pc id??? (MERGED)

[clever_neurons]

:confused: hi evry1 i wuld like 2 know if each pc has an id and is it possible to trace it via the internet? becoz i've never some1 talked about it.. thanks for replying to my message.

[clever_neurons]

:confused: hi evry1 i wuld like 2 know if each pc has an id and is it possible to trace it via the internet? becoz i've never heard some1 talked about it.. thanks for replying to my message.

[clever_neurons]

:confused: if each pc has a unique and it can be retrace via the internet please show me how to access the id of the pc and is it possible to modifies it? thanks for replying to my message.

[yawningdog]

The only way to positively ID a computer is by its MAC address. I know how to change that on a Linux computer and it's pretty easy to learn if you google it. I'm told that it's possible on a Windows computer as well, but I've never seen how to do it.

If you do change your MAC address, someone trying to identify you can still get really close using your public IP address, and if you're not using NAT then you can be pinpointed. You cannot change your public IP address capriciously unless you happen to be an ISP.

[PrntRhd]

Of course there are other ways to ID a user's PC, such as cookies, the unique ID in Windows Media Player, the unique ID in Macromedia Flash, and the hardware hash from every packet sent from a PC on the Internet. Some of those you can change settings to keep from generating the unique ID.

[yawningdog]

Hardware hash? That's a new one on me. What layer is that? Where in the packet/frame is it?

[PrntRhd]

My bad.
I meant the digital fingerprint:
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/security/soa/Tracking-PCs-anywhere-on-the-Net/0,130061744,139183346,00.htm

[Ghost_Hacker]

Interesting!

I could see this being used in forensics, sorta like DNA is for humans, where it could be used to prove a device was used in connection with a crime. However I wonder if such information would be usable in court. In forensics you have to be very strict with showing a documented trail of who has "touched" the evidence and why. Unlike DNA a packet can be built to order using the right software, in time I am sure a person could change his time stamp to mimic another system. ( In any case a hacker who uses his own system to hack from and does so from home needs to be put away before he hurts himself :) )

Anyways, with this in mind courts would have a hard time proving the packet was not tainted to begin with.

As for tracking a computer (more egghead wishful thing IMHO) using this time skew method, if anyone can see every packet your computer sends out no matter where you go (and is actual looking to store this info from you), well you got bigger problems to worry about then TCP time stamps :)