Re: Determining real IP in various online security tests

From: LLFormat (dev-null_at_localhost.localdomain)
Date: 06/29/03 

Date: Sun, 29 Jun 2003 22:31:47 +0100

On Sun, 29 Jun 2003 10:28:35 -0700, sponge typed the following stuff :

> On Thu, 26 Jun 2003 04:41:35 +0100, "LLFormat"
> <dev-null@localhost.localdomain> wrote:
>
>>Hello,
>>
>>I was wondering why it is that not all online security scanners can
>>determine my real IP.
>>
>>For example, www.pcflank.com cannot determine my real IP, but does
> seem to
>>know that my ISP uses a proxy server.

<snip>

>>However, www.grc.com can find my real IP in a matter of seconds.

<snip>
 
> GRC uses a small application called IPAgent to determine your real, public
> IP address, which PCFlank does not. There are also Java and ActiveX
> controls that can determine your real IP, the one bound to your system.
>
> You are correct that some scanners are detecting that your ISP uses
> transparent proxies. (WHY your ISP is using transparent proxies at all has
> me wondering, though.) At any rate, scanning a proxy is pointless. They
> serve some security purpose although I'm wondering if they're pulling a
> Comcast.
>
> Have you tried scan.sygate.com?

Hi,

No I haven't tried it yet, but I will do now. I'm intrigued by your
statement 'I'm wondering if they're pulling a Comcast'. By this, do you
mean caching loads of pages to appear to give a faster service ? If that
is indeed what you meant, then I can say that my ISP do seem to have an
awful lot of cached pages. A quick CTRL-REFRESH/RELOAD seems to grab the
latest versions of pages though, in most cases.

If I'm honest, I don't fully understand the purpose of proxies, so I'm
probably getting confused in what I've said in the above paragraph.

Thanks for the information. Thanks also to all other contributors to this
thread for shedding some light on my initial question.

Regards,

LLFormat.

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