Quick Question About IP Logging

[Marcel Lee]

I clicked the "Do not log IP" option under "Log IP addresses?" in the admin cp of my board (vb 2.3.2). But does that mean that if I ever do need the IP address for any particular post, there'll be no possible way to go back and get it (if the post was made while the ""Do not log IP" option was selected)???


By the way, this question goes for both vbulletin 2 and 3.

[Floris]

Hi there,

I believe that if it is set to NOT log, it won't log. If it doesn't log the IP, it can't get it afterwards

[Marcel Lee]

^

Well, I know I wouldn't be able to get the IP address the normal (easy) way (as if the "Do not log IP" wasn't clicked), but does that mean it's impossible to ever go back and get it (for example, if I needed to turn a member in to the police or something even though the member posted when "Do not log IP" was selected)?

In other words, are IPs of individual posts logged anywhere else other than the "IP logged" tag included in each post when the "Log IPs" option is switched on in the admin cp?

The reason I figure it should be is because I know that, even when "Do not log IPs" is selected, IPs are still logged (and available for view in the admin cp) when each member registers to the site.

Do you understand what I'm saying?

And are you even an official member of the vbulletin team anyway?

[Floris]

Either I am confused now, but ..

if you choose to ; not ; log, it won't log it, how would you ever be able to still get it again? If it does not store it anywhere, then it won't be able to retreive it for you.

I doubt it will 'don't log, but secretly do it any way'.
The only IP you might have is when a user signs up, you could check the user profile through the admin control panel > search for users. And if he is on-line, you could check the session table manually with phpmyadmin and read out the ip for that session.

[Marcel Lee]

^

Okay, one last question...

Actually, it's the same question, just asked in a different way (a true or false statement) to help clear things up for me (because I was always under the impression that everything on the internet has an IP address, whether a vbulletin admin "logs" it on his board or not, but it looks like I could be mistaken)...

If you could simply answer "true", "false" or "I don't know" to the following statement, I'd greatly appreciate it and that'll most likely be it for this thread (by the way, assuming everything you told me so far is correct, it logically follows that the answer must be "true", but we'll see):

Hypothetically speaking, if the U.S. government had reason to believe that the real Bin Laden posted a message on a vbulletin board with the "Do not log IP" switched on (and no sign-up IP in his Profile), regarding plans to bomb the U.S. in the near future, there'd be no way (meaning it'll be impossible) for them to find the location where the post was made, strictly because the "Do not log IP" was switched on in the admin's cp.

[Floris]

Yes, everything on the internet has an internet protocol address.
For that session they are logged in, posting to a thread, they are logged in the 'session' table for the period of your cookie timeout setting in the admin control panel : options. (default 900 seconds). The session table flushes so your who is online page shows a semi-accurate amount of currently online users.

At THAT moment you have the option to check who is online and as administrator, you can see their IP address.

If you have chosen to NOT log ip addresses, their IP address is NOT stored for that post they make. If it is not stored, it can't retreive it - for the simple fact that is was never logged. It can't fabricate it out of thin air again for you.

Sorry for the feds, but they just have to turn on 'log ip, but only show to admins', in order to find bin laden posting.

If your hosting provider keeps the raw access logs from apache or other system logs with http 1.x calls, you can find the exact time and date that user posted and trace it back in those logs and find his ip address. But this has nothing to do with the option if you have ip logged or not in vbulletin.

Good luck with your hunt.