Privacy/Security: How to change my IP address daily or weekly on DSL

Hi Dana,

Ah, I finally understand. I agree with you. I was wrong. I was, in fact, wasting my time by changing my MAC address periodically.

CASE 1: In the case of me changing my MAC address using my paid-for ISP, I agree with you (now) that changing the MAC address provides no additive privacy.

CASE 2: In the case of a NetZero free ISP, I see from your arguments that changing the MAC address still doesn't provide additive privacy.

CASE 3: However, what if there was a free hotel lobby hotspot. Wouldn't a temporary change of the MAC address provide additional privacy?

On Wed, 18 Oct 2006 04:00:45 GMT, Aluxe wrote in :

No.

Do you believe everything you hear?

On Wed, 18 Oct 2006 05:31:11 GMT, Aluxe wrote in :

No.

On Wed, 18 Oct 2006 04:24:36 GMT, Aluxe wrote in :

I am.

You don't understand how the Internet works.

On Wed, 18 Oct 2006 05:15:38 GMT, Aluxe wrote in :

Nope. Nada. Zilch.

Nope. Nada. Zilch.

Hi John Navas,

I was under the impression that the MAC address contained two parts. The first part identified the manufacturer and the second part uniquely identified the unit.

That unit (probably a daughterboard card or part of the motherboard) could then easily be traced back to the serial number of the computer.

Which, in turn, could be traced to an individual owner of that computer by a variety of common methods.

Is that not true?

On Wed, 18 Oct 2006 03:46:08 GMT, Aluxe wrote in :

There is no such thing. Get over it. I'm done with this waste of time.

On Wed, 18 Oct 2006 05:58:49 GMT, John Navas wrote::

Hi John Navas, I agree with you (and Dana) about these two cases: CASE 1: Changing the MAC when dialed into your own ISP provides no extra privacy.

CASE 2: Changing the MAC when dialed into NetZero, effectively provides no extra privacy.

But, is it the same answer for a free hotspot?

CASE 3: Does changing the MAC address when connected to a free anonymous hotspot provide any extra level of privacy?

I'll play the devil's advocate here. Even though it may not be noticeable for everyday use what about generating a report from a large database like the ones that always seem to be on lost/stolen laptops? It seems we are always hearing about 100's of thousands of compromised identities when a laptop is stolen. If these are stored in a SQL database then a measurable slowdown may indeed be perceptible when generating reports from that database. Knowing in advance what the actual slowdown is would allow someone contemplating using bitlocker to compare it to other solutions.

Yes, that is how the protocol works. The next upstream device (your ISP has to know what mac address to send the replies to.

They may have your original MAC, but they will now use whatever MAC address you are using now, as that identifies the machine you are using. So if you log on using your friends lap top, netzero will associate you to that lap top once you sign in.

I am thinking this is a yes. When you change your MAC, that is a software mac, yet your NIC has a burned in address. I am not sure if your first connection to the hotspot will use the burned in address, or the software changed MAC. I will have to look into this one. For now I will say yes it works like you are saying.

For now I am saying yes. I need to look into this myself. As you know you have a burned in address on your NIC, that cannot be change by you. When you change your MAC, you are telling the protocol to use the MAC address you provide, vice the normally used burned in MAC. I need to see how the protocol works to establish the public free connection. I am pretty sure it is going to use the MAC you tell it to use and not use the burned in address. Of course you would have to change this mac prior to enabling the wireless adapter, or else the wireless adapter would communicate with the hotspot network looking for a connection using the burned in address.

What is called the NIC, network interface card. This is where you plug in the cable from your ISP. Can be a standalone card, or now it is a chip on the mother board.

So long as you do not replace it. The serial number of the computer will never be used over the network, nor does the NIC care what the serial number is. The burned in MAC address is all the NIC cares about.

Yes, by using that MAC addressed which will be shown to be associated to your ISP account once you log in, or hook that computer up to your always on DSL/cable connection. What you want to find out is if there is a way to change the address of your DSL or cable modem, and that I have no idea about. Of course if you find a way, I am pretty sure the ISP will not like that very much and would probably shut of your connection, hence you would gain nada.

Mostly yes.

Like we have been trying to tell you. Now realize that if you want to stay anon on the net, the use of a proxy server while you surf, will slow you down a little, but would conceal what IP you are using. For mail and newsgroup posting, a remailer works, yes I gave you one link already that may have been expensive, but you could probably find one cheaper depending on how much you expect to post and download. Really the only one who has the goods on you, is your ISP. But unless they have a reason (court order, complaints, etc ) they are not tracking you. There is technology that will track surfing behavior and block sites that are not allowed. Kuwait and other middle eastern countries and I heard China tracks your surfing and blocks sites. The military network has devices installed where it records what sites people go to by MAC address, so the military can identify what computer was used. Yes the military tracks which MAC address is assigned to what computer (the units I supported recently in Iraq were).

You need to change your meds Aluxe.

If that's all you want, buy a premium NNTP service. Use X-no-archive (it's not perfect, but your original headers won't show).

I'm not even sure how a MAC address is relevant. My ISP only sees the MAC address of my router. So what? And my router will let me change that, if I want.

This is a nutbar.

Get a premium news service that protects your privacy. They won't give out your personal info (or your "posting host") without a court order (they won't go to court to defend you either). Set up a pseudonym that you use all the time, that way you can have a Usenet personality that people can identify with. Set up a real email address for that personality with Gmail or like that. Read the mail that comes in or not, it's up to you, it's mostly spam. I have my Gmail filter set to delete any mail with an attachment, f'rinstance. Do you honestly believe my real name is Warren Oates?

Set an X-no-archive header.

Or use an anonymous remailer. Your story about the fat girl you wanted to hurt tells us a lot about your personality and why you need your privacy. Anyway, you can't be too thin or too rich.

Forget it Aluxe, all your postings are belong to us.

No.