PA's claiming HTR site is displaying ISP's?

[Carl]

So

1) What's he talking about and
2) Why should I care?

[Donnie]

Carl,
I have never seen an IP address posted anywhere on this site...but on another board I believe this may be happening, although it's been rumored there as well, so I have little faith that it ever happened.
What many people do not realize is that when you surf the Internet, the system logs all IP addresses of visitors. This enables a means by which you can track back to any particular user. Hence, people who believe they are invisible because of a name they have given themselves actually can have all those names traced back to the same machine/person by IP address. If someone gets your IP address and has bad intentions, there is a myriad of things that can be done to your system...or your Internet Service Provider can come under attack. This is why if there is a problem with a user, most ISP's will give up the user's name in a heartbeat to local authorities. This IP address is attached to all email you send as well, so you can be traced by any email you send.
Should you care? No. This board is definitely on the up and up. Rick would be the only person who would have access to the log files anyway, and it is this board's practice to eliminate flames as they start...helps keep our focus on horseracing.
Anything you read on other boards should be taken with a grain of salt...obviously they are trying to deal with some pretty childish people, and the more attention you give a child....well you have seen the results! I know you frequent other boards and have seen them get totally side-tracked.

Ohhh BTW, an ISP is an Internet Service Provider. An IP address is something altogether different...if that makes any difference...

Any other concerns...ask away.

[Cliff]

Carl/Donnie,

For a short period of time yesterday, every post on this board I looked at had the IP address displayed. I can't remember the time frame. It showed down in the bottom right corner where it says IP:

Currently this info displays as "Logged", but yesterday the actual digits were displayed. Something had changed in the setup I'm guessing. It was a little disconcerting in light of some the things going on at the other board(s).

Cliff (stunk in the 4th week of the Bris contest)

[Carl]

Guys,

I am on dial up. Doesn't my ISP number change everytime I log on?

[Donnie]

Cliff,
Too bad about week 4! I had only two yesterday as well!

Concerning the IP thing, it may have been accidentally switched on while reviewing logs or something else in the background. Obviously the situation has been handled...mine just says "logged" as well.

Carl,
Depends...check with your ISP to find out if you have a dynamic or static IP address for your account. The software you used to set up your Internet account normally assigns your machine an IP address it will use to get connected. This is registered with your ISP then. How do you think they track down virus programs originations? They track it back to the source machine, which has it's own unique number. Even if you are given a dynamic number, the ISP has to buy blocks of numbers...they use these numbers over and over, but they "own" them...so you are always traceable! Your IP address is "halved"; first "half" tells me what network you belong on (MSN, AOL, Earthlink, etc.) the second "half" tells me the exact machine.

Yeah, it's probably fun trying to pretend you are someone else, but I save that for my kids for Halloween!

[tbrown]

Very well put-let the kids dress up!
Through all the complaining and fighting on the net, it is ironic that that this board, with
actual handicappers, and Hot Talkers, the brunt of Yahoo, are in a virual dead heat in the
handicapping challenge.
Way to go, HTR!!!