IP Addresses

My IP and Yahoo!

Via Normal Chat room chatting, your IP is safe, consider this image:

This shows how the messages all go through the Yahoo! server, hence your IP address is never revealed to the other person.  Yahoo! handles all the sending and receiving of messages via it's servers.

When you PM, and the two users are on each other's buddy lists, or use the new super webcam, and also the use of imvironments may reveal your IP address, as they go into Peer 2 Peer mode, meaning there is a direct connection between two computers:

Each computer is now acting as a server, and only a little activity goes on on the yahoo! server.  For this to work, your IP is revealed to the other user, and a direct connection made.

Can I hide my IP address in Yahoo?

Yes! Some firewalls will block this peer 2 peer activity, and yahoo! will have to handle your PM via it's servers.  As for super webcam, this is peer 2 peer only, and will not work.  You can also use Yahoo! Chat through a proxy, before connecting to yahoo! messenger, close the logon screen (press cancel), goto login>>preferences and configure the server information.

What is an IP address?

An Internet Protocol address is a unique 32 bit (4 byte) address each computer on the internet must have, it's an identifier for each computer, and is the way of sending and retrieving data.
Most dial up users are assigned a new IP address each time they dial up to the internet, the address will depend on the range of the ISP, this is a dynamic IP address.  Permanent connections such as DSL are most likely to have a static IP address.

An IP address looks like this: 205.45.62.124
Each of the numbers can be in the range 0 - 255.
There are a possible of 4228250625 unique IP addresses.

What is my IP address?

Your IP address at present is: 38.103.63.62

How do you know this?

Your IP address is sent to the server when you make a HTTP request, each server connected to the internet can see this IP, and is their way of sending you a reply.  IP addresses are also visible in all e-mails you send.

How else can I find my IP address?

If you are using a HTTP proxy, the IP address above will in fact be false. 
In windows 95,98 and ME > start, run, type winipcfg and hit enter.
In windows 95,98,ME,NT (win2k,XP) run ipconfig from a dos prompt.
To start a DOS prompt, start, run and type command.com, hit enter
In windows 2k, try right clicking dial up connection, select status, and view your IP there.

What can someone do with my IP address?

Not much! If you are on dial up, your IP will refresh during next connection.  But a user can use your IP to trace your ISP, they can also attempt to connect to any server running on your PC.  So if no server is running, and all ports are closed, nothing is going to happen. It is also possible for them to attempt to access open ports, view the security section below.

Security?

To ensure all ports are closed, and to ensure you have no trojans or viruses, learn how to download and install a firewall and anti virus program at our security pages, BeSecure.

To see what is connected to your computer:
start>>run and run netstat , you may wish to open a dos prompt first, then type netstat.
http://grc.com/default.htm - Shields UP free security check.