| #: |
From / Date: |
Question / Answer: |
| 6034. |
Angel
Providence, UT
Age: 28
Jun 15, 2009
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RE: 6029 IP addresses from cell phones
Dorothy, the quality of the geolocation database your forum uses is what determines how "trackable" an IP address is. Of coarse the fact that the cell-phone is mobile makes it much harder to find your actual location.
Geolocation databases come in all shapes and sizes. Some, like the free Maxmind GeoLite City, use the information ICANN provides. While "for pay" geolocation databases use information from other sources such as tracking cookies, online subscriptions and purchase information. I suspect your forum is using a cheaper, less accurate database.
Interesting point... I'm currently on-site at a location in a major US city and I just ran a test with two co-workers phones (Verizon and ATT). I went to ip2location to seeing just how accurate their geolocation database is. The Verizon phone showed a town about 100 miles away and the ATT phone showed a town about 20 miles away. Both co-workers first powered on their phones at home so you would expect the IP address and geolocation accuracy to be based on their home address. But the Verizon user's home is about 25 miles in the opposite direction and the ATT user's home is within 2 miles of work. I then recycled the power on the phones and both got new IP addresses. Most home broadband connections will keep the same IP address for months or even years but it appears that cell-phone carriers will assign a new IP address when powering-up.
So... as I'm writing this I'm re-evaluating my original statement. It would appear that a cell-phone IP address is broadly trackable with common geolocation technology. But I would still be cautious with the sites you visit and never enter any personal information from the cell-phone.
Submitted Link #1: http://www.ip2location.com/...
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| 6033. |
James
Lewiston, ID
Age: 32
Jun 15, 2009
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re: 6030 and 6029
randy,
I think I remember hearing about a bu detector that senses the semiconductor logic gates hemselves. That should work until someone goes 19th/early 20th century on you. GLONASS and LORAN are alternatives to GPS for location (which behave slightly differently see thickipedia) as is inertial nav.
Dorothy,
I think you are missing something. some of the tools I would use are dig (dns tool from bind), whois, and say the ARIN website among others.
Let's say I wanted to find previous step of an ssh attack targeting my computer. the attack appears to be coming from 88.182.114.177, a quick 'dig ptr 177.114.182.88.in-addr.arpa.' (the order of the octets is reversed) indicates that that IP address point to the name men13-6-88-182-114-177.fbx.proxad.net. first guess it's a dynamic addres from an ISP. The ARIN site when provided with the address points to RIPE and RIPE (being the European peer of ARIN in the US) points to the address being allocated to proxad.net. Finally, a quick visit to the proxad.net website indicates they are a French ISP. (This also works pretty well with adresses pulled from the headers of spam). I'm pretty sure there is an automated tool to do this, but I've never used one and I don't know where to look for a windows copy. Note that this is likely illegal in the US due to worthless legislation.
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| 6032. |
Sebastian
Knoxville, TN
Age: 45
Jun 15, 2009
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#6030 (Nosy People)
A GPS detector. It detects the emissions from the GPS receiver. Search the Internet.
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| 6031. |
randy
cocoa fla
Age: 44
Jun 14, 2009
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Fla DMV& LLC No Problem
I expected the DMV to ask me several questions when registrating my vehical in my new LLC. Not so, she spent a few moments examing paperwork,looked at me, asked who I was, "purchasing agent I replied", sign here... Never asked for an ID or proof of insurance. Also, I highly recommend doing this on a Friday and as close to 5pm as possible. HTBI LLC's are worth every penny!
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| 6030. |
randy
cocoa FL
Age: 45
Jun 14, 2009
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Nosy People
Is there a device that can detect tracking devices placed on your vehical that reports its position either in real time or has to be retrieved from the vehical and downloaded.
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| 6029. |
Dorothy
Topeka, KS
Age: 40
Jun 14, 2009
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IP addresses from cell phones
I have access to a cell phone that has internet access on it. I also have access (as moderator/administrator) to a forum. One of the forum's handy-dandy tools is to track the IP addresses of its users. So out of curiousity, I made up a User ID from my cell phone with internet access, and then ran an IP address check on the IP address that the forum was showing for my phone. The IP address checker site only shows "USA" for my location when posting from phone - and it shows Opera Mini as the web browser being used. It does NOT show a city or even a state. It does NOT show which carrier my cell phone is based from. It does NOT even show that the IP address is a cell phone, except for the fact that Opera Mini is a cell-phone based browser, a fact which most computer & phone-savvy people would already know. My questions are these: 1) Am I "missing something" regarding IP address checking tools? 2) Is it possible that cell phone internet access isn't as "trackable" as computer-based internet access? Thanks in advance!
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| 6026. |
Aaron
St. Louis, MO
Age: 38
Jun 12, 2009
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Yet another reason to be very careful what you post to blogs, facebook, etc.
