changing public facing IP address randomly on purpose

miller811

I have a vendor that I purchased something from today and when I told him I was a computer guy, he posed a question to me that I am looking for a solution to. The guy sells legit products on Craigs list but is limited to the amount of posting he can do via the ip address (bellshout DSL serrvice/bell south modem) is providing. He contacted bellsouth and they have supplied him multiple static addresses, but he and I am unsure what would be a low cost solution for him to use to achieve what he is trying to do. He is using a single PC from the store front, and is not exactly computer savvy.

Any help on a low cost solution/instructions would be appreciated.
What he would like to do is post his products from several different ip addresses throughout the day. If he posts to much from the same IP his competitors flag his posts and they get removed.

dynamik

Is his machine directly connected to the modem or is there a soho router or something? Either way, why can't he just change it manually as needed?

miller811

he is connected directly to the device, and I would think, the way it would work in my experience, is even if you reboot the dsl device, 9 times out of ten he would receive the same public facing IP address. How could he systematically change the ip address. With a SOHO (he would have to purchase....etc...

Thanks

billyr

You could probably use some sort of I.P changing software which will mask the original I.P such as this: Change IP Address and Hide IP Address - iPrivacyTools I'm sure there are also free alternatives available.

billyr

You could also use an anonymous proxy server: Heres a link to a handy firefox extension.
How To Hide Your IP Using SwitchProxy Firefox Add-on | How to hide your ip

mikej412

miller811 wrote: »

even if you reboot the dsl device, 9 times out of ten he would receive the same public facing IP address.

I thought you said he had multiple static IPs -- I'd hope he'd get the same public facing IP 10 times out of 10.

I have dynamic DSL (AT&T old Ameritech/SBC area) at home and I get a different IP everytime I reboot the DSL Modem. The cable modem keeps the same IP unless there is a long power outage in the area (like we had in June) or some major maintenance event.

gosh1976

I have a couple questions: How do his competitors know the postings are from the same IP address?

Does he want to get rid of the static IP addresses? I suppose so as that's the only reason the question would make sense.

The easy and cheap solution would be to find a couple proxy servers that allow you to fill in forms.

I really don't understand how anybody looking at a craigslist ad would have any idea what IP address they would be posted from. It would seem more likely that they are being flagged because the postings all look the same. Unless it's actually craigslist that is removing for over-posting not becuase they were flagged.

earweed

It would seem that if the IP address is the problem then it is Craigs List removing his posts. If he were to have dynamic DSL as Mikej412 has then he could just do a reboot of his modem every so often.
Another thing he should do isto vary the looks/layouts of his postings which would address his competitors flagging his postings.

gosh1976

If I remember correctly and assuming things haven't changed with Bellsouth since I quit working there and they were bought out by AT&T then a power cycle of the modem isn't going to get you a new IP address every time. Once in a while you might get a new IP address but you would have to leave the modem off for hours to have a good chance of getting a new IP address. I believe the DHCP lease was for 6 hours and that's a long time to wait just to be relatively certain you are getting a new IP.

forkvoid

I'll take a different approach on this... I assume it's Craigslist that is blocking his posting, due to a large amount of posts, correct? Perhaps investigate why they are blocking him, specifically, and see what can be done about an exemption. Much easier.

dynamik

Am I completely missing something? Why doesn't he open up network connections and change the IP if he's directly connected to the modem and has a pool to select from? Or is the modem also performing NAT? If so, he should still be able to log into the modem and configure it to be a bridge and give his machine a public address (more dangerous) or he should be able to change the public IP address on the device.

Alternatively, just have him get a dial-up connection. They're dirt cheap, and he'll probably get a different IP the majority of the time.

darkerosxx

Proxy server - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

miller811

The information that was given to when I was walking out his location after making a purchase, was as stated. His competitors, (maybe mixing up or altering their ads) they leave simple ads leaving multiple phone numbers to make them look like someone else. He stated he asked and received addition IP addresses for marketing purposes. The only thing is he does not know how to implement them. I on the other hand made a purchases, and have left town for a week. When I return I would be able to gain more information on his setup.

Craiglist is pretty anyomous, but he is legit, legit product, but anyone can flag anyone elses ads, and get them removed (I know this after spending a month looking for a used vehicle and see the same scammers listing 5 your old Nissan for $2830.

So, in my mind if his dsl box gets rebooted, it would probably just get the same IP address.

gosh1976

Does he have more than one machine on the network? If not I think he may have trouble making use of the extra IP addresses as I believe bellsouth in the past and now AT&T requires you, even with multiple static IP addresses, to log on using the PPPOE login info and they assign the first of the IP addresses from the block when you connect. So there's no way to change them.

If he has multiple PCs then I believe he can turn off NAT and DHCP and configure his router to assign the other IP addresses. I am not 100% certain of how that works.

Also if he wants to post multiple ads per day he'll have to make use of multiple phone numbers, email addresses, and he will have to clear his internet cache & cookies after each posting.

The companies on craigslist that spam multiple ads on craigslist everyday are just annoying and take away from how much I like that site. A couple ads a day is no big deal IMHO. It's too bad the other spammers are making this guy feel like he needs to post multiple times per day because his ads are getting pushed down the page.

dynamik

Like darker mentioned too, he could use a service like www.hidemyass.com

Alternatively: https://www.torproject.org/