Forums mIRC Help Hiding IP Address

I read earlier that by masking your IP, you will not be allowed in certian servers... is this with only a select few, or the majority... and why? I've got one more question... I would _absolutly_ have to own a shell account (which is an IRC server?) in order to mask my IP like so *!*@i.h4x0r3d.micros0ft.because.3y3.4m.l337.0rg?

(I posted this in response to an already existant thread.. with no responses... with the way this forum works.. i've decided to create another thread.. i hope that's not a problem...)

Good job that you can diferentiate between the two terms changing your IP, and hiding your IP - You cannot change your IP. However, there are several methods open to you for hiding it.

A shell account can host a Bouncer (BNC) which can provide you with a vhost (virtual host) which is what those hostnames such as "i.h4x0r3d.micros0ft.because.3y3.4m.l337.0rg" are - vhosts. Shell accounts are not IRC servers themselves. IRCds are, in a sense, the IRC server itself - IRCds can be run on shell accounts too, so that the server remains online 24/7. You could probably obtain more information off of a shell company.

A second way would be to use a network that supports a usermode which hides your IP with a set vhost. This usermode is usually +x. Some of the bigger networks that support such a mode are Undernet and Quakenet. You must register an account with them and then login and set +x on yourself, where you then get given a custom vhost - for example, with Undernet, you get "username.users.undernet.org" where 'username' is the username you registered with. Ask in your network's #Help channel to see if they support this.

A third way would be to use a proxy. This is a more much complicated way and I have no personal experience on the issue. In general it is not the best route to go. Almost all networks do scan you for 'open' proxies when you connect and due to insecurities will ban you automatically for connecting with them. You can find proxy settings in mIRC options: ALT+O > Connect > Firewall. Do not play with this if you don't know what you're doing. This page may be of some help.

Hope this has been informative

Regards,

I never said anything about changing IPs... Anyway, thanks for the response, it helped. My last resort would be to use a proxy server. The network that I use does not support vhost on user accounts, but that would be nice. I don't know what BNC is, but would I have to pay for a shell account to use it, or are there various ways of using it? Maybe you could go into more detail, or I might be asking in the wrong place. If that's the case, could you point me in the right direction?

Edit: Nevermind, I was asking the wrong people, I found what I was looking for, thanks again!

Maybe somebody could still answer my first question.


Posted by Poppy on this thread...

Every network I have connected to has allowed BNCs, either from my own use of one, or the fact I've seen other people on the network using them. Certainly, as far as I know, the top 4/5 networks allow connections from BNC.

You may run in to trouble if several people are using the same vhost. Even though IRCops can invariably see the REAL IP/hostname of the user, so can tell if it's really clones or not, people using the same vhost may *still* be banned.

You shouldn't run in to too many issues though!

You are of course welcome for all help given

Regards,