Proxies

[Julia Gillard the Honest]

I don't really know about them but I understand (please correct me if I'm wrong) that they give you a fake IP address, so I'm wondering, is it possible for a scammer to actually choose the numbers himself? In particular, if you're someone who ruthlessly punishes and reports particular scammers ( ), would one be likely to try to frame you if he knew your IP address? No scammers know mine but it's just something that I'm wondering (if so then it's, obviously, a good reason for their privacy). Again, I don't know how they work. For all I know, they might just randomly choose their numbers.

[Bakgrund]

A proxy works like so that you connect to a server that loads the page for you, then sends the page to you, so it all the time looks like the server is the ip-adress that recieves and sends information and you therefore are anonymous. Your ip-adress never recieves or send any information directly to the server except for the proxy of course. For example: your computer -> proxy -> steam, when page is loaded -> proxy -> your computer.

 

Proxies are not 100% secure though, so if you want to be on the safe side, use a vpn (almost the same idea as a proxy i believe) and run tor over that, i also believe tor works almost the same way but in multiple steps so your ip is hard as fak to trace. Tor is completely free and anyone can download it and start use it right away, tor is also the program that you use to acces most of the deep-web, like "the hidden wiki".

 

How tor works: https://www.torproject.org/about/overview.html.en#thesolution

 

You can't choose the ip-adress so you'll have to take what the proxy gives you.

 

http://www.hidemyass.com/proxy-list/ here are some good proxies, far away from all of them works so it can take a few minutes to find a working one.

[adflgdafjl]

Two systems can't have the same public IP. It's like 2 houses with the same address. It'd cause confusion, and because the web isn't like houses in that things are never farther or closer to each other, just always close, making it impossible to, say, have 2 houses in different countries, when it wouldn't matter, it is simply impossible for 2 computers to have the same IP.

 

But if you're reporting a scammer with a proxy, it really won't do much, since one of the main purposes of proxies is to provide anonymity to its users, which it does very well.

 

EDIT: Bakgrund provided a good explanation of how proxies actually work, there are no such things as fake addresses, since that would make it useless. Think of a house with no address. It can't receive mail. But I didn't get the impression you wanted to protect yourself with a proxy, more concerned about being impersonated by one. Is that correct?

[Slocumruls]

The only way for them to impersonate you by originating from your ip is to actually control your router or computer and then forward communications through those

[Julia Gillard the Honest]

I'm not planning to start scamming and using one. I'm also wanting to know if an IP check could get rid of this scammer who keeps making new accounts. http://steamcommunity.com/groups/tf2outpost/discussions/3/558747288273880702/ Honest. He has blocked everyone who has posted on Outpost, even the ones who just asked for his reputation. Rather than simply giving it, he abuses and blocks (see the first post of http://www.tf2outpost.com/trade/17913764 ). He's quite clearly enjoying being rude to everyone and bragging about getting away with it as he swears at everyone, calls them "envy" and then blocks so as to get the last word.

 

From your responses though, it sounds like an IP block can't be used.

[adflgdafjl]

Eh, sounds like he could get around an ip block fairly easily. It is possible to change one's IP address, just not to an IP of your choice, so if he does get IP banned, he can change it, and voila. Also, he probably has a dynamic (ever changing) IP address.