Ever wonder who's visiting your blog or social networking profile? A Missouri family recently found out how "worldwide" the web is-- a high-resolution family photo of theirs (posted to several social networking sites) had been used, without their knowledge or permission, in an advertising campaign in the Czech Republic.
A little prevention goes a long way.
Submitted Link #1: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jun/11/smith-...
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| 6024. |
Cathy
Rochester, NY
Age: 19
Jun 11, 2009
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privacy-friendly homeowner/renter insurance
I've never delved into the insurance world since I don't own anything worth insuring, but out of curiosity, what happens when you try to get insurance in the name of the LLC that owns your home? I've seen discussions here about getting insurance in the name of an LLC on cars (and usually people run into the problem of the insurance company charging a significantly higher "corporate rate" on the insurance), but no one's explained what happens when you try to get homeowners' insurance in the name of an LLC. Has anyone tried?
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| 6022. |
peter
florida
Age: 30
Jun 11, 2009
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p.o. box and magic jack
Few things: first would never use magic jack as primary number.. I had 2 and they were the worst customer service ever. (Actually they had no phone customer service only through instant messenger and the Indian reps writing skills were so bad I couldn’t understand their writing.. . ) I just threw them away…
p.o. box trick. it works so far in ny and florida. If the reps at the dmv do not want to issue you your license to a p.o. box even after I tell them that I am in transition and have no home now. Just tell them the street number of the usps and use the p.o. box number as your apartment number.
It works every time and the reps at the usps said if they ever received anything like this in your name they would just put It in the appropriate box..
So it works great :)
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| 6021. |
Paul
Stafford, Tx
Age: 58
Jun 11, 2009
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Comment on Majic Jack
Jack: Please be advised MajicJack will not work over Satellite Internet Connections. Needs to be Cable or DSL. I have used one for 4 months; for $20. per year including long distance for U.S. and Canada you can not beat the price. Best Regards
...
I received another comment from a tech expert:The MagicJack Service is not a bad deal for the price ... but there are
a few catches, first it is dial-up. They do offer some services that
you can use through a high-speed modem, but their claim to fame is being
a cheap, simple dial-up solution for internet, phone, etc.
The other key thing is that there is virtually no customer support. If
you are tech savvy enough, you should be able to take care of most of
your issues ...
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| 6020. |
Edmund
Oregon, USA
Age: 61
Jun 11, 2009
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Invisible Phone Numbers
I've been using a MagicJack phone www.magicjack.com for the past year. You can buy them a Staples, Walgreens and other retailers for about $39 including the first year of unlimited phone service. As a cash commodity, there are no questions or credit cards needed to get a valid and usable US phone number. Besides being a really cheap alternative to a landline with no long distance costs, there is a really valuable additional feature.
You get to choose your phone number area code.
While I nominally live on the west coast, my principal MJ phone # is in Florida. So, whenever I make a l-d call, the caller ID shows Florida. This has proved to be invaluable for misdirection of those who might want to know where I am.
I've also found that when I travel out of the country, the MJ gives me a valid US phone number even in Brazil, the UK, Canada and China. All you need is a moderate broadband Internet connection. When I'm talking and there is Internet distortion, I just blame it on a 'bad cell' location. Works every time.
You can set the 'call forwarding' feature to jump to another phone or answer with conventional voice mail. I usually stack two MJ lines before it terminates as a WAV file email message sent to my unpublished email address. Then I can choose to call back, or not.
Submitted Link #1: http://www.magicjack.com...
...
(Your link, below, did not work until I added http://)
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| 6019. |
Drake
LA, CA
Age: 34
Jun 10, 2009
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6013 - Marriage/Divorce records
Tommy - information from marriage licenses and most of the information in divorce records are open to the public in the local courthouse or from the custodian of that record. If you ask nicely for something specific, you'll usually get it.
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| 6018. |
Elizabeth
Monterey, CA
Age: 54
Jun 10, 2009
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Ins. and Credit Reports, RE: #6009 and #6017
Seth, regarding #6009. You say you took out a homeowner's insurance policy and saw the house address on your credit report within a few days. Did you have a freeze on your credit reports at the time? If so, I am wondering how they put info on those reports without you voluntarily lifting the freeze.
Brian, regarding #6017. I chose an auto insurance company/agent that did not require giving SSN (some do, some don't). I also gave separate mailing and residence addresses. I have never seen my residence address show up on my credit reports or any database as a result of this type of car insurance. Note that I did this long before I put a freeze on my credit reports, so that is not what saved me. My advice is do not give out your SSN for car ins. and make sure they put your mailing address everywhere except under location where car will be garaged at night.
