ferreting/detecting software for a forum?

If I want to open my own forum (a debating forum), is there some sort of software I would be able to use to ferret out and identify sock puppets? Also, roughly speaking (i.e. not too technical explanation), how does it work? Do you type in one username's ISP and then tell the software to go find all the other ISP's like it, or what? (I am not a techie, so if this question comes across as dumb, please forbear.:-o)

TIA.

 

Let me preface by saying that I'm speaking from how I think this works, rather than from actual experience or knowledge, so please take this for what it is.

I've read that Facebook and Google Plus have policies preventing users from using fake names, and from what I can tell, they rely on user agreements and crowd-sourced violation reports to enforce it, rather than actual technical means.

For you, this means that maybe there isn't a program that can reliably do this (or maybe there is, again, I don't know), but you could use the Facebook Connect API to have users log in. That way, your "ferreting out sock puppets" would be as effective as Facebook's, and presumably, they will continue to refine this policy.

Just a thought.

 

Thanx, Mada, for those suggestions.