I found that the IP address is not always a good indicator. Every time smomeone signs off then on again they get a new address. If you have cable modem or DSL then you will keep the same IP address until you loose your connection or shut down. It may be that a provider may issue the same address to someone again but I do not know.

When the whole UpBob thing heated up I did some searching. I ran UP BOB against the page, (FIND ON PAGE) and took notes of all his IP addresses. Then I took all the IP addresses and ran them. He had about a dozen different addresses. About 6 came back where he had the same address on more than one post. Two of the IP addresses matched another poster on this board who everyone knows and many may respect. The two matches though were several hours to a full day+ apart between our friend and UP BOB. I will not reveal that persons name as I do not know him personally so can't judge his cheracter. I do not know if it is a coincidence or if that other persons name may have been used as an alias for UP BOB. I know that you might be able to take an IP address and narrow down to an IP. For example, while not all AOL subscribers get this number I have noticed several, including myself that get 172. for the first three numbers. I took the first numbers and the next set after the . and ran those once and every hit was only me. However, not all my addresses that I have been assigned match those first two sets of numbers. Also, all the AOL subscribers with 172 are in the same area of the country. I checked that too. We are all spread out. Confused Yet? I Don't know how AOL addresses work but there may be a system for determining them. Likewise, other IP's may have a system for providing their addresses.

I was reluctant to reveal this as I was not able to confirm it. I was about to repeat the research to see if their was anything that was being missed but all of UP BOBS posts were deleted as I was doing the research. In fact, there were to IP addresses that I got from the name search that when I ran the addresses they were not found. Only explaination would be that messages were being deleted at the very moment that I was gathering them. Sounds like something out of a spy movie doesn't it.