Need Computer geek info for a story point.

[Merry]

Just checking: but if someone sends you an email message, then, via some way shape or form, somebody ought to be able to trace it back to an IP address, right?

In other words, it's impossible to send regular e-mail without a point of origin on this planet or in this dimension at least, uh, right? There's no such thing as IP-less technology? (Yikes..sounds like a renal problem!) Correct?

Just checking...the MC is supposed to be this super smart computer guy..and well, if I got this wrong it would sound really dumb.

[lynnmosher]

As far as I understand it, the answer is yes. You're right. Although, it can redirected to hide the origin. I'm sure those with knowledge will help you better than I can. But I love this...

There's no such thing as IP-less technology? (Yikes..sounds like a renal problem!)

LOL! What a hoot!

[Tamera]

That's right. The only way around it is to send email from a different computer: ie: work, library, etc. In fact, that's how they catch many cyber criminals, through the ip address.

[Merry]

Thanks, laides!

[wgjones3]

All emails are supposed to have a traceable point of origin.

You can bounce emails through proxies to hide the true IP. There's a little program called Tor that sets up a proxy network and it's practically untraceable. It's not really a complicated technology but the simple version is, you're working through someone else's internet connection, so anything you do will show up with their address. There's so many hops and jumps involved that it would be nearly impossible to pinpoint the origin. Think of it like this--I establish a proxy connection, so all the traffic I create (i.e., the email I send) goes straight to Joe's computer. From Joe's computer, it goes to Sally's computer. From Sally's computer, it goes to Chuck's computer. And so on, a couple dozen--maybe a hundred--more times. Once it's hopped through enough people's computer, it goes out to the internet.

If the guy's really tech savvy, you might have him create a bot net that anyone who visits his website will become infected with, which then turns their computer into a zombie for his bot network, which is surprisingly more common than most people would like to believe.

[Merry]

That's pretty cool! I'm going to go back and write that zombie bot into the works! But even if a e-mail skips all the way through the internet from different origins...say joe bounces his message off of points A,B, C, G and F before reaching you, it would still have some sort of trail even if you can't really follow the thing. No remote or wireless technology can just zap a message into you computer, right?

Oh yeah, you answered that.

[Timber Wolf]

if you want the email to not be traceable, have the sender create a throw-away net email acct, yahoo, etc, under a false name, and have him send from that acct from a public computer, preferably somewhere where you also have an alias, and preferably somewhere you've paid cash, no cc, where there are no video cameras monitoring the place, and where you haven't earned more than a first look, so nobody remembers you. or you could use a laptop and pirate a wi-fi signal from out on the street / parking lot, but i think even the mac address of the wi-fi card is traceable, so prbly using a public computer is better.

[Merry]

hey, thanks Timber Wolf. I just put up the section I was working on in the workshop. maybe you could see if it 'rings true.'