Mar 08, 2016, 19:53 pm
I recently got a CIL (Confidentiality Infringement Letter) from my ISP. I was very concerned because my ISP has my real name and address. Thank goodness I did not reply to them and I looked around to get some info on the best way to handle this. I contacted a trusted advisor and he helped me purchase a VPN. I did that and I've been running it ever since. I've been assuming that is all I need to do to protect myself when running some Bit/Torrent app. But apparently, there is more to my problem.
I use Firefox and this advisor told me to use Firefox's facility called "Private Browsing" and to block cookies when I wanted to remain anonymous when visiting some sites that I didn't trust. But I still have a problem I'd like to tell you about it and ask for your help please?
There is one site that imposed a restriction on me some time ago. It's a very minor restriction and I figured that some day I would just get a new ISP and then I would go back to that site and since I would be using a new ISP, they would not recognize me and I could create a new User ID and I would no longer have this restriction.
But, I guess I don't understand how my VPN works. I thought it would disguise my IP address and this site would no longer recognize me. But even though I now run my own VPN and use a Firefox Private Browsing Window and block this site's cookies, it still recognizes me.
Is this because my VPN does not disguise my IP address? Do I need to do something else in order to become truly anonymous? I found some info about Anonymous Proxies and it seems like maybe I also need to run an Anonymous Proxy in order to disguise my IP address.
But suppose I do all the following things in this order:
1) Run my VPN (and maybe also an Anonymous Proxy)
2) Open a Private Browsing window in Firefox and block all cookies for the site that has imposed that restriction on me.
3) Create a new Email account
4) Use that Email account to register a new User ID on the site that has imposed that restriction on me.
Is that sufficient to make me anonymous to the site that imposted that restriction on me?
If not, then if I also ran an anonymous proxy, would that then be sufficient for me to be anonymous?
Here is the problem I as I see it. There are many message boards and forums that regularly ban people and many of those people become very angry about this and they then create many new User IDs and try to spam the boards and use sock puppets and trolls to create lots of stupid threads and then force the mods to ban each of their new User IDs. If they could successfully do this, they could make things very difficult for the mods because the mods would have to spend all kinds of time just banning their new User IDS.
So, the way I see it is that if it were really possible for someone to become truly anonymous to a particular site, they could make things so difficult for the mods and admins of that stie, it would become virtually impossible for the mods and admins there to continue and they would have to shut down their site.
But that doesn't happen. All these message boards continue to remain active and so the mods and admins must possess the needed tools that enable them to shut down problem users - regardless of whether those users disguise their IP addresses or not. So, can anyone explain to me just who has the upper hand here? Is it the rogue users who can disguise their IP addresses? (aka IP spoofing) or is it the mods and admins of the message board sites?
Can anyone explain to me if I am understanding these issues correctly or if I'm missing some important information?
If someone was really angry at a message board site because they got banned a few times and they could create bots, they could then create hundreds of new User IDs every day (maybe even every hour) and post all kinds of nasty or stupid threads and force the mods to ban each of their User IDs. Ultimately, it would just be too much trouble for the mods and they would be forced to shut down their boards.
It seems to me that the mods and admins must have the upper hand in this struggle. Do they? Or can people use VPNs and Anonymous Proxies and programs that create bots to cause huge problems for these message board and/or forums?
I use Firefox and this advisor told me to use Firefox's facility called "Private Browsing" and to block cookies when I wanted to remain anonymous when visiting some sites that I didn't trust. But I still have a problem I'd like to tell you about it and ask for your help please?
There is one site that imposed a restriction on me some time ago. It's a very minor restriction and I figured that some day I would just get a new ISP and then I would go back to that site and since I would be using a new ISP, they would not recognize me and I could create a new User ID and I would no longer have this restriction.
But, I guess I don't understand how my VPN works. I thought it would disguise my IP address and this site would no longer recognize me. But even though I now run my own VPN and use a Firefox Private Browsing Window and block this site's cookies, it still recognizes me.
Is this because my VPN does not disguise my IP address? Do I need to do something else in order to become truly anonymous? I found some info about Anonymous Proxies and it seems like maybe I also need to run an Anonymous Proxy in order to disguise my IP address.
But suppose I do all the following things in this order:
1) Run my VPN (and maybe also an Anonymous Proxy)
2) Open a Private Browsing window in Firefox and block all cookies for the site that has imposed that restriction on me.
3) Create a new Email account
4) Use that Email account to register a new User ID on the site that has imposed that restriction on me.
Is that sufficient to make me anonymous to the site that imposted that restriction on me?
If not, then if I also ran an anonymous proxy, would that then be sufficient for me to be anonymous?
Here is the problem I as I see it. There are many message boards and forums that regularly ban people and many of those people become very angry about this and they then create many new User IDs and try to spam the boards and use sock puppets and trolls to create lots of stupid threads and then force the mods to ban each of their new User IDs. If they could successfully do this, they could make things very difficult for the mods because the mods would have to spend all kinds of time just banning their new User IDS.
So, the way I see it is that if it were really possible for someone to become truly anonymous to a particular site, they could make things so difficult for the mods and admins of that stie, it would become virtually impossible for the mods and admins there to continue and they would have to shut down their site.
But that doesn't happen. All these message boards continue to remain active and so the mods and admins must possess the needed tools that enable them to shut down problem users - regardless of whether those users disguise their IP addresses or not. So, can anyone explain to me just who has the upper hand here? Is it the rogue users who can disguise their IP addresses? (aka IP spoofing) or is it the mods and admins of the message board sites?
Can anyone explain to me if I am understanding these issues correctly or if I'm missing some important information?
If someone was really angry at a message board site because they got banned a few times and they could create bots, they could then create hundreds of new User IDs every day (maybe even every hour) and post all kinds of nasty or stupid threads and force the mods to ban each of their User IDs. Ultimately, it would just be too much trouble for the mods and they would be forced to shut down their boards.
It seems to me that the mods and admins must have the upper hand in this struggle. Do they? Or can people use VPNs and Anonymous Proxies and programs that create bots to cause huge problems for these message board and/or forums?
![[Image: hTfTfMy.png]](https://i.imgur.com/hTfTfMy.png)
