# How do you spoof your IP address?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spoof-your-ip-address/42891
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [November 27, 2000, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spoof-your-ip-address/42891 "2000-11-27T18:45:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@jmullaney](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jmullaney)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2000, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spoof-your-ip-address/42891/1 "2000-11-27T18:45:05Z")
How do you spoof your IP address? I know you can’t use a proxy server with Internet Explorer, but does anyone know if this still works with Netscape 6? I’d hate to update and have to figure out a new workaround to maintain my anonymity where needed.
Thanks in advance.
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### Author:  [@Jman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jman)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2000, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spoof-your-ip-address/42891/2 "2000-11-27T18:58:05Z")
Well, really easy way, but not too convenient: Use [http://www.noproxy.com](http://www.noproxy.com) for all your browsing needs. I’d actually like to know a way to do this easily without doing that, since I never bother.
Jman
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### Author:  [@Joe\_Cool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joe_Cool)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2000, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spoof-your-ip-address/42891/3 "2000-11-27T18:58:05Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by jmullaney \*
> \*\*How do you spoof your IP address? I know you can’t use a proxy server with Internet Explorer, but does anyone know if this still works with Netscape 6? I’d hate to update and have to figure out a new workaround to maintain my anonymity where needed.
>
> Thanks in advance. \*\*
It’s not that simple. If you know enough about networking and programming to make use of a spoofed IP, you would know how to do it.
You don’t get any return data with a spoofed IP–it’s only useful for doing something on a remote computer, where you don’t need any feedback. Because return traffic is routed using, you guessed it, the IP address. You have to custom-design packets to initiate and acknowledge a connection, then to do whatever it is you want to do on the remote machine. You have to work blind, in other words.
Basically, spoofing an address wouldn’t help you browse the web anonymously. And you CAN use a proxy with IE. Go to tools|internet options|connections|LAN settings and look around.
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### Author:  [@jmullaney](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jmullaney)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2000, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spoof-your-ip-address/42891/4 "2000-11-27T19:15:04Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Joe\_Cool \*
> You don’t get any return data with a spoofed IP–it’s only useful for doing something on a remote computer, where you don’t need any feedback. Because return traffic is routed using, you guessed it, the IP address.
Um… er… isn’t that why you use a proxy server? It acts as a, how do you say, proxy?
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### Author:  [@Doubleclick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doubleclick)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2000, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spoof-your-ip-address/42891/5 "2000-11-27T19:22:55Z")
With all that…
Is there, then, a list of public proxies that can be used?
The IT guys here at work obviously have alarms that go off when a specific site is accessed.
(IE: Napster. I hit the site and the next day had IT guys up gutting my PC…and I hadn’t even used it!)
Thanks!
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### Author:  [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2000, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spoof-your-ip-address/42891/6 "2000-11-27T19:31:37Z")
That’s not my understanding of “spoofing” at all. Anonimity is one thing but it’s a very long way from reverse engineering with a view to illegal activity. Maybe things are different on this side of the pond ?
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### Author:  [@jmullaney](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jmullaney)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2000, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spoof-your-ip-address/42891/7 "2000-11-27T20:35:16Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by London\_Calling \*
> **That’s not my understanding of “spoofing” at all.**
[Spoofing](http://foldoc.doc.ic.ac.uk/foldoc/foldoc.cgi?query=spoofing&action=Search) is basically defined as having a remote system answer a query from a third system on your behalf.
Akin to the phone answering service at my local pub:
10 cents – “He’s here.”
25 cents – “He just left.”
50 cents – “Haven’t seen him.”
1 dollar – “Who??”
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### Author:  [@Joe\_Cool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joe_Cool)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2000, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spoof-your-ip-address/42891/8 "2000-11-27T21:27:57Z")
from the jargon file:
> [@](#):
>
> spoof vi.
>
> To capture, alter, and retransmit a communication stream in a way that misleads the recipient. As used by hackers, refers especially to altering TCP/IP packet source addresses or other packet-header data in order to masquerade as a trusted machine. This term has become very widespread and is borderline techspeak.
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### Author:  [@jmullaney](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jmullaney)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2000, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spoof-your-ip-address/42891/9 "2000-11-27T21:51:45Z")
Oh, please. MIT is just out to sell books with their “jargon” file a.k.a. hacker dictionary. I’d take what they have to say with a grain of salt. The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing on the other hand “is available on paper from your local printer for only £0.00 (plus paper etc.)”
Are you going to believe the one that had an entry for “[chad](http://foldoc.doc.ic.ac.uk/foldoc/foldoc.cgi?chad+box)” since 1996 or the one that [just added it](http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/jargon/jarghist.html) in last week because non-tech people actually started using the word?
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### Author:  [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2000, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spoof-your-ip-address/42891/10 "2000-11-27T21:52:16Z")
Ahh, not so different. Cheers, Joe\_Cool
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### Author:  [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2000, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spoof-your-ip-address/42891/11 "2000-11-27T22:41:55Z")
Since we at the SDMB rely on good IP info in our never-ending battle against sock puppets, and because I can think of no _legitimate_ reason to spoof a site, I am closing this thread.