[Dxspider-support] Who command and IP addresses.

[Frank Hurlbut]

I am in complete agreement with you Dirk.
Frank KL7FH
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dirk Koopman" <djk at tobit.co.uk>
To: <dxspider-support at dxcluster.org>
Sent: Monday, February 04, 2002 1:02 PM
Subject: Re: [Dxspider-support] Who command and IP addresses.


> On Mon, 2002-02-04 at 20:53, Fred Allstadt wrote:
> > Hello Dirk, and the group --
> >
> > Had a user today send me an email.  He expressed some concern that his
IP
> > address is displayed when issuing the WHO command.  Since the buzz in
the
> > computer world lately has been security, he felt that this was
> > unnecessary.  Now, those of us on this list realize that we give our IP
> > address freely to the world every time we connect to the Internet, but
this
> > seems like an easy thing to mask.
> >
> > Would it be possible to add this to the 'To Do' list?  Basically, not to
> > display the user IP to users of the (0) level?  It still is good info
for
> > sysop level users to have easily available (without having to look
through
> > the logs).  Displaying the node IP at all levels I image would be OK.
> >
>
> This is, at the moment, a gut reaction (and therefore, not definitive).
>
> No.
>
> Just right now, I can't quite see how it is a security risk, I would
> like some more information on that before putting my size 11 down more
> fully (one way or another).
>
> I am wary of "secretly" recording IP addresses. For starters it may be
> against UK law. Secondly, I want EVERYBODY to know that if you abuse the
> system; if I am sufficiently motivated; I can (and as a group of people
> are finding out) *will* track you down and point policemen in your
> direction. In other words it is a (small) deterrent. There is the whole
> business of Ham Radio's "transparency" (no codes and ciphers, using real
> callsigns on the cluster etc etc. All the pressure on me right now is to
> provide more and better methods to identify someone as being *really*
> whom they sign on as. I believe, empirically, that it is not an accident
> that the level of nasty abuse has dropped to virtually nothing since it
> has become obvious that DXSpider records as much an audit trail as it
> reasonably can.
>
> So, on balance, right now, I am minded to leave it as it is *and* if
> necessary lose some users (and maybe nodes) over it (but I am open to
> persuasion). There are no privacy issues here *at* *all*, because there
> is literally *nothing* on any cluster, that I connect to, that is
> private. It may be Personal, but it ain't Private.
>
> Dirk G1TLH
>
> --
> Please Note: Some Quantum Physics Theories Suggest That When the
> Consumer Is Not Directly Observing This Product, It May Cease to
> Exist or Will Exist Only in a Vague and Undetermined State.
>
>
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