Can a Moderator know if a user is online through proxy server?

Wolverine8997

Hi
I'm a member of an online community that is based on Vanilla platform (I'm not sure of the version). I know that moderators of this community can view IP address as well as the e-mail IDs of the registered users.

1. I was wondering that if I used a proxy website to access the forum would the moderators know that I'm using a proxy, and if they know that I'm using a proxy website, would they come to know about my real IP Address?

2. Is there a log maintained that can tell moderators the IP address of the machine from which the user was online in the previous sessions even though he may not have commented on any discussion, like such kind of log being displayed on user's profile page?

Thanks in advance.

vrijvlinder

This depends on the moderator's permissions. But administrators for sure can see the Ip. Whether they can tell between a proxy/cloaked ip I do not know but they can see the ip and also anything they want to see which includes emails and personal messages and also passwords if they want to and they can see when the user was on last even if they did not comment because that is logged at sessions start if they logged in and there is a log.

The information displayed to the public is controlled by the admin and or the preference setting for the user if there is one.

Wolverine8997

@vrijvlinder said:
This depends on the moderator's permissions. But administrators for sure can see the Ip. Whether they can tell between a proxy/cloaked ip I do not know but they can see the ip and also anything they want to see which includes emails and personal messages and also passwords if they want to and they can see when the user was on last even if they did not comment because that is logged at sessions start if they logged in and there is a log.

The information displayed to the public is controlled by the admin and or the preference setting for the user if there is one.

Thanks.
I know from the comments made by some of the moderators in the forum that they can see the IP but not the personal messages (probably they have not been given this access).

What I wanted to ask Is there a way that the Moderators/Administrator can know that the user has logged in through a proxy website and see his real IP Address? Does Vanilla platform provides such functionality?

And also is there a time limit for which the log data is saved? i.e. after a specific time frame (say 30 days) the data related to log sessions/IP Address is erased automatically?

vrijvlinder

Is there a way that the Moderators/Administrator can know that the user has logged in through a proxy website and see his real IP Address?

Vanilla by itself does not backtrace or perform whois search on IP addresses . But that can't stop someone from doing so. There are hundreds of tools on the internet to do so. You can try it out yourself and see what is found.

And also is there a time limit for which the log data is saved?

It is saved forever however the Ip logged in would change on the list depending on what ip you used to log in.

hgtonight

Vanilla keeps track of IP addresses purely for spam protection and defense against sock puppet accounts. The information a "standard" moderator can view in the OS version is the user's last used IP address.

I am not sure why you would care about your IP address being logged by forum software as it is required by the server to send you the site you want to load.

vrijvlinder

An IP can reveal geographic location. So I suppose that is what they may want to avoid.

hgtonight

@vrijvlinder said:
An IP can reveal geographic location. So I suppose that is what they may want to avoid.

They only reveal where the ISP that manages those IPs reports as its location.

Seems like much ado about nothing.

vrijvlinder

Yes, it does not mean that is their real or current location, and it is needed for the world flags plugin or any plugin that needs it to show your flag. If the OP is cloaked then the IP will be the proxy.

Seems like much ado about nothing.

Ado Adeer a female deer 
ARay, a drop of golden sun
AMe, a name I call myself
AFar, a long long way to run
ASew, a needle pulling thread
ALa, a note to follow so
ATea, a drink with jam and bread
AThat will bring us back to ADo, oh oh oh

Wolverine8997

@hgtonight said:
Vanilla keeps track of IP addresses purely for spam protection and defense against sock puppet accounts. The information a "standard" moderator can view in the OS version is the user's last used IP address.

I am not sure why you would care about your IP address being logged by forum software as it is required by the server to send you the site you want to load.

The reason I asked is that one of my friend, who is also the member of the same community, made some distasteful comments on one of the discussions on the forum. And that day he was at my home using the same wi-fi service. But he was accessing through a proxy website.
So I was wondering that whether the Moderators/Administrators can view his real IP, which would be same as mine. If that is the case my profile can also be flagged in future because Moderators/Administrators can think that I've created multiple profiles and the other rogue profile (which belongs to my friend) indeed is mine only.

hgtonight

@Wolverine8997 Sounds like a community management issue. Talk to your moderation team.

Wolverine8997

@hgtonight said:
Wolverine8997 Sounds like a community management issue. Talk to your moderation team.

Just wanted to be sure before I take up the matter with them. If the Moderators couldn't see the real ID behind the cloaked ID then I needn't worry. But if they could see, then it is an issue. So that is why I asked.
Anyhow I haven't received any warnings so far.