Even if you had the theoretical victim's computer, intact with everything the same
as when he had it, any IP address you got using it would still lead to you unless
you also tapped his internet connection and used it too. The ISP is who controls
the IP addresses, not the hardware in the computer, and your window of
opportunity would be pretty small depending on how often the ISP sets leases to
expire and how quickly your victim hooks up his next computer to the same
internet account.

Actually having the hardware could make it possible to impersonate the other guy
but you would have to use the same physical connection and do it before he
registers a replacement computer with the ISP. In other words, you would have to
get close enough to be caught in order to try it.

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)....

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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).

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