IP address

[Links Shadow]

Really there is no real way to hide an ip address because that is what identifies your computer with your isp.  They give it to you, and you can't change that.  But there are ways to protect yourself.  First and foremost get a firewall.  That is probably the single most important form of protection you can get.  Finally there is a way to mask your ip but it takes a fair amount of technical knowledge and a router.  I don't know how it is done but I know that you can do it.

Respectfully,
Link's Shadow

[Tippa]

Hello T_Kman0610 ... I THINK I've got most of this right[:I]

First off... your computer is either being hacked and receiving viruses because you do not have proper protection.  And what I mean by that is you either do not have a firewall, or a type of virus protection.  You could also be downloading infected files.  Also, what kind of internet connection do you have?  If you have cable or dsl, you might want to check to see and if the company has your computer set to be a dynamic or static ip address.  Most cable companies have home owners set an dynamic ip addressing scheme, wich means that everytime you turn on your machine and internet connection is established it is assigned a different ip address.  A static ip addressing scheme simply means that you have the same IP address and no one else can use it.

Also... It depends on what kind of OS (operating system) you are using, and wich ports are open.  Example of ports would be... port 80 or 8080 is the http port, wich pretty much allows internet connection in the first place(what it actually does is allow the HTTP protocol to "move" through the wireing to connect to the internet).  Ports basically allow the "coming and going" of different protocols used.  Some protocols are very easy to hack (packet sniffing), and some ports are pretty much nothing except a back door.  But that really depends on what OS you are using and how much control you have on administrating your own machine.  Also, depending on your OS, you might want to check and see if you have the latest encryption installed.  An example would be, I believe the latest encryption size for Windows 2000 is 128bit encryption (i think it's 128, but at the same time i think it's actually higher)

Something else you might want to consider is this... Are you the only person using your computer?  If not, and you are the primary owner/user, You might want set "permissions" on other peoples user account.  

I hope some of that helps.. I'm pretty sure it's almost *all* correct, however it's been a while since I took TCP/IP.  Security isn't exactly my field in network engineering...but it think you get an idea.  Most important thing to do though, is get some type of anti-virus software.  You can also go online virus scanners that will freely scan your machine, and if anything is detected they will clean it.  One that I use on a regular basis is www.antivirus.com, that address will redirect you to

http://www.trendmicro.com/en/home/us/personal.htm

It's a pretty good website.

Anyhow, take care!  If you have any questions, you can always ask me.  I don't know everything, but I can try to help you out to the best of my ability. []

Tippa

[Adrian]

Greetings
T_Kman0610

quote:Originally posted by T_Kman0610

i have a question about hiding your IP address, how do you do it? i have been hacked and viruses have gotten in and it wass through my OP address. so does anyone know how to do it? im sure you know foas.

You cannot hide the external dynamic IP address allocated by your ISP, or fixed IP address if you have DSL, cable etc. where one is allocated, this is required to make and maintain Internet connections.

You have two main options, both of which are very effective. Depending on the type of Internet connection you have, you can add an Internet gateway which provides NAT (Network Address Translation). This will enable you to use an internal, non-routable IP address for your PC's while the gateway itself uses the main IP. In this way external traffic cannot reach your PC's.

The other option, which I highly recommend, is to install a free firewall, and which will make your PC's appear to be invisible on the Internet. The main risk of being hacked is not TCP/IP itself, but via the NETBIOS brodcasts your PC sends to the Internet, this is the protocol which will allow people to hack shared drives etc.. The best personal fireawall by far in my opinion, having seen and tested alot is Agnitum Outpost, the free version is here

http://www.agnitum.com/download/outpost1.html

The Pro version is exceptional, and used the same technologies as expensive hardware firewall solutions; I don't think any other software firewall offers this. A single license is about $40.

If you want to know how vulnerable your PC and network is, simply run these online security checks:

http://scan.sygate.com

With best regards,

Adrian.

[Squeek]

Adrian put it quite well, actually.  I just felt like I should post a bit about the significance of the IP (Internet Protocol)

Your IP Address is similar to your home address.  It is the way to identify your computer from the rest.

IP addresses are everything.  When you connect to a server to download a webpage (like clicking a link), you are in fact downloading information from the server, which has its own IP.  When you look in the status bar at the bottom, it will say, connecting to ***.***.***.*** (Fill in any number for those stars...doesn't really matter).

Some people (I'll bet Nick is included in this) can easily find YOUR IP simply by reversing the process.  When you log into this site, data from your computer is sent to the forums.  Everybody's IP is floating about here somewhere, you just need to find out how to get it.

Now, there are some important things to know about an IP.  Once somebody knows your IP, then they can begin "hacking" you.  It's hard to hide without a firewall, but that's why we all have MS-DOS!  But that's not important...

ANYWAY, I'd recommend 2 programs.  ONE is called TCPView.  This program watches all programs / users that are watching your computer, then automatically deletes the ones that are getting too close.  Works for MSN, AIM, IE, Netscape, you name it.  Any program you are running that connects to the world wide web for information is included in the list.

The SECOND program I'd recommend is called SPY BOT.  Now, there's something in the internet called Spyware, and it's basically stuff people throw around on the internet that self-installs onto your system without you having the slightest CLUE that it's there!  SO Spy-Bot will search your entire computer for the things that have done this, and label them dangerous to moderate.  It's up to you if you want to keep them, I just delete those suckers

That was a long, intricate speech.  I can't beleive I know that much about IPs... ugh.

