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terry · 07-23-2003, 10:27 AM

An IP-Address is not a path-vector. Think of this in terms of snail mail delivery: An IP-Address is like your street address. The path your mailman takes to deliver the mail is not of concern to anybody but the postal service--and then it is done for efficiency.

When you start talking about path vectors in service provider networks you get into routing policy, MPLS and routing protocols such as BGP. Um, that's a whole different kettle of fish.

Re: The mechanics of getting banned. It works differently based on the configuration. Banning your IP address would be a firewall change rather than a application layer (aka web, E-mail address) change. But since many users have IP-Addresses assigned out of pools held by ISPs (Internet Service Providers) then IP-Address is no longer a constant from day to day. I suppose you could ban a whole subnet or range of addresses.

There are a range of countermeasures. It really depends on the situation. If there is a criminal intent involved, such as pedophelia, we can work with the ISP to trace it through such things as RADIUS accounting records, SMTP headers, etc. In one case a while ago I called the FBI after getting very polite but ultimately suspicious inquiries from a Pakistani-based sports organization that seemed a little to eager to learn FMA and MT (and couldn't explain why their cover story kept changing). In that case, you continue the conversation and don't let the other party know that someone is tracing them. When you start doing national security work it gets even more involved.

There are a few very sophisticated people out there who have enough knowledge of Internetworking systems to evade the obvious traps and make life difficult for a security guy. Stalking the wily hacker can be a challenging game.

So, that's what could happen. As far as you getting banned, you conduct doesn't warrant someone taking that kind of interest in you. The more likely scenario may be that, faced with such a high level of troll traffic on defend.net, the moderators may despair and either resign or just check out. Then you have to deal with new moderators who may be even worse than me.

07-23-2003, 10:27 AM	#12 (permalink)
terry Moderator Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Pacifica, CA USA Posts: 571 Groans: 0 Groaned at 0 Times in 0 Posts	An IP-Address is not a path-vector. Think of this in terms of snail mail delivery: An IP-Address is like your street address. The path your mailman takes to deliver the mail is not of concern to anybody but the postal service--and then it is done for efficiency. When you start talking about path vectors in service provider networks you get into routing policy, MPLS and routing protocols such as BGP. Um, that's a whole different kettle of fish. Re: The mechanics of getting banned. It works differently based on the configuration. Banning your IP address would be a firewall change rather than a application layer (aka web, E-mail address) change. But since many users have IP-Addresses assigned out of pools held by ISPs (Internet Service Providers) then IP-Address is no longer a constant from day to day. I suppose you could ban a whole subnet or range of addresses. There are a range of countermeasures. It really depends on the situation. If there is a criminal intent involved, such as pedophelia, we can work with the ISP to trace it through such things as RADIUS accounting records, SMTP headers, etc. In one case a while ago I called the FBI after getting very polite but ultimately suspicious inquiries from a Pakistani-based sports organization that seemed a little to eager to learn FMA and MT (and couldn't explain why their cover story kept changing). In that case, you continue the conversation and don't let the other party know that someone is tracing them. When you start doing national security work it gets even more involved. There are a few very sophisticated people out there who have enough knowledge of Internetworking systems to evade the obvious traps and make life difficult for a security guy. Stalking the wily hacker can be a challenging game. So, that's what could happen. As far as you getting banned, you conduct doesn't warrant someone taking that kind of interest in you. The more likely scenario may be that, faced with such a high level of troll traffic on defend.net, the moderators may despair and either resign or just check out. Then you have to deal with new moderators who may be even worse than me.