IP tracing for newbies

jbuk · Jan 5, 2014

So, what precautions are put in place so that newbie's IP addresses aren't on show publicly via forum sites? Is is only the moderators and website bosses who can view IP's, and for what purpose?
Some forum sites seem very open to hackers, which can be slightly unnerving. Would it be wise for newbies who'd be most vulnerable posting to forums to use another server while signing in/posting? What's the process?

A few questions there, hopefully you guys could inform well on this topic though.

pwillener · Jan 6, 2014

All the forums I know and participate in do not publicly show IP addresses of their members. Only moderators and administrators can view IP addresses.

There are ways of hiding your true IP address (using some sort of public proxies), but this is not something I recommend. It's something that spammers do, and these IP addresses are soon banned from most forums.

plodr · Jan 6, 2014

I've been on lots of forums for well over a decade as a registered poster. Your IP is not visible to the world.
If you go to a forum and can see the IPs, run away from that place. Legitimate forums run by webmasters who know what they are doing and hence make the place secure, only allow IPs to show to a selected few trusted people (moderators and co-administrators).

For what purpose? Moderators and administrators can view IPs to check for bots who spew spam at forums. These unwanted "members" can be blocked by IPs.

You'd go to a place like stop forum spam to check on a poster.
http://www.stopforumspam.com/

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IP tracing for newbies

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pwillener MajorGeek

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