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Web :: General :: IP addresses: when do I need them?
By: bugio	Date: 24/08/2007 18:36:41	Points: 20	Status: Answered Quality : Excellent
Hi all... well studing PHP I faced a very important (at least to me) about IP addresses: when do I need them? Authentication and what else? I couldn't see anything usefull for a regular comercial company that relates to the IP address of the visitor.
By: VGR	Date: 24/08/2007 19:01:05		Type : Comment
as far as your server is concerned, how can it identify the customers ? They come in by just... an IP address and a browser instance ;-) you can try to drop a cookie to better identify a customer (and keep his cart and session state etc) but the main identifier is the IP address. It is more and more reliable because lots of people get fixed IP addresses nowadays. this way, you can even nslookup (reverse DNS lookup) the IP@ nd get the machine name. This gives you the geographical location. tracerouting the IP@ also helps determining where the customer comes from (or at least, what is the path he folows to reach your server). so to summarize, don't use the IP@ if you don't want to keep track of your customers (where do they come from? is a customer returning ? what is the language they use ? the browser they use ? etc) but if ever you feel necessary to record/keep some basic data about your customers, then you'll need the IP@ because, as said above, it's the only thing really personal/pertaining to the customer. see the IP@ like a phone number. it can be a public booth (no luck), but it could be a personal private line and then you know who is the customer. it's the same with proxy/gateway IP@ versus fixed personal IP@. I hope I'm right, I'm understandable, and am useful :D regards

By: bugio	Date: 25/08/2007 14:18:31		Type : Comment
But even with the proxy changing the real IP, can I trust the number I get?

By: VGR	Date: 25/08/2007 15:27:44		Type : Assist
no no ;-) I said that except* the cases hereafter, you *can* trust the IP address ! ;-) cases you can not trust it : - proxy - gateway - AOL users [gateway case] - dynamic IP address (modem/POTS/RTC access) (1) - anonymizer use [proxy case] (1) even if in more than one occasion, I saw that the IP@ doesn't change a lot between connections, is usually the same, and belongs to the same class C subnet.

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