I moderate one site and I feel something wrong is happening.

I've been collecting some IPs of certain people there and I have a doubt. May a person use a proxy server and be logged there as two different people and they can be online at the same time? One of the IPs of two different people are equal. I'm not able to trace most of their IPs and when I can do it, the location is completely different. So, I think they've been using a proxy.

Can you guys help me?

well ip is tricky since alot of people use the same ip number to the point where a number or 2 are off but only if you really look, but yeah it is possible to use a proxy and then log on 2 differnt accounts. but its more complicated then i can tell you the best bet is to look at email addresses and see if they are bogus.

but tracing an ip number is not free to the point where you want the original location.

well I have two telephone lines and a broadband, I could conceivably have three different accounts with different supplieres and if I still had isdn (not poss with my Broadband setting, but i could have cable) I could be connected to three different providers, providing me with three different dynamic IP's. I am typing this on my PC, while my music plays on my eMac, my wifes computer is in the living room. So no problem with that setting. The questions would be why? It is a little bit of an effort? she coud also be connected via her mobilephone, opening up a different possibilitiy there.

I would say: ask, make it funny, like: have you all noticed, there is something funny with the IP going on here - really peculiar. You all seem to have the same IP, or I don't know.

don't point your finger at the person you suspect, make it general. If he is malicious, he sees you are on his tracks, and might stop (or improve in disguising his tracks)

Anyway just some random thoughts.

umm,you can check both exact IP to moderate them.certainly email address and named style to judge them.

If two different people have the same IP there could be a few reasons. If they use the same IP and have dynamic IPs they they may have been assigned the same IP. This is incredibly unlikely.

The more logical explanation of two users with the same IP is a network. If two IPs are identical then there could be two people at a school college, office etc, both visiting your site. They would then have the same IP and there is nothing to stop them. At my school for example, a proxy is used to allow the school to prevent access to certain sites. This gives a totally different location to the school when checked.

I doubt anyone would go to the lengths of getting a proxy and setting up fake accounts unless they were getting something out of it. If you have noticed weird things happening then I would try and crack down on the problem, but if there is nothing out of the ordinary or any major problems then I don't see a point in tracking them.

but what if people are using ip faker. I mean if they are then tons of people can have the same ip. Not sure if it's still around though. My other question is why? Are you afraid that people are posting more than they should or doing something wrong.round.

First, I'd like to thank you guys for trying to help me.

Apart from this problem of trying to prove there's one person with two different accounts, someone has logged in as the administrator and changed the title of one of the forums. I've read the topic someone made here about some forums vunerability. I'm almost sure who has been doing that but I don't know how to prove it.

I'm not good at this stuff but I believe email address won't help. Once a person can have as many as he wants. I have 4 emails and I wouldn't use the same one if I had two different accounts.

I believe the guy has more than one computer and dynamic IPs. I thought the fact that one of the IPs were exactly the same, it'd help me prove something.

if i were u, i'd just kick out the suspect users. O, and another thing, see when these 'two' users post. If they are the same person, chances are that the person is posting at the same time everytime the person posts. So that could be a way to figure out that the person is the same for two usernames. Just my thought.

I'm glad I didn't do anything drastic. One problem has been solved. I just sent a scary PM to all the mods and administrator and one of the mods said he had changed the title of one of the forums. The other administrator had given him the power and none of us knew about it.

Anyway, now I have to be careful about the other problem. The guy I think who has two accounts. I've been checking the time they post and I saw in one of their posts there were a few seconds difference.

It is not reliable to use the IP feature on most forums, because they do not know that people use proxies. For example, I've tried a proxy on my site before, and posting, and it just displays my proxy, not the actual ip. Some complicated forums might have a feature...