# Question about IP addresses

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-ip-addresses/112591
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 6, 2002, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-ip-addresses/112591 "2002-06-06T02:16:40Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![WSLer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a6a055/32.png) [@WSLer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WSLer)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2002, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-ip-addresses/112591/1 "2002-06-06T02:16:40Z")

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On another message board they were talking about "masking " IP addresses. How is that done? Is it hard? Easy? Does it take a lot of time?

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### Author: ![hegel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/cab0a1/32.png) [@hegel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hegel)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2002, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-ip-addresses/112591/2 "2002-06-06T03:08:00Z")

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[_link deleted_]

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### Author: ![Urban\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Urban\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urban_Ranger)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2002, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-ip-addresses/112591/3 "2002-06-06T04:54:12Z")

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What you need is a public proxy server.

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### Author: ![reprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@reprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/reprise)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2002, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-ip-addresses/112591/4 "2002-06-06T05:03:17Z")

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And on **this** messageboard, using an anonymiser or otherwise masking your IP will get you banned pronto…

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### Author: ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2002, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-ip-addresses/112591/5 "2002-06-06T05:22:52Z")

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Perhaps they were talking about classless interdomain routing. A bitmask is used to fix the boundary between the network and node address.

Or perhaps not. 🙂

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### Author: ![WSLer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a6a055/32.png) [@WSLer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WSLer)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2002, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-ip-addresses/112591/6 "2002-06-06T05:36:03Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by reprise \*  
> \*\*And on **this** messageboard, using an anonymiser or otherwise masking your IP will get you banned pronto… \*\*

I’ll be good I promise. I apologize for whatever it is that happened, even if it wasn’t my fault.

I have no intention of masking my IP on this messageboard, believe me, I was just interested.

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### Author: ![John\_Kentzel-Griffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ccd318/32.png) [@John\_Kentzel-Griffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Kentzel-Griffin)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2002, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-ip-addresses/112591/7 "2002-06-06T05:36:27Z")

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We’re not going to encourage spoofing IPs here.

This is closed.

**DrMatrix** - General Questions Moderator