Finding out someone's IP address?

[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.

[MarkyD]

quote:Originally posted by Suzy83
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.

That's balls, simple as that. MSN Messenger's conversations are hosted on a server which the clients connect to, so the only IP address he could get is that of the server. Either he's lying, or he found out her IP address after something which requires a direct-connection, such as, like you stated, a file transfer.

[Suzy83]

Maybe she sent a picture of her then or something....?

It was really weird. And it has happened to me as well.

[Brian]

You can easily find IP address when someone forwards or send you E-mail messages. That probably was what he did.

[DJHyperbyte]

quote:Originally posted by Suzy83

Maybe she sent a picture of her then or something....?

It was really weird. And it has happened to me as well.

Retrieving IP's just by chatting on MSN Messenger?

Well, let's put it this way: nothing is impossible, but you'd need to have access to the MSN Messenger servers (the ones Microsoft runs) to find this out.

A few popular (and unnoticable) ways to retrieve someone's IP via a messenger (be it MSN, AIM, YIM or ICQ):
- Accept the sending of a file or photo
- Accept a voice or webcam conversation
- Go to someone's webpage

Also, - I haven't looked into MSN Messenger 6.0 this far yet, so I'm not sure, but - it should be fairly easy to retrieve someone's IP if they use the custom emoticons, custom backgrounds, image preview or personal picture features.

[MarkyD]

quote:Originally posted by DJHyperbyte
Also, - I haven't looked into MSN Messenger 6.0 this far yet, so I'm not sure, but - it should be fairly easy to retrieve someone's IP if they use the custom emoticons, custom backgrounds, image preview or personal picture features.

Actually, I believe these are sent through the servers in the same fashon as everything else, including messages and status/display name changes. I'm not 100% sure, though, but pretty certain.

[boredperson06]

OK...there really is no way to get someone's IP address...just about the closest you are going to get to someone's IP address is actually their ISP's IP address. The only way to get someone's actual IP address is to go get a court order and contact the ISP. You can never get an IP from just a direct connection...

[Suzy83]

Details, details

Hehehe, well it was their ISP's IP address then

[MarkyD]

quote:Originally posted by boredperson06
OK...there really is no way to get someone's IP address...just about the closest you are going to get to someone's IP address is actually their ISP's IP address. The only way to get someone's actual IP address is to go get a court order and contact the ISP. You can never get an IP from just a direct connection...

Wrong.

[DJHyperbyte]

quote:Originally posted by boredperson06

OK...there really is no way to get someone's IP address...just about the closest you are going to get to someone's IP address is actually their ISP's IP address. The only way to get someone's actual IP address is to go get a court order and contact the ISP. You can never get an IP from just a direct connection..

Actually, an IP address is the identity of a computer/person on the internet. If you want to make a direct connection to another machine on the internet, you will need to have their IP address (and vice versa).

In other words: You can ALWAYS get an IP from just a direct connection.