"Michael S. Lorrey" says:
...
> > perhaps by pissing off some lurking greens, who retaliated
> > against my innocent little computer. I am currently on
> > another machine, so not sure if this will come thru. If
> > you dont hear from me for a while, you will know what
> > happened. {8^D spike
>
> Give me their IPs, Spike. I'll avenge thee....
You should be aware that IP addresses do *not* uniquely identify a
computer on the internet. ISP's sometimes rotate IP addresses among
different subscribers who obtain them via the dynamic host
configuration protocol (DHCP) or the like. So the IP address of a
punk today may belong to an innocent person tomorrow. Then again, the
malefactor may be behind a proxy server, so the apparent IP address is
not the genuine address. Or the nogoodnik may be sending packets from
a forged IP address. Lastly, the wily villian may have usurped
someone else's computer or account.
Self-help is quite a dangerous thing, and in particular on the
internet one must have a care to make sure one does not retaliate
against an innocent bystander. If you can get evidence of the dirty
deed, it's best to take it to the miscreant's ISP or upstream
provider in order to make sure things are as they appear.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Oct 02 2000 - 17:34:46 MDT