Which IMs do not publish your IP address?

savormix · Dec 29, 2012, 09:34 AM

Hi everyone,

I discovered that apparently certain IMs (Skype, perhaps WLM) broadcast your IP as soon as you connect to their service. [IRC is a different story altogether].
Until ISP-level upload speed caps are introduced, this poses a fatal security risk, as everyone who gets a hold of your (unchangeable, undeletable) username can instantly start a knockout* attack.

The question is, are there any IMs that do not give away your IP to everyone on the internet?

It is completely acceptable if they give out the IP when you attempt (initiate, start) a voice or video chat, which essentially is P2P or P2P + hub. It would be kind of acceptable if an IM would give away your IP without asking when transferring a file. However, it is absolutely not acceptable to have this automatically or during text chat.

* – there are no services to be denied

P.S. Sorry if this thread doesn't exactly fit into this forum (more about security than networking).

W1zzard · Dec 29, 2012, 09:44 AM

AIM, MSN, ICQ do not give out your IP unless you let people connect to specific services like file transfer

Dec 29, 2012, 09:34 AM	#1
savormix Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Vilnius, Lithuania Posts: 4 (0.01/day) Thanks: 2 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts System Specs	Which IMs do not publish your IP address? Hi everyone, I discovered that apparently certain IMs (Skype, perhaps WLM) broadcast your IP as soon as you connect to their service. [IRC is a different story altogether]. Until ISP-level upload speed caps are introduced, this poses a fatal security risk, as everyone who gets a hold of your (unchangeable, undeletable) username can instantly start a knockout* attack. The question is, are there any IMs that do not give away your IP to everyone on the internet? It is completely acceptable if they give out the IP when you attempt (initiate, start) a voice or video chat, which essentially is P2P or P2P + hub. It would be kind of acceptable if an IM would give away your IP without asking when transferring a file. However, it is absolutely not acceptable to have this automatically or during text chat. * – there are no services to be denied P.S. Sorry if this thread doesn't exactly fit into this forum (more about security than networking).

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Dec 29, 2012, 09:44 AM	#2
W1zzard Benevolent Dictator Join Date: May 2004 Location: Stuttgart, Germany Posts: 13,770 (4.18/day) Thanks: 184 Thanked 10,216 Times in 3,160 Posts System Specs	AIM, MSN, ICQ do not give out your IP unless you let people connect to specific services like file transfer

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