So many times when visiting certain websites I have banners from them that implicating my city even I living 20.000 miles away.

1. How they know where I am?

2. How I can hide my IP address to prevent them to see it?

I using IE6 and OE for mail as well as Firefox latest version.

Thank to everyone try to help.

An IP address (Internet Protocol address) is a unique address that certain electronic devices use in order to identify and communicate with each other on a computer network utilizing the Internet Protocol standard (IP).

Every time you contact a website, your computer identifies itself with its IP address. The IP address acts as a locator for one IP device to find another and interact with it. So, the banners you speak of can determine your general location based on your IP address. This is kind of like when you make a phone call, if the person you call has caller ID, they can determine your general location based on your area code.

I realize this can be a bit intimidating, which is why we don't allow these banners here at Geeks To Go. However, they are nothing to be worried about. Unless you have no firewall protection at all or are visiting less-than-reputable sites, there is very little risk from doing casual internet browsing.

This post has been edited by stettybet0: Apr 8 2008, 06:13 PM

Good explanation, Stettybet0!
In other words, this behavior is normal and by design. Every website you visit will have your IP addy in the logs. Only your ISP can match your IP with a physical address, and it is highly unlikely to be done casually.
Johanna

hello ,
i was reading the discussion but if you think you require to hide your ip then you can use proxy sites to access internet.

when you use proxy site to visit any webpage then the server of webpage tracks the IP of proxy site and your IP is safe then.
there are llot of free proxy sites available which you search on google.

thanks

Just to clarify,
Most Internet service providers assign an IP address each time that you log on to the Internet.
This is a very general number and is hard to find unless the Internet service provider gives out the information.
A specific number for your machine is the MAC address.
The MAC address is machine coded to your network interface card (NIC).
It is specific to your computer only.
This number is not given out to the websites that you go to.
So your IP adress can change very frequently, and it is hard to trace back to you.
Your MAC adress is specific, but is not given to others.

Now I am confused.



What sort of thing do ISP's assign to a Networked Computer to identify them on the Network if not a IP address and not all of the time?



I always assumed that a encapulated data packet being routed included both destination MAC Addresses and IP Addresses. Otherwise a ARP or RARP query would be sent by a router to get them.

So the recieving machine and the destination machine does not get the MAC Address of both sending and receiving machine during a connection? How does information get from one place to another without both?

I thought ISP's needed a unique MAC address to be sure they are not assigning the same address to two different machines on its NETWORK. The Data packet also needs the Ip address to get to the right network. The Data packet also needs the MAC address to get to the right machine. Or am I mistaken?

Confused

Kaz

This post has been edited by Kazzoo: Apr 9 2008, 09:26 PM

(kazzoo),
I try to keep my explanations simple so that some one with little knowledge will not be overwhelmed.
It sounds like you are a Novell network technician.
Libraries can be filled with this subject, for the original posters use, the explanations given should be simple and short.
To answer you would take hundreds of post.
Here is a simple example.
"MAC addresses, unlike IP addresses and IPX addresses, are not divided into "host" and "network" portions. Therefore, a host cannot determine from the MAC address of another host whether that host is on the same layer 2 network segment as the sending host or a network segment bridged to that network segment.

ARP is commonly used to convert from addresses in a layer 3 protocol such as Internet Protocol (IP) to the layer 2 MAC address. On broadcast networks, such as Ethernet, the MAC address allows each host to be uniquely identified and allows frames to be marked for specific hosts. It thus forms the basis of most of the layer 2 networking upon which higher OSI Layer protocols are built to produce complex, functioning networks."


QUOTE
Most Internet service providers assign an IP address each time that you log on to the Internet


What sort of thing do ISP's assign to a Networked Computer to identify them on the Network if not a IP address and not all of the time?
The IP address is assigned when the user logs on to the Internet.
The explaination of dynamic, and static IP addressing is also a broud subject.

This post has been edited by hfcg: Apr 10 2008, 08:52 AM

Greetings all

I wanted to make sure this was not lost in trying to simplify this issue too much to the OP.

Without TCP/IP protocols we dont have communication on the Internet as we know it. TCP/IP gives away location details.

You get assigned a Ip address by the ISP each and everytime you make a connection to them. You will get a IP address each and every time you try to use another computer as a gateway. Be it a external address or an internal one, You always get one. It is not MOST of the time. Everytime.

Mac Adresses are passed out to remote computers each and every time. Not MOST of the time.

Note mind you there is such things as MAC Address spoofing and IP Address proxying, because people are trying to hide location details. Generally not something a average user does.

You can be found, but it is a case of being worth the time and effort. The case is made for why victims computers are used as zombies or bots to hide behind their assigned IP/MAC if the hider doesnt want to divulge location details.

Adblock and No Script in firefox addons would go along ways in removing/reducing the Ads/Flash/scripting the OP is experiencing. But like all things being up for the learning curve of new software. That and the hassle of constant configuration.

Regards
Kaz.