Identity

[Agita]

How is it you are identified over the internet?

Even when you flush your DNS and everything else?

[chuck441]

Because your access to the internet involves an address ... that address on the web is the equivalent of your home address, like the postal service uses, except this is an electronic address. All communications get stamped with your address. And gets saved ... somewhere.

If you really want to understand this, do some web searches on the topic. You'll find plenty.

[thunderstorm98]

It depend on your browser ActiveX controls and Cookie handling that how it is set on high security or on low.

[jbennet]

IP adress.

An IP adress is like a phone number, it uniquely identifies your PC on the internet. Thats how sites can provide information relative to your local area etc...

[Agita]

Does the IP address not change when you switch switches or routers with multiple computers connected ?

(That is to say the IP that you show to the world)

[jbennet]

No. The public IP is assigned by the ISP

That ip is public facing (internet side). Routers assign thier own adresses to internal pcs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_address_translation

e.g on my home lan i have 2 pcs, with local IP adresses like 192.168.1.1 and 192.168.1.2 and a router at 192.168.0.1 (i can set these to anything i want). The internet does not see the computers behind the router. It just sees the router at my Public IP (for example , 65.43.234.91). The router then routes (thats its job) data from the internet to the correct internal address

Therefore using NAT you can have hundreds of computers behind a router but the internet would just see it as one public adress

[Agita]

Cool, I know it was a stupid question that I could have researched (google) but I hate intricate networking stuff. believe it or not I fix hundreds of computers a month. Anything from hardware to software to data recovery. Its just one area I have never had the need to venture into. I have outside teks for that. (my partner handels the networking side)

Thanks for entertaining an idiot.

[DimaYasny]

at some point, every real techie moves on to the dark sysadmin side ;) the others just open another computer store and become salesmen :)

[thunderstorm98]

Cool, I know it was a stupid question that I could have researched (google) but I hate intricate networking stuff. believe it or not I fix hundreds of computers a month. Anything from hardware to software to data recovery. Its just one area I have never had the need to venture into. I have outside teks for that. (my partner handels the networking side) Thanks for entertaining an idiot.

Why you feel itself a idiot ? Your question about IP have no any fake arguments but you have spoted the privacy problems...right ?

Feel free to post around here...:)