How do mods in forums exactly tell your ip?

[Faye]

I am curious (I am really not a troll and I don’t really have alts here. Mods can tell anyway. Nor I actually participate in this forum or any forum at the moment because forums’ activity died long time ago. but I am just really curious for another forum I used to be part of and had bunch of alts).

For example if someone has an alt account and mods can see the account with all its shared ip.

When they see it, is it something where they have to press on a button on the account like they need to do more than one step to figure it out? or is it exposed in front of them whenever the account makes a post ( like a list of shared ip is attached to it or smth) even if the mod doesn’t try to dig? Basically do they see bunch of numbers and only can find out if someone was an alt of another if they (the mods) dug?


also can users hide their ip from mods if they use vpn when they log in for the second time? Does using vpn+deleting cookies (browser history) before login affect anything? Or using vpn is enough?

I know there is an ip history for each login but does it include every login made ever or is there a limit? like if a member logged in with the same ip as their other account once then after that started using vpn for an alt in every future log in and continued up to the 10th login while still using vpn, does the older logged in ip disappear from history or it stays forever?

 

[Joon]

I did a google search and the Moderate can "mangify" your account and see the details, but only if your account raise red flags. Also, I found that it can raise red flags to the Admin if they do a sweep and cause the database to be full.

 

[Vitis]

When you communicate with the server it's sent to the site, the site can return the IP to them directly visibly or it can operate behind the scenes and simply delete things via IP. Not really going to go into how you can get around such things seeing as it could be used for malicious intent.

 

[Faye]

I did a google search and the Moderate can "mangify" your account and see the details, but only if your account raise red flags. Also, I found that it can raise red flags to the Admin if they do a sweep and cause the database to be full.

Well thats a relief. I used to have alts but they were all following the rules. Its just embarrassing because sometimes I use them for stating different opinions than the previous ones and its weird like I am a different person but of course nothing malicious.

Post automatically merged: Jul 10, 2020

When you communicate with the server it's sent to the site, the site can return the IP to them directly visibly or it can operate behind the scenes and simply delete things via IP. Not really going to go into how you can get around such things seeing as it could be used for malicious intent.

I understand that. I used to use vpn to hide my alts even though I wasn’t sure of it m

 

[Joon]

Well thats a relief. I used to have alts but they were all following the rules. Its just embarrassing because sometimes I use them for stating different opinions than the previous ones and its weird like I am a different person but of course nothing malicious.

This forum is pretty cool with having Alts, just don't abuse it.


Also, just to clarify, if you are using VPN and assign a fake IP address then that IP address you made an account with is banned. IP Address are auto log in the system if you log into the website.

 

[Vitis]

Well thats a relief. I used to have alts but they were all following the rules. Its just embarrassing because sometimes I use them for stating different opinions than the previous ones and its weird like I am a different person but of course nothing malicious.

Post automatically merged: Jul 10, 2020

I understand that. I used to use vpn to hide my alts even though I wasn’t sure of it m

So basically you're openly admitting to having multiple accounts on the forum, sure no issues with that at all.

 

[Faye]

So basically you're openly admitting to having multiple accounts on the forum, sure no issues with that at all.

It isn’t against the rules to have multiple accounts in that forum. Not that like I was abusing it either. I knew mods knew about it too, its only after new mods came in (who I used to chat with regularly) that I felt I didn’t want them to expose my “different identities” therefore used vpn.

 

[kujaku]

dunno how XenForo's operates, but it also depends on settings. on some platforms mods can't see IPs unless granted permission from an admin. on other forums everyone's IP is visible on every post, on others you need to go into settings or admin panel to see the IP.
as far as storage goes, every IP is stored somewhere and it stays there until an admin deletes it, you deleting cookies doesn't do anything to it

so, who knows, there's a possibility the IP is not visible at all for mods on AB and that's gonna remain a mystery unless you ask a staff member

also, sometimes VPN can leak your actual IP

 

[JayZz]

that's a good question! My must have is vpn to hide my ip. I started using

You must be registered for see links

to bypass all restrictions and protect my privacy online. It works great and now I have access to the blocked content.

 

[Avani]

Hey Faye!

You are asking very specific details that make me wonder, why it even matters how we see it. There are alts where I do not even need an IP to figure out who they are.

 

[Rohan]

I was an Xenforo admin in the past. To see the IP you go to user's profile and click on moderator details button. You can also see the IP by log-in to the admin Control Panel and going to the user's profile there. There is probably also a security log where everything the user does on a forum is recorded.

Post automatically merged: Jul 30, 2020

There is an IP history on your profile so using multiple IP's will not work. There is no limit of IP record in the admin security log.

 

[minamoto]

Hey Faye!

You are asking very specific details that make me wonder, why it even matters how we see it. There are alts where I do not even need an IP to figure out who they are.

pldz take care of my IP adres...

 

[Avani]

pldz take care of my IP adres...

We always do. They remain safe.

