Forums General Discussion Question about protection!

How can i protect myself from getting tracked by other people? Is there any way that i can hide my IP address so nobody can track me down where i am chatting from?

There should be no reason to 'hide' if you're chatting. If you need to be secret, perhaps just disconnect from IRC.

i look for a real smarter answer!

Anyone with the proper tools, access and knowledge can track you down. You could rent a shell on a shell server that allows you to run a background process and run a BNC; generally speaking, shells cost money, though the BNC software is freeware. Even with a BNC, it's quite possible to track you down if you are doing stuff you really shouldn't be doing. It's probably best for you to just stay off IRC if you want to stay fairly hidden. This is not meant as a flame towards you personally; IRC isn't a medium that's designed for complete anonymity.

thanks a lot for the info, but sometimes i get abused when people find out where i am chatting from, and i just want to hide that part, the destination is that matters! and i heard somewhere that there is way how to do that, how to hide just your ip address but i dont know where to find the info for it! its not that i want to hide my self or anything, i love to chat! by the way, thanks for the reply i really appriciate it!

As Hammer already said, you can buy a shell account (usually a few dollars a month) and set up a bnc (that stands for bouncer) on that shell account.

A search on Google.com can give you some sites who review shell account providers.

Also, there are some networks that automatically provide some type of host masking for its users. Webnet/Webchat would be one of those networks. In that case, it would be the usermode +x.

However, just keep in mind that this type of service is not provided by mIRC itself, so this isn't really the best place to ask. All we can do is to refer you elsewhere.

I believe in the anonymity of the 'Net. Privacy doesn't get surrendered just because you are online. The best way to hide your address, partially at least, is to chat on a network that hashes your hostname/IP for you. Alternatively you can use a proxy or BNC however there's problems with this at times.

1. BNC, while reasonably common for users on networks not providing hostname masking, takes some setting up and usually costs money because you are in most cases using someone elses server to 'bounce' off.

2. Proxies slow down your connection. Most are insecure and will get you banned from most networks as IRCd's scan for this type of connection as you attempt to join it. Also, and not many realise this, unless you have at a minimum "implied permission" to log through a proxy server then you are in most cases breaking the law. The third thing about proxies is the trustworthyness of the owner/admin of that proxy.

3. Always remember that IP spoofing doesn't necessarily hide your bona fides. I can usually tell who a user is by the way they chat, how they spell words, their grammar usage, etc. And I am probably not the only one.

Webnet does automatically mode users +x on connect, but you can still tell which country and even which area people are chatting from, depending on their isp. The only way around it is to either spoof, or get a bnc/shell account. But like someone already said, most networks scan for proxy servers and won't allow you to connect anyway, even if it's 'secure'.

Best is made spoof on server with uniq vhost
that is guud options for me

If ppl are abusing you because of where you are from, put them on ignore and/or find another channel to chat where ppl arent unpleasant to you.

I dont mean to sound unsympathetic, but IRC is like IRL, you dont need to go where ppl make you uncomfortable

as was mentioned there are quite a few IRCd's that will mask your ip for you. I'd suggest finding one. Furthermore I've been using irc for about 6 years now and I've found the majority of people complaining about being attacked are more often then not provoking said attacks.

Furthermore I've been using irc for about 6 years now and I've found the majority of people complaining about being attacked are more often then not provoking said attacks.

Very very true. It's a case of fit in and you won't get noticed :-)

Well I don't think that's always the case. I recall those old msn days when I was attacked and I sat in a private channel not bugging anyone. So it can happen. As long as ips aren't masked people will get hit on and will hit on others. Since msn closed I chat on an ircx-ish network and ips are encrypted. Users feel and are safer in any kind of environment that encrypts your info. It at least takes one particular kind of attack out of the equation and people can get back to the business of chatting (what irc was intended for) and not be pulled into pseudo mobstah crapola.

yes, i guess some ppl do just ask for it.. but on the other hand, ppl who want to hit on/annoy/attack others are gonna try to do it no matter what. seems like many ppl want to mask their ip because they want to do those unpleasant things to others, rather than in order to prevent them

Having your IP/Host publicaly available and visible is a big IRC weakness, and it's noted in the problem sections of the IRC protocol (RFC 2810-2813).

Remember the IRC is 15 years old. It was though of way before the spam days. The idea of IRC was to allow anonymity, and the way they thought of it was to use a nick as a label and your host to reach you.

You IP being visible, a lot of jobless people will just use it and try to DoS you, or do similar attacks on you (don't ask me where is the fun in that).

Most similar system will use other methods of identifiying you in which your host is not visible, and only send your IP to those who need it (for direct connection, the equivalent of the DCC for IRC).

Undernet solved this problem in some way. Once registered and authenticated to X, you can activate the +x mode on yourself, and from that moment your host is replaced by a string like username.users.undernet.org, effectively hidding your host. I've seen networks on which the host is never displayed, they are replaced by some string composed of your nick or your real name or the like. I guess other networks are also proposing methods of hidding your host.

(As this may be going to much technical, please contact me by e-mail if you which to continu this discussion instead.)

Tom|420