Finding out someone's IP address?

[broku]

quote:Originally posted by Suzy83

Hi everyone

I read on the AIM forum that you can find out someone's IP address if you connect to them directly for sending a file and such.

How can you find out someone's IP address through MSN Messenger?

A friend of mine was chatting with a guy on MSN and he said he found out her IP address just by chatting!! We have no idea how he did that Can anyone clarify? As far as we know, he's not a hacker or anything, just handy with computers.

XD i just wnated to know if ya'll knew what teh heck ya'll were talking about XD. yes you can get a person's ip from msn messenger. but no you can't do it if you are sending them a file, cause all you will get is the msn server that you are relaying off of. but you can however get it when they are sending you a file. i'm not trying to give out any hints for a hacker who might be in here but the command is called "netstat" all you have to do is look for foreign host ip.
and you can easily tell a server ip from a PC.
so before everyone starts telling everything that comes to tehir mind first. here it is. just to clear it all up ^.^. oh and no, if someone uses custom emotioncons or backgrounds you cannot trace teh ip. and yes you can trace if they are using a webcam or audio

[wivern]

Brian and Nederfox:

Just to add my two bits on MAC addresses... you are both correct. The key to the material you're quoting, Brian, is that the MAC address provides a unique physical address to each interface on a network. Two networks attached together by a router at the physical layer can potentionally have a node in one segment that is identical to a MAC address in the other segment, and have no problems what so ever. However, each interface on an individual network must be assigned a unique MAC address for it to work properly. If two interfaces have the same MAC address, "very strange things" will begin to happen with the devices using those interfaces, but only if they share the same physical layer. So, for example, my computer here at home, connected to a personal LAN which passes through a broadband router to my ISP, could potentially have the same MAC address as another machine connected to the same ISP network, since they are on separate physical networks (due to my broadband router).

To ensure that devices generally do not conflict with eachother at the Data Link Layer, manufacturers obtain an OUI (a unique 3-octet identifier that makes up the first portion of a registered MAC address) from the IEEE, the organization the ISO council has designated as the registration authority for OUI assignments. Combined with the OUI and a manufacturer assigned 3-octet identifier, a NIC can have an IEEE certified, globally unique MAC address. However, some (very few) manufacturers try to cut corners and save the cost of selling a standard's compliant interface. I know this first hand from a shipment of low-cost Ethernet NIC's a company I consult for received. All of the MAC addresses for the cards were factory set to zeros. It was a complete administrative nightmare until we figured out what was happening and why. Thankfully, in this case, Nederfox was correct in saying that many NICs have a user-configurable MAC address. By simply changing the MAC addresses on the individual cards, using a manufacturer firmware utility, to machine addresses that we knew would be unique to our physical network, the problem instantly went away. We could of contacted the IEEE and asked for our own OUI, but it wasn't necessary.

Generally speaking, most NIC's will let you change the MAC address through the drivers of the operating system. This will not permanently replace a unique MAC address if your NIC has been assigned one by the manufacturer, and it will return to it's factory set MAC address if the setting is cleared, or, in some cases, if the machine is rebooted. In Unix-like operating systems, this is accomplished through the ifconfig command. In Windows, most drivers have a "Network Address" setting in the Advanced tab of your NIC's device properties. Many Linksys broadband routers also possess the ability to clone a MAC address from a machine on the internal network to it's WAN port, in case your ISP only allows your original PC's MAC address to connect.

Now... what this all has to do with the original question is beyond me.

--

Adam
Chameleon Networks
adam@chameleonnetworks.net

[svMedia]

wivern: Yes... what I was trying to do was clarify that without making it sound too difficult (tricky when dealing with TCP/IP) Looking back at what I wrote, I think I wrote too much. Anyway, I just didn't want people getting the idea that they could effectively "hide" themselves with a masked or cloned MAC. Without fully understanding what's going on you could really screw things up. I wish NIC vendors would stop calling their MAC addresses configurable though. It's a little misleading. And I don't know how this thread branched off on to TCP/IP. Suzy83 is probably going to get a headache reading all of this. If they're still reading the thread.

broku: If MSN treats peer-to-peer connections like a regular network does then YES you can get an IP by sending them a file. I'm not sure how MSN works but for the sake of argument if MSN works like a router or switch for messenger users then your IP packets must contain a destination MAC and IP. Therefor, when your computer handshakes with their computer to establish a session you will have their IP. But like I said... I don't know how MSN works so you could be right.

[Nederfox]

LOL
I don't think Suzy83 expected such verbose explanation...
anyway, nice to see some ppl here who know well the network mechanism thingy. (svmedia, wivern, thx)

Indeed, duplicate Mac addresses are not necessarily troubleshooting. We can extrapolate this to duplicate IP addresses...if the duplicates are sufficient distant from eachother, one might not experience problems directly.
For tracking down this kind of protocol problems, this is why some ISPs want to have your NIC Mac address.

Nederfox


EDIT: @svMedia:
When connected to the Msn network, a constant connection is opened to baym-cs174.msgr.hotmail.com:1863.
This machine could act as "man in the middle".

[svMedia]

Ok... so MSN works as a message delivery boy more or less?

Suzy83.. if you're still reading this thread I'll put it in the simplest words:
"It takes a bit of work, and a little knowledge of networking"

There is really no need to do this unless of course one had something "promiscuous" on their agenda. Wether that be to show off, scare someone, or worse. Who knows? My suggestion is: put that person on your ignore list. If he's not willing to let you know how he did it personally, or even why, then he's not worth talking to.

EDIT:
BTW... I had to add this haha

I never knew MSN would volentarily be anyone's b*tch.
Interesting to know though. Are all messenger services run in this way?

[zanevalon]

what can a person do wit some1's IP address?. like i can get peoples IP from AIM but i dont do anything wit em cuz i dont kno what i can do.

[Purple Llama]

quote:Originally posted by zanevalon

what can a person do wit some1's IP address?. like i can get peoples IP from AIM but i dont do anything wit em cuz i dont kno what i can do.

dude how do you get people IP from aim without them giving it to you...please tell me, anyways i think you can get sensitive information such as passwords...not 100% sure

[FrutZle]

if you have someone's IP address and bad intentions, you could try to get into that person's computer and mess with their stuff. I'm sure nobody has to tell you that it's illegal to gain access to any computer without permission, and most people won't do anything with IP addresses, if they even know what they are for.

[hellsfury_25m]

Just as a footnote to the posts listed here, I'd like to add:

Unless you are trying to trace someone who has bad intentions toward you, or you yourself have bad intentions, there is no need to know someones IP address.

I'd also like to add, for the benefit of those reading this thread with bad intentions. No matter how well you try to mask/spoof your IP when on the Internet you can be traced and prosecuted.

[DJHyperbyte]

quote:Originally posted by hellsfury_25m

Unless you are trying to trace someone who has bad intentions toward you, or you yourself have bad intentions, there is no need to know someones IP address.

I'd also like to add, for the benefit of those reading this thread with bad intentions. No matter how well you try to mask/spoof your IP when on the Internet you can be traced and prosecuted.

Perfect bottom line.

EOF.