 

[HowDidIGetPrem]

I don't like the fact that mods know where I pee. What if they're perverts like Horus?

 

[iNotorious]

also can users hide their ip from mods if they use vpn when they log in for the second time? Does using vpn+deleting cookies (browser history) before login affect anything? Or using vpn is enough?

I know there is an ip history for each login but does it include every login made ever or is there a limit? like if a member logged in with the same ip as their other account once then after that started using vpn for an alt in every future log in and continued up to the 10th login while still using vpn, does the older logged in ip disappear from history or it stays forever?

Cookies are most likely used to track your activity for ads and some other stuff. Always clear it.

Just activate the VPN before going to the website so they only get the VPN's ip. If you have logged in before you started using the VPN, most likely they already have your IP already unless you change your IP with your ISP.

I wonder what kind of IP they would get if you start using TOR browser while you mask that you're using TOR browser (since some websites block your access but you can circumvent that).

They keep logs.

 

[Chikombo]

They ask santa.

 

[Kikyo]

They have it under your username, just by depositing their blood on the mouse

 

[Avani]

They have it under your username, just by depositing their blood on the mouse

You are not supposed to know that...

 

[Zombie]

I am curious (I am really not a troll and I don’t really have alts here. Mods can tell anyway. Nor I actually participate in this forum or any forum at the moment because forums’ activity died long time ago. but I am just really curious for another forum I used to be part of and had bunch of alts).

For example if someone has an alt account and mods can see the account with all its shared ip.

When they see it, is it something where they have to press on a button on the account like they need to do more than one step to figure it out? or is it exposed in front of them whenever the account makes a post ( like a list of shared ip is attached to it or smth) even if the mod doesn’t try to dig? Basically do they see bunch of numbers and only can find out if someone was an alt of another if they (the mods) dug?


also can users hide their ip from mods if they use vpn when they log in for the second time? Does using vpn+deleting cookies (browser history) before login affect anything? Or using vpn is enough?

I know there is an ip history for each login but does it include every login made ever or is there a limit? like if a member logged in with the same ip as their other account once then after that started using vpn for an alt in every future log in and continued up to the 10th login while still using vpn, does the older logged in ip disappear from history or it stays forever?

Any website you access will have access to your IP address, as your IP address is requesting information from that server. Normally this isn't stored, but can be using a plethora of different means. However, IP addresses aren't a great identifier as with mobile devices and dynamic IP addresses they can be changed frequently and easily. Apart from that there are also VPN's and proxy servers. To further identify, the server can also collect your browser information/version, screen resolution, window size, operating system and version, etc. Of course, most of these identifiers wouldn't be worth investing in incorporating on a weeb forum like this one. So mostly, they'll just associate your current and past IP addresses with your account. They probably also use browser cookies so even if you use a VPN and switch IP addresses and still use the same browser sock puppet accounts can still be linked back to the original and that is super easy to set up.

I wouldn't worry about it too much though unless you're going to go down the anonymity rabbit hole. Then you might as well just become excessively paranoid and experience declining health due to enormous stress.

Then there are more nefarious means of identifying people, which is generally used for doxing. One can easily analyze your typing habits, common quotes you use a lot, phrases you use a lot, etc to build a profile for you and then scour social media, steam, epic games, spotify, etc to identify you personally.

But, in the end, there is no sense worrying about it because you're 1 out of billions of internet users.

 

[P3ĮÑ]

I have six websites (domain/hosting included) and I can tell where the traffic is coming from even if it's from a VPN or a tor exit node so I can filter that dumb traffic by trolling them with captchas. If you're an admin (some boards give that access to even mods) you should be able to see login history along with the IP history on all forums.

Depending on the devs some websites also use things like datadog that fingerprint the entire user agent, their OS, browers even, digital fingerprinting, it's annoying. There's a plethora of tools many that come built in Xenforo which this forum is built on comes with it, everyone with an admin panel can see your IP, that permission can be bestowed to mods and so on.

Post automatically merged: Sep 16, 2023

also can users hide their ip from mods if they use vpn when they log in for the second time? Does using vpn+deleting cookies (browser history) before login affect anything? Or using vpn is enough?

Using a VPN alone is enough but its easy to tell via a simple IP lookup and it'll point to a VPN server in most cases (some good paid VPNs wont they will redirect it via a proper ISP) proxies are mostly more difficult to detect. If your IP history has been one country and suddenly changes it's beyond obvious.

No it won't the logs are still with the admins lol there is no point it is a good idea to disable third party scripts or cosmetic filtering on sites that aren't particularly known for safety. Cookies can be dangerous (especially third party ones block them) but many people miss the point, it's similar to an Oauth token, just not as safe, it allows to establish a unique session ID to the site, which is why it's only dangerous if someone grabs them and that only occurs if you're acting stupid online, it's a session hijack. If they have access to the the SQL database they can kinda see all your passwords too (i'm assuming this is for very specific admins here probably) which is normal unless they store them in plaintext then yeah I will be dialing up zise.