another 'great' post saved for posterity via this quote....

Orange is obviously a bit confused....and you are not even close to understanding where he/she is coming from....

he's thinking an IP address is somehow correlated to ones hardware, which its not for what he is thinking...though technically it is, as the MAC address of the NIC card and modem is associated in a way with the MAC address....if one changes a NIC card or modem then one will immediately get a new IP addy...in fact if you don't power down a modem when connecting a different computer (note I am not referring to a router here) then the new computer will not connect to the internet as the modem expects to be seeing the MAC address of the old machine....once powered down the new computer will connect to the net and one will have a different IP addy....

as a note it is illegal to harvest MAC address, though hackers do it all the time and I'm sure many websites do it also...that is a 'true' way to identify a machine in specific, and it is also a way to illegally hound a person across the net as while you IP addy may change, the MAC addresses particular to specific hardware will not (unless the hardware is changed out)....

This quote is what I am replying to, not the rest of his post.ISP's do work with MAC addresses and assign IP addresses to MAC
addresses as they are found on the network. Telus, for example, allows advanced
users to manually register two MAC addresses for each DSL account.

So, in order to impersonate another user on a typical broadband connection you
need three things, the right MAC address, physical access to the same line and
the opportunity to use both of those quickly enough to fool the ISP and any
potential investigators. The odds are strongly against it and the risk of being
caught in the attempt is high. It could also be done if the victim has an unsecured
wireless router but that circumstance also gives said victim a plausible defence.

Hush, please.

No need to go fighting.

@Orange County: Main question: Which kind of IP do you have?

There are two different ways IPs are given out.

In the USA many people have stable IPs. Those remain the same every time you connect to the internet. For this the USA uses most of the available IP addresses. That's called static IP.

Therefore, in the rest of the world, most people only get their IP assigned, when they connect to the internet, and lose it once they disconnect, because there weren't enough IP addresses left for all. That's called dynamic IP.

If you have a static IP, it is like a phone number.

If you have a dynamic IP, it is just a temporary number, but the ISPs know, who had it at any time (in Germany up to 3 months back).

And if you go that far, you can just break into his house, hope that his computer is connected and then just use his original connection :)

…and if one was using it to get porn and got caught,
it would probably be literally with his pants down. :shoot:

alright im 17 and i came across this stuff
after seeing people of your own age having sex its kind of hard to get off of it
so anyhows i scared myself to stop reading how ppl got caught and stuff
i always deleted what i watched but idk if it permentaly deleted it
so anyone know how to like permentaly delete junk


btw im righting a paper for more class in school on this topic

window washer does a nice job of overwriting data...Norton's system works also has a sub routine that overwrites also...

you might try googling data erasing or somesuch to see if there is a free program available....

Since you're 17, I suggest you go for older women, or men, perhaps as old as 20! (Some day you'll think that's funny.)

BTW, please don't let your school send you out into the world until you learn the difference between righting and writing. I mean no disrespect. As it seems that no one knows how to spell nowadays, you will do very well in the future if you learn that skill.

I'm beyond ashamed.
 

Greetings, and good afternoon.

:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(

I'm an eighteen year old who recently committed a horrible atrocity.

A few evenings ago I curiously and impulsively "downloaded" a couple files of illegal pornography. I placed the verb inside quotations because:

I never finished the downloads

Why? I realized I was idiotic for even contemplating such absurdities.

Now, before you judge me...as I hope none of such will be done.

First, it was impulsive, reckless, self-destructive behavior. It was a "spur of the moment holy ****" "Why the hell did I do that" moment.

Secondly, there was absolutely no malicious intent. Why would I care about such material, anyway? It is disgusting after all. More so, I had no intention of exploiting, providing or in any manner even needing said child pornography. I do not have Limewire configured to allow uploads. Midway through the downloads I quit the downloads. I then used Spybot's shredder tool to "destroy" the files. I have also defragged my laptop five times now.

I'm beyond paranoid...more so though, I'm completely devastated by guilt and shame. I had no cruel intentions, but the mere fact that I did it without even viewing the files, is disturbing. I am not some psychologically disturbed, disgruntled or perverse human - I was curious...but curiosity was a tragedy.

I don't know what to expect. I have no idea if I was traced and I'm being investigated. I cleaned the files and it's not like I ever intend to do anything malicious again. I further deleted all the pornographic material I did possess, to "clean myself"

Does anyone know:
What are the odds that a mishap like this could have been traced?

Further, how long would it take for police to show up at my doorstep?


Please, I'm scared. I'm just a college student who has dreams and hopes in life. The guilt is tearing me apart as it is. I'm paranoid beyond belief. Every time a car drives down my street I gaze out the window in hopes it's not a police officer coming to arrest me.

This would ruin my life...everything I have and am would be obliterated because of a careless, stupid and reckless mistake

My great reputation with community members, my education, my personal life, my time...would all vaporize before my eyes.

And I have a deathly fear of incarceration and prison.

If the police were to come to my house...would there be any hope of apologizing, talking about it with them and trying to make them understand that I am human and I have made this mistake?

Also, there is a police officer in the town I live in, whose family and he are good friends with cousins of mine who live in my town. The officer's son is best friend's with one of my cousins, actually. I'm on decent terms with the officer and his wife - (his wife has employment at the high school I attended, so I'd speak with her a lot). Should I maybe talk to them and confess and cry hysterically and hope things work out...

I'm paranoid because of a dumb action...I don't want this to ruin my life.

:(

Firstoff: Keep the paranoia down. You don't archieve anything by acting hastily.

Second: You began downloading files. Get rid of your incomplete folder with one of the data erasers Peerless mentioned. Best also get rid of your download folder. Then erase any of your LimeWire config files (so log files and similar disappear).

Third: The chances of you getting caught when you did it only once and didn't even finish the download are extremely slim. No need to get careless, but also no need to get paranoid.

@all: Please correct me, if anything above is wrong, or if anything could be done better.