Static vs. Dynamic IP

[Mahdi]

Well, we recently had to change our IP from Dynamic to static in order to connect to a server (extra $10/month). Doesnt that now mean that my computer is identifiable wherever I go online?

Say, if I miss an episode of Big Bang Theory and download the torrent, the torrent site, everyone else downloading the torrent, my isp, and anyone looking inot the torrent, will be able to track me back to my house, name, address, etc?

[athanasios]

Your computer was already identifiable wherever you went online (Your IP is visible, everyone can see it even us here while you are browsing). Now it is even worse. You simply had a chance to avoid action taken against you when changing IP often when downloading through torrents. The dudes have to prove that you downloaded the whole packet to take you to court. They 'd have to demand the ISP to give details on quite a big number of IPs which the ISP would most likely deny. Download something illegal through a torrent and soon you will find the police knocking at your door. ;-)

Torrents are an unsafe method of downloading. Big Brother is spying on you. PeerBlock can offer some protection but it is useless as the Big Brother is always one step ahead. Also Big Brother doesn't need to use gov IPs, he can spy on you from his private connection at home...

Better forget torrents and use MUTE. With MUTE you CANNOT be identified. BUT it is extremely slow. That episode you mentioned may even take a week to download-if it is available, because people are stupid and use torrents, so the community of MUTE is extremely small.

Also prefer Rapidshare and other uploading services. Files are up and down within a couple of days, names used are irrelevant to content, so it is more hard to be traced.

And one more point: Your PC has a unique MAC address which is identifiable by everyone. So they do not need to request all those IPs you changed with a dynamic IP. They will demand from your ISP the customer with that unique MAC. May Technitium help you. ;-)

Also with a static IP you better forget Rapidshare.

Proxies can help but again the speed is limiting their usage.

note: I am surprised you asked such a question, because you are not new to the scene. So I assumed this was a rhetorical one to lead to an informative discussion. I suppose I covered everything, but if someone can share something new he is welcome to enlighten us.

[Gobalopper]

Your ISP will always be able to track you. Regular users on the rest of the Internet will know that your IP address comes from your ISP but then they could always find that out before. There isn't a flag sent on your requests telling people that you have a static IP address.

Keep in mind even people with dynamic IP addresses sometimes will have the same IP address for months. Having a static IP doesn't mean your address gets published or anything, it just means your ISP has "hardcoded" your IP to not change in their systems.

[Andrew]

I had static IP address for years for a wireless ISP. Now with aliant landline it is dynamic. I'm guessing your still with your wireless ISP? Why the extra $10 a month for static? Unless you have arrangement so they know your specific IP address and are not throttling it or disabling some services. And not with the random dynamic of everyone else they are throttling/disabling services.

Even when dynamic it can stay the same for a long time as Gob says. Usually it will change when your ISP modem is reset (power loss, unplugged etc basically when your ISP modem loses contact with their server and gets a new 'random' IP address).

With my ISP using dynamic, I've had to reset my ISP modem because I think they started throttling me, and getting new IP address seems to fix it. Although no throttling problems in past month.

If static or dynamic your ISP will know what you are doing. Not much different for other internet users seeing you. Only difference is if your static for next year, and someone is targeting you via that static address they will still be able to in future, whereas with dynamic they have to work a bit more to figure out which ipaddress is yours when it changes.

If using torrents make sure to have encryption enabled. There's also a million other things you are supposed to do with your torrent program to interact efficiently with private trackers (varies by tracker).

[gryphon]

And one more point: Your PC has a unique MAC address which is identifiable by everyone. So they do not need to request all those IPs you changed with a dynamic IP. They will demand from your ISP the customer with that unique MAC.

Well, not exactly. MAC adressen only apply to a local network and are used for switching. The moment the data passes through a router (any cable or DSL router) it's about your IP. No one sees your MAC or can find your computer based on your MAC address.

@Mahdi

It's not just about your IP. Most ISP have a reverse DNS lookup name for your host that does not change. Even if your IP changes this rDNS name stays the same. For an example you can visit www.showmyip.com and notice your IP changes from time to time. The host name stays the same. Not all ISP's  have the same policy about this. So it's possible the rDNS name never changes, with other providers it does. If you IP changed you can simply ping the dns name from any computer and find out your new IP.

Now let's assume your IP and rDNS name do change. Your ISP or any authority for that matter will have absolutely no problem identifying your computer either with a static or an dynamic IP. Your ISP has logfiles that will outlive prints of the Bible.

A resent example is Voltage's claim. The owners of those anonymous IP's already have the claim in their mailbox.

If you are concerned that other websites / forums can identify you by your new static IP. They can also do that by simply checking your browser.

The biggest setback from a static IP will be that ones blocked with someone, they will have you blocked for a long time. Then you can always use a proxy server to bypass that. Finding out your name, address, house and such is not possible (well, it is but not for anyone on this forum or for most websites). The closest they can get is find our your general geographical location, ISP and nearest large town with some luck.

[athanasios]

Disable Java and they cannot identify you by your browser! ;-) 1/1000 is nothing.

[Gruntlord6]

Disable Java and they cannot identify you by your browser! ;-) 1/1000 is nothing.

They can still find that......

Anyway, static IPs are better then dynamic, can`t wait to get mine back, im jumping through hoops getting my MSN back because they don`t belive its me as my IP keeps changing.

[Mahdi]

Well, my internet connection has been tons more stable since I switched and I've found that my regular bandwidth also seems to have increased some. I wonder if both of those are due to the switch to the static IP or simply because my entire connection needed a restart.

[athanasios]

Maybe because: 'What you pay is what you get'?

[Gruntlord6]

Well, my internet connection has been tons more stable since I switched and I've found that my regular bandwidth also seems to have increased some. I wonder if both of those are due to the switch to the static IP or simply because my entire connection needed a restart.

Static IP likely did not ever factor into that. You probably just have better service.

[gryphon]

Static IP likely did not ever factor into that. You probably just have better service.

That would also have been my guess. Then it won't be the first time a technician changed one setting and unintentionally adjusted another one. So the fixed IP should not matter, then maybe something else that also change or was corrected did improve the service. :)

You probably never know for sure.