of them in their own home so they use a gateway and their IP address on the web will be the one dynamically assigned by the ISP to the router.

 

Thanks Smithster, Ive often seen references to IP addresses being logged and wondered whether it actually meant anything. I also know that many forums are able to detect users who have multiple accounts by comparing IP addresses, would that be possible with dynamically assigned ones? How are these folks being tracked?!

[Cynic]

Thanks Smithster, Ive often seen references to IP addresses being logged and wondered whether it actually meant anything. I also know that many forums are able to detect users who have multiple accounts by comparing IP addresses, would that be possible with dynamically assigned ones? How are these folks being tracked?!

 

I can go weeks without getting a new dynamic IP. With most ISPs it is probably similar. Unless you restart your router (and not always then) you may keep the same IP. So it is fairly easy to track things like multiple accounts from the same IP.

[Northrend]

IP address can still be traced. Logs are kept of each connection and the IP used during that session. However without deep level inspection an ISP can not see what someone is doing. A request from the court has to be received for that.

[Patrice]

You've done well to report him.