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What's in an I.P.?

Pancho
Grafter
Posts: 83
Registered: ‎16-10-2007

What's in an I.P.?

I have a fixed I.P. address and a NAS box. These two things put together make a good target for the idle curious or opportunist attacker or the outright thief. The I.P.s in my ‘Banned Forever’ list is getting longer and longer. Looking to see who they are reveals mostly China and the Far East but the last one was USA – California, El Segundo; even giving a point on a map. How reliable this location is I don’t know as my own ISP lookup says I live miles away in Studley, Warwickshire, whereas I live in Bampton, near Witney. Got the ISP as Plus Net right though. Plus echoes my I.P number.plus.com – I had to set that up or it will echo my real email address. Whoever was checking me would at least know I am with Plus net.
What would be really nice is if I could turn this I.P. address, which is a computer, into an email address so I could enquire why the person was trying to break into my NAS box or at least let them know that I know. They have ten goes at the long, complex password, which means something to me (assuming they get the user name right in the first place) and then that I.P. is on my banned list forever or until I decide to clear it out. I don’t actually know how long the banned list can be but I might, one day, find out. I also publish the I.P. list on a web page; it must be the most updated page on my web site.
From my point of view I can access anything on my NAS box from any online computer anywhere in the world; very useful when you are in a friend or customer’s house and want a file that you have not got with you at the time. There is also a small section that you do not need a password to access so you can leave a file for a friend to collect when they are ready; you just send a link to the file.
My NAS box (1Tb drive) is one of the best bits of kit I have ever bought as I have three computers and a laptop. Security, however, must be very good with all these people trying to break into it.
Apologies if this has been talked about before.
6 REPLIES 6
matt_2k34
Grafter
Posts: 1,300
Registered: ‎09-07-2007

Re: What's in an I.P.?

The IP normally resolves to where the ISP is located (e.g. - mine resolves to london) - but the location really is an 'educated guess' its not a good indicator tho.
I do have to wonder - Why are you posting the IP address on your website? - if you have a static IP (doesnt change) you could just learn it - and then you dont need to publish it anywhere (and people shouldnt be able to trawl it)
Also - if it is possible, change the Port number that the NAS box uses - this should make it 'less obvious' for other people to connect to the NAS box.
im not really understanding what you would like to know - but thats my best guess. if i've been unhelpful - please try and be abit more clear about what you want, and ill do my best to help Smiley
WebDude
Grafter
Posts: 115
Registered: ‎11-03-2010

Re: What's in an I.P.?

Quote from: Matt_2k34
Why are you posting the IP address on your website?

I think, if you read again, you'd see the NAS box stores a list of banned IPs, based on them having failed 10 times to login.  Those seem to me to be the IPs being displayed for all to see as being 'hackers'...
Quote
change the Port number that the NAS box uses - this should make it 'less obvious' for other people to connect

Yes, a good idea.  there are various bits of software which will scan a range of IPs on specific ports looking for a response (particularly some HTTP 'answer').  It may not need the NAS box to have a different port number, as some routers will do port number changing - ie someone requests <PN-address>:8338 and the router accepts request, sending data to <LAN-IP>:80 (or whatever port and IP used for the NAS box).
Additionally, I'd suggest for casual 'friend picking up a file' use, something like Carbonite (free with AVG at one point) or DriveHQ.com (1 GB free space for backups etc) might be a better option - then the NAS box can be used with no public (no-password) area available.  Maybe a step too far (after all, not suggesting a friend is cause for hacking attempts, but maybe someone posted a link elsewhere which made the box a target if posting had been spotted by a hacker).
Pancho
Grafter
Posts: 83
Registered: ‎16-10-2007

Re: What's in an I.P.?

Thank you for the ideas. Yes, I just advertise the IP of the person trying to break in. I have found a couple of the IPs on 'black list' but nobody seems to be doing anything about it for real. I will have a play about with changing the port (currently 8080) but I need to 'visit a friend' to see what it does. I can, of course, email a friend the link and ask if he gets anything. Regards to all.
WebDude
Grafter
Posts: 115
Registered: ‎11-03-2010

Re: What's in an I.P.?

An alternative might be (with the help of a good friend) for him/her to register on LogMeIn.com and allow you access to remote-control their PC.  To prevent you doing it any time you want, they can either (a) change the password or (b) tell LogMeIn to go offline.  It's free for personal use, and means no travelling for this sort of 'quick test'.  The friend can see what you're doing on their PC and you see results pretty much as fast as they do as you're acting like you are in the room with them...
One of my friends was having problems with his website.  I also had problems viewing pages from his site (chesterwalls.info), so connected to a third friend's PC (with permission) and tried to view the pages.  From that PC everything was fine, but my friend (on PlusNet) and myself (using Three mobile) were still having problems - indeed it was working for me only if I used HTTP-Tunnel (a US-based proxy service) so I felt there was some routing problem in the UK, or a bottleneck at some common router.  LogMeIn made it easy (though you may also find something like HTTP-Tunnel.com would serve a similar purpose - though for HTTP/FTP via your browser, compared with what you might be able to do from a remote PC's MS-DOS window or using other software).
scootie
Grafter
Posts: 4,799
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎03-11-2007

Re: What's in an I.P.?

i use microsoft shared view when doing stuff for people that are abit iffy bout giving full control of there pc to you, i like it because you can choice to share a single app or the entire desktop and can have more than 2 people sharing which is great when when your teaching  a couple of people somthing. plus most people have a hotmail account so its a quick process of installing and getting them connected
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=95af94ba-755e-4039-9038-63005ee9d33a&displa...
WebDude
Grafter
Posts: 115
Registered: ‎11-03-2010

Re: What's in an I.P.?

Thanks for the heads up, Asbo Dog.