Trilix
Member
As of lately I have seen quite a bit of threads concerning their safety regarding being tracked online by police and getting busted, due to posting pictures of their grow. While I am not exactly a computer guru, I can explain why you are safe here in a rather basic way for everyone to understand and put everyone's mind at ease.
Just to start off:
1) Don't ever post your name here, obviously
2) Don't post a picture of yourself
3) Don't include where you are located in any posts. If anything a general location is probably good enough (eg. South Cali)
4) I wouldn't recommend using a user name here that you use for anything else
Those are just what I recommend to stay safe. Now to begin there are a few ways to track someone down via the internet. Basically, if you make sure to follow those rules, you should be fine. Because most of the ways to track down someone involve those pieces of information. For example, let's say I sign up here with a user name I use on a different website. On THAT website I filled out a profile including where I am from etc etc. This is an easy way to lead anyone right to you.
But obviously most people will be following those guidelines regardless of being told to or not because it is just common sense. What mostly concerns people is being tracked down via your IP address. Your IP address is a address given to you from your ISP. Just like a house address, it's basically where your computer is located. IP addresses can be used to connect to other computers through "ports". For example when I am on this website I have a open connection between my computer and the webserver this website is run on.
Obviously people can find out your IP address without you knowing, and can then use it for any number of things (hacking, stalking, spying, whatever). But due to the nature of the website being a forum there isn't a way for anyone to find your IP address. This is because unlike an open direct connection, such as AIM or MSN or Yahoo Chat, you are connecting to the webserver, not the other persons computer. This means that unless I hack into the server and look through the logs of users that have connected, I can't find out anything.
But if we were on a chat AIM I can then see all open connections to other computers via the command prompt in Windows (not exactly sure with Linux or Macs I don't really use them). All you need to do is open the command prompt, and type in "netstat" and hit enter. Now because we aren't directly connecting to anyone on this website when we post, all we connect to is the webserver. It sort of works like a physical message board. Someone can come up to the board and post a message, then later everyone can come by and read it. Never are the two people connected or interacting with eachother directly, it is all through a 3rd party (in this case it's a message board, concerning the website it is the actual website). Because it is all 3rd party, you can't be traced, of course unless someone somehow obtains the logs of connecting users and what time they connected, and what sections and pages they were visiting on.
So to make a long story short, you are safe. Just follow those rules on the top and you should be all good. Hope that brings some peace of mind to some of you.
Also just as a side note: Like I said I'm not a computer guru, and I am not much of a hacker and haven't delved too far into website development. This is just what I know. Anyone willing to make any corrections or put their own input in is welcome.
Just to start off:
1) Don't ever post your name here, obviously
2) Don't post a picture of yourself
3) Don't include where you are located in any posts. If anything a general location is probably good enough (eg. South Cali)
4) I wouldn't recommend using a user name here that you use for anything else
Those are just what I recommend to stay safe. Now to begin there are a few ways to track someone down via the internet. Basically, if you make sure to follow those rules, you should be fine. Because most of the ways to track down someone involve those pieces of information. For example, let's say I sign up here with a user name I use on a different website. On THAT website I filled out a profile including where I am from etc etc. This is an easy way to lead anyone right to you.
But obviously most people will be following those guidelines regardless of being told to or not because it is just common sense. What mostly concerns people is being tracked down via your IP address. Your IP address is a address given to you from your ISP. Just like a house address, it's basically where your computer is located. IP addresses can be used to connect to other computers through "ports". For example when I am on this website I have a open connection between my computer and the webserver this website is run on.
Obviously people can find out your IP address without you knowing, and can then use it for any number of things (hacking, stalking, spying, whatever). But due to the nature of the website being a forum there isn't a way for anyone to find your IP address. This is because unlike an open direct connection, such as AIM or MSN or Yahoo Chat, you are connecting to the webserver, not the other persons computer. This means that unless I hack into the server and look through the logs of users that have connected, I can't find out anything.
But if we were on a chat AIM I can then see all open connections to other computers via the command prompt in Windows (not exactly sure with Linux or Macs I don't really use them). All you need to do is open the command prompt, and type in "netstat" and hit enter. Now because we aren't directly connecting to anyone on this website when we post, all we connect to is the webserver. It sort of works like a physical message board. Someone can come up to the board and post a message, then later everyone can come by and read it. Never are the two people connected or interacting with eachother directly, it is all through a 3rd party (in this case it's a message board, concerning the website it is the actual website). Because it is all 3rd party, you can't be traced, of course unless someone somehow obtains the logs of connecting users and what time they connected, and what sections and pages they were visiting on.
So to make a long story short, you are safe. Just follow those rules on the top and you should be all good. Hope that brings some peace of mind to some of you.
Also just as a side note: Like I said I'm not a computer guru, and I am not much of a hacker and haven't delved too far into website development. This is just what I know. Anyone willing to make any corrections or put their own input in is welcome.