~Squeek

PS - You remember all those ads that used to pop up, even when you weren't surfing?  All you could do was click ok?  That was an MS-DOS thing...it just said to send "this message" to *.*.*.*, which is every computer in the world.  That's how the did it, and it's been stopped now (thankfully)

[Tab]

There is one, and only one advantage to AOL. Dynamic IP. Try to haxz0r me and I just sign off and reconnect

[Tenacious]

Tab- Is that what AOL told you?!?  If they did, they lied!  You can still be hacked even if the last digit changes. the reason I say this is because the last (128.128.128.*) changes, nothing else.  The second to last (if i'm not mistaken) is the server you connect to.  So ggod luck fending off hackers with that  Firewalls are best protection.  Good luck and live la vida loca!

-Tenacious[]

[T_Kman0610]

quote:Originally posted by Squeek

Adrian put it quite well, actually.  I just felt like I should post a bit about the significance of the IP (Internet Protocol)

Your IP Address is similar to your home address.  It is the way to identify your computer from the rest.

IP addresses are everything.  When you connect to a server to download a webpage (like clicking a link), you are in fact downloading information from the server, which has its own IP.  When you look in the status bar at the bottom, it will say, connecting to ***.***.***.*** (Fill in any number for those stars...doesn't really matter).

Some people (I'll bet Nick is included in this) can easily find YOUR IP simply by reversing the process.  When you log into this site, data from your computer is sent to the forums.  Everybody's IP is floating about here somewhere, you just need to find out how to get it.

Now, there are some important things to know about an IP.  Once somebody knows your IP, then they can begin "hacking" you.  It's hard to hide without a firewall, but that's why we all have MS-DOS!  But that's not important...

ANYWAY, I'd recommend 2 programs.  ONE is called TCPView.  This program watches all programs / users that are watching your computer, then automatically deletes the ones that are getting too close.  Works for MSN, AIM, IE, Netscape, you name it.  Any program you are running that connects to the world wide web for information is included in the list.

The SECOND program I'd recommend is called SPY BOT.  Now, there's something in the internet called Spyware, and it's basically stuff people throw around on the internet that self-installs onto your system without you having the slightest CLUE that it's there!  SO Spy-Bot will search your entire computer for the things that have done this, and label them dangerous to moderate.  It's up to you if you want to keep them, I just delete those suckers

That was a long, intricate speech.  I can't beleive I know that much about IPs... ugh.

~Squeek

PS - You remember all those ads that used to pop up, even when you weren't surfing?  All you could do was click ok?  That was an MS-DOS thing...it just said to send "this message" to *.*.*.*, which is every computer in the world.  That's how the did it, and it's been stopped now (thankfully)

squeek i owe ya one, that spy bot relly helped. but what about viruses? im using AVG free addition, in my oppinion i think norton antivirus really helps but my mother had me to get AVG instead.
that avg sucks, have you tried it. i got a trojan horse that it detected. well it didnt do anything but heal the stupid file and after an hour or so it wil come up again.

[Squeek]

No, I haven't heard of AVG... But even if the program you use does not eliminate the source of the virus, you can manually.  The program itself will find out any file that it has detected is corrupting your computer, so once it find it, it has the source location.  This is how I got rid of a toolbar that self-installed onto my Internet Explorer.

And, No Problem on the Spy-Bot thing!  My friend had me download it to clear off the toolbar I mentioned above.  I went into advanced mode and searched through the BHO's...and it told me the file location for it.  Then I just right clicked...and DELETE!!!!

~Squeek

PS - The new google toolbar has the best popup blocker I have ever seen.  It even keeps track of how many it killed

[Adrian]

Greetings everyone,

Trend provide an excellent and free virus scanner called Sysclean:

http://www.trendmicro.com/download/tsc.asp

Note: you need to download the file sysclean.com

You can download the latest virus definitions anytime for free from here:

http://www.trendmicro.com/download/pattern.asp

Note you need this for the first time you use Sysclean.

Squeek: I totally agree about the Google toolbar! I only use Google anyway, it is far and away superior to any other search engine in my opinion, so the quick search is really useful, but, as you say, the popup blocker is amazing; extremely effective!

With best regards,

Adrian.

[Links Shadow]

Ditto about the google bar.  It is wonderful, even before they added the pop-up blocker it was amazing.  It has blocked so many adds for me that the number got to large so I had to turn the counter off.  I love watching the little hand icon appear when it gets one, I always laugh thinking "haha sucker."

[Squeek]

HEHE! That many?  Wow... I'm only at 20 now.

For the first like 15 I was like... "Why does my mouse keep turning into a hand...  Then I looked up at the Google Bar and it had the same image... so I was like OHHH....

Yea, so 3 people now say that the google bar rocks.  Maybe you should get it?

http://toolbar.google.com/

Whoo.... Free download, only works for Internet Explorer.

~Squeek

[untouch]

You can actually hide your real IP - using shell accounts.

Best regards

[T_Kman0610]

i have a question about hiding your IP address, how do you do it? i have been hacked and viruses have gotten in and it wass through my IP address. so does anyone know how to do it? im sure you know foas.