h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

All this hinges on the IP trace. If they are Arpeggio there is nothing to discuss. Nor is there if they are not. Before everyone gets into the grey areas of character witnessing etc etc can anyone explain how an IP trace works?

Waz (a geek but not an IT geek)

Good point...

I'm no expert and perhaps should keep my limited knowledge to myself but...

Everyone on the web gets an IP number, which is either a fixed one (if you've got a permanent account like a company or anybody else with a URL of their own), or it gets assigned on a per-session base (if you've got an internet provider). IP tracing is working the way of a posting backwards through all the nodes of the web and yields this your number.

I'm assuming that in the given case an account from some company was used (like I've got an account at work). Otherwise, tracing is IMHO more of a guesswork than anything else because each time you dial in with an ISP you get a random number from some number pool.

PS this question isn't about doubting the editors word on this, just about clarity.

I have to agree with you, Wazu - it really is that simple.

I have to confess that I was slightly suspicious that this account was a duplicate of some other account - not necessarilly LeKZ, but perhaps some other researcher who was a friend of hers, or otherwise concerned about the relevant issues.

The IP of a machine is the ID by which it is recognised on the web. Some people connect to a machine via a single IP which is 'statically allocated' - that is, it's always the same IP every time. Some people connect via a dynamic IP, which means that each time they access the internet they have a different IP.

Whenever your machine accesses a website, it sends its IP to the website (that's how the website knows where to send the data). This information can be stored and associated with the pages visited and the h2g2 ID logged in as.

This includes the h2g2 website, and also any web-email accounts. The trace may have been conducted on the h2g2 website or possibly the web-email account used to register the h2g2 account, with the permission of that h2g2 account.

Dynamic IPs can be traced if you ask the ISP concerned which account was using a given IP at a given time. Whether the ISP will provide this information, and to who, depends on the ISP.

Neither method can distinguish between two human users of the same physical machine. That's probably not an issue here.

I take it that you have checked the major domain owner of the IP address is not something like a university or a cyber café? They tend to have many users use the same machine.

The writing style of Silent Lucidity is quite distinctive. And so very similar to the writing style of LeKZ (Arpeggio). I'm sure there is no mistake. I recognise certain phrases, the way she talks to people, the dog with a bone that will not let go.

Lucinda has pretty much explained it completely. The IP address associated with Silent Lucidity matched Lekz's completely. It might not be fixed IP but it announced itself as LEKZ when I traced it.

Had the IP been (for example) an aol address it could have been anyone.

However, regardless of IP addresses, it's been clear almost since it started that SL was Lekz. Nobody can come into h2g2 cold, target just this issue and show such an encylopaedic knowledge of who, what, where and when in such a short time. It would take almost this long just to download all the posts involved

The IP trace is just the confirming evidence. Even without it it was clear (to us at least) that this was Lekz.

Thank you Jim.
I came to the editors' page to find out if there was some way they could reassure me that SL wasn't LeKZ (because I have been becoming more and more concerned over the past couple of days) and found all this.
It isn't what I wanted to hear at all, but it is the most logical explanation for an awful lot that didn't make sense otherwise, including, as Mina pointed out, writing style.

Tefkat, chastened and sad, who can understand LeKZ wanting a second chance.

P.S. Even if someone doesn't have fixed IP, you can still trace them when they are online.

*curious* how?

I'm a bit concerned that all this banning and tracking people down will lead to time-consuming technical/social battles, which would be counter-productive. If there ended up being about 20 people who had been banned, many of whom were determined to get back onto h2g2, then it might be a waste of time trying to endlessly track them down. It could turn into a series of controversial technical battles over IP addresses, writing styles, and so on. I've seen this happen on USENET (where there have been battles over 'sock-puppets'), and it seems to end in endless heated flamewars and just makes people more determined. At the end of the day, you could always switch ISPS/change writing style/continuosly create new accounts... It would be pointless devoting time to these wars.

I'm not sure what the answer is, but I think it's something we need to be aware of.

Hopefully it wont get to that state of course...

But it doesn't matter if they're not doing anything wrong does it?

How easy is it to trace people? Can only big corporations do it or could anyone that was clever that way? Do you have to have legal permission or anything? Can you find out where someone is geographically?

I can also understand LeKZ wanting a second chance. I can't understand how someone with her proclaimed sense of honor and relentless honesty took it.

Oops, simulpost.

( I now have an indelible picture in my head of sock puppets doing battle )

"*curious* how?"

tracert

Well said, Mother of God.

Aye, there's the rub MoG

'tracert ' ????

In a dos window I think Frankie.
Try it, although I might be wrong...

anyone can trace anyone?