As far as renter's insurance, I never saw any that didn't require giving the renter's SSN, so I never got it. Good luck and let us know if you find out how to buy homeowner's insurance (for a home paid for in cash) without compromising the home address on credit reports, etc.
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| 6017. |
Brian
detroit
Age: 22
Jun 10, 2009
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Insurance
Seth, I've been struggling with Insurance questions for a few months now as I approach college graduation (paid for entirely through scholarships by the way). Insuring my car and maybe a house have turned out to be the one real vulnerability in my privacy framework--the customary HTBI method being to insure in your own name. I wouldn't mind insuring in my own name but I keep learning of database sharing, and things like you've described that totally destroy any protection.
Please post if you learn of any ways to solve this issue. I know it has stumped me so far.
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| 6015. |
Seth
collbran, co
Age: 50
Jun 10, 2009
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Renter's insurance and public databases
In answer to #6011:
No, I have not purchased the house yet, I'm still renting because the buyer for my ranch failed to close.
It's my understanding the the insurance industry, not just my company Allstate, has a policy of reporting to credit agencies that they will not waive.
I haven't gotten all the details yet.
Maybe someone like Lloyds of London would do it privately, I don't know. Perhaps a UK reader could check that out for us.
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| 6014. |
Dorothy
Topeka, KS
Age: 40
Jun 9, 2009
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Kammi's Visa gift card and gas purchases
Gas stations *sometimes* place "holds" on credit/debit cards for what seem to be random amounts; that's the amount that they pre-approve a card for before they allow to pump the gas. Some gas stations pre-approve a card for only $1, others go as high as $50 to $75. In my area, there is fine print on the gas pumps that a Visa purchase will max out at $50 while a Mastercard purchase will max out at $75. Those limits imply that the gas station can put through a pre-approval hold on your account for either $50 or $75. Sometimes the gas stations do "ding" the card for the whole amount, sometimes they don't. Once the actual amount gets processed by the bank, the "pre-approval" amount usually drops off within a few days. In general, those pre-approval amounts don't cause a problem with regular credit cards because the credit limit is usually so much higher than the credit balance that the card user never notices. However, in the case of debit cards, and also in the case of gift cards, it can make a significant dent in the ability of the cardholder to purchase other items for a few days. It is my personal humble opinion that Kammi's Visa gift card is simply following standard banking practices for gas station purchases. Nona is definitely on the right track, Kammi. If you purchase a Visa gift card for a specific purchase, you need to use that Visa gift card for ONLY that specific purchase ALSO.... When you use a Visa gift card for an ONLINE purchase, you need to VERIFY the billing address online FIRST. SOME Visa gift cards allow a back-door approach of using the address of the Visa card itself as your *billing address* when you're filling out an online form. I've done that with the Visa gift cards from Walgreens that come in specific dollar amounts. I've never tried it with a GreenDot card, however. I hope this all makes a little bit of sense. Those Visa gift cards are very tricky creatures and really should only be used for things that truly require privacy because if you use them for everyday purchases, it just costs too much and requires too much aggravation to jump through all the hoops. Hope this helps!
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| 6013. |
Tommy
Bronxville, NY
Age: 52
Jun 9, 2009
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Marriage/Divorce Records: Not public, but available thru info brokers???
How are these information brokers such as US Search, Intelius, etc., obtaining marriage and divorce records which are unavailable in most states without an affadivit from the targeted persons??? Or are these info brokers selling bogus information??
Thanks Much.
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| 6012. |
Nona
SF, CA
Age: 44
Jun 9, 2009
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6007 - Kammi's Visa giftcard
Kammi, did you get a receipt from the gas station when you bought the gas? It is possible the gas station attendant is embezzling. My advice would be to cut up the card and walk away for a few months.
You say you got the card for Internet purchases, that didn't pan out the way you wanted, but then you used it for buying fuel. You planned your work but didn't work your plan. Keep each quarantined, segregated, compartmentalized, tool for it's specific purpose. Don't infect them with outside activities that do not follow The Plan.
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| 6011. |
brian
detroit
Age: 22
Jun 9, 2009
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Home Insurance
Seth, you bought your home outright, correct? No mortgage is attached to the home, correct?
Has an insurance company explained to you the purpose of placing the policy on your credit report? Assumption being that it protects them somehow (from fraud or something?).
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| 6009. |
Seth
collbran, co
Age: 50
Jun 9, 2009
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Renter's insurance and public databases
Homeowners insurance companies report names and addresses of their insured to the credit bureaus.
I took out a homeowner's policy for my new home, but as a precaution I gave a ghost address for the house, as a test of security.
That address appeared on my credit report within THREE DAYS of obtaining the policy.
Needless to say, I cancelled the policy.
I haven't found a way to get a large insurance company to agree to not submitting such information to the credit bureaus.
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