If 2 different individuals have the same originating IP address, may I
assume that the 2 individuals are really one individual, in spite of
different names, etc?
XVP A question
Elliott,
Not necessarily. The two individuals could be behind a firewall that
consolidates all upstream IP's into one "public" IP. Also, some internet
providers (mine included) dynamically assign and release IP's, so my IP may
change from day to day, or from minute to minute, and the IP that I just had
may go dormant, or may get assigned to another customer immediately. In
addition, dialup customers also usually get new IP's every time they dial
in.
(Finally, something I know a little about!)
Regards,
Gayle Snedecor
···
----- Original Message -----
From: "Elliott Shapiro" <elliotts@joimail.com>
To: <vp-mail@yahoogroups.com>; <vpfree@yahoogroups.com>;
<vp-heaven@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2003 7:22 PM
Subject: [vpFREE] XVP A question
If 2 different individuals have the same originating IP address, may I
assume that the 2 individuals are really one individual, in spite of
different names, etc?vpFREE Links: http://tinyurl.com/a7ga
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Gayle, would you not strongly suspect (even if without confidence)
that if we're talking about two separate individuals here, that they
bear some type of proximal relationship to each other? I'm not
suggesting next door neighbors but, for example, either co-habitants
or co-workers.
- Harry
Gayle Snedecor wrote:
···
Elliott,
Not necessarily. The two individuals could be behind a firewall
that consolidates all upstream IP's into one "public" IP. Also,
some internet providers (mine included) dynamically assign and
release IP's, so my IP may change from day to day, or from minute to
minute, and the IP that I just had may go dormant, or may get
assigned to another customer immediately. In addition, dialup
customers also usually get new IP's every time they dial in.
Harry,
If you were talking in generalities, I would have to say no. Having said
that, if you were to tell me that both these "different" individuals were
posting to the same discussion group, such as vpFREE, the answer might be
different. The probability that two random members of an internet service
provider happened to have get randomly assigned the same IP, and posted to
the same forum, or sent the same person mail, I would think to be quite low
,although I haven't modified Winpoker to calculate it (trying to keep it as
least slightly on topic! ).
If EVERY TIME they post, these two individuals have exactly the same IP,
then that drops out some possibilities, such as random IP reassignment
allowed two different individuals to post as the same IP.
It would then fall back to perhaps members of the same household (behind a
NAT router) or members of the same business type organization (behind a
firewall router).
I don't think I'll comment further, because it's off-topic, and I don't want
to insert myself into some type of conflict.
Regards,
Gayle Snedecor
···
Gayle, would you not strongly suspect (even if without confidence)
that if we're talking about two separate individuals here, that they
bear some type of proximal relationship to each other? I'm not
suggesting next door neighbors but, for example, either co-habitants
or co-workers.- Harry
Gayle Snedecor wrote:
... if you were to tell me that both these "different" individuals
were posting to the same discussion group, such as vpFREE, the
answer might be different. The probability that two random members
of an internet service provider happened to have get randomly
assigned the same IP, and posted to the same forum, or sent the same
person mail, I would think to be quite low, although I haven't
modified Winpoker to calculate it (trying to keep it at least
slightly on topic! ).
Possibly overextending my deductive powers, I suspect this is very
likely the scenario that prompted the original question.
By the way, perhaps we should suggest this as an enhancement to the
next release of WinPoker to Dean Zamzow?
- H.