On  2 Aug 95 at 9:10, Thomas H Gould wrote:

> On Tue, 1 Aug 1995, Barry A. Hollander wrote:
> >     A question for those with Web servers who can view logs of
> >     "hits" but do not have a subscription process.  When you view
> >     your logs and see the IP number or, if you massage the data,
> >     get domains and such, can you go any further and identify the
> >     people in any fashion?  That is, can you get the email
> >     address?
> 
> Well, according to Internet in Plain English, the IP is the email
> address or dot address. Theoretically, therefore, you have the email
> address . . . it just doesn't look like those we're used to seeing.

I could be wrong, but I think that depends on the user's set-up.

What I think I know:

MCS, my ISP, gives all SLIP users static IP numbers. So if I hit your 
web page you would find 199.3.32.62 ... that equals 
retzbach.pr.mcs.net -- but I think if you tried to send an e-mail to 
that address it would bounce unless I specifically had it configured 
that way (which I don't).
Netcom, which uses dynamic IP numbers, would give you something like 
(for example) 277.32.3.92 which equals p66.ix.netcom.com. But since 
the IP is good only for that user session, user@ix.netcom.com could equal 
p66.ix.netcom.com OR d51.ix.netcom.com OR t278.ix.netcom.com 
etc.depending on when and where they logged in.

Bottom line: Knowing where your hits are coming from is a bit 
easier than trying to discern actual breathing bodies.

Incidentally, one could set up a Web site or ftp site on his his home 
computer via SLIP. All you need is the proper IP address, 
though the home computer would have to be connected to the 
ISP at the time. FTPing to SLIP accounts is one of the more popular 
ways to distribute software, and the dynamic IP lends itself to 
anonymity.

Corrections welcomed.

- --pete retzbach (reTz)


------------------------------

End of online-news-digest V1 #267
*********************************


From owner-online-news-digest@marketplace.com Thu Aug  3 00:30:15 1995
Received: from marketplace.com (majordom@marketplace.com [199.45.128.10]) by cnj.digex.net (8.6.12/8.6.12) with ESMTP id AAA14700 ; for ; Thu, 3 Aug 1995 00:30:03 -0400