Will re-installing windows change my IP address?

Question

What is an IP address anyways? And apparently mine is being tracked by a hacker, is there any way to make mine untraceable or change it?

Answer 1

No.



An IP address is what identifies your computer on the internet. It is how a website (like Yahoo) can pick your particular computer out of the over 1 billion computers in the world, and send you the page you request.



Your IP address is owned and issued by your internet provider (ISP). Most people these days have a dynamic IP address that is changed on a regular basis. You can usually force an IP address change by rebooting (restarting) your router/modem that was supplied by your ISP. Wait 10 minutes before starting it again.



In the USA, the only way to get an ISP to release personal information (name, telephone, address etc.) about a particular IP address is with a Court Order.



And Court Orders are usually only given out in the case of suspected serious criminal activity. I would expect the laws to be similar in Canada.



And your computer's firewall would (you DO run one, right?) would block any malicious attacks against your computer and its associated IP address.



Most of the self-proclaimed "hackers" are pimply-faced male children that need to get laid. They seldom have any kind of real "hacking" knowledge.



Good luck.

Answer 2

Depending on how it's being tracked, changing your IP address won't help anyway. There's probably malware on your computer and that is handling the tracking. The hacker "tells" the malware what their "phone number" is so it can ring the hacker up with the information. It doesn't make any difference the computer is at one house or another; the hacker's phone number stays the same. So changing your IP address won't help; moving your computer to a friend's place will change the IP address your computer uses but NOT the hacker's "phone number."



Best way to deal with hacking is to give your computer a comprehensive overhaul to find and remove all malware and then make sure your computer is properly secured. Try this:

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407

Long but thorough and chances are good that your hacker won't be able to track you after you get done.

Answer 3

To find out what is your IP address visit IP tracking site. Good examples are IP trackers from:

http://www.ipaddresslocation.org

http://www.find-ip-address.org



Note your IP address that you will know it in future so you can check same site any time when you would like to find out of you still have same IP address of it has been changed in mean time.



From other site if your IP address is tracked from hacker, cracker or similar then there is not any reason to care because with good antivirus, patched windows system and firewall chance that someone break into your system is nihil.

Answer 4

not one of the previous answerers fairly understand what they are speaking approximately. It fairly relies upon on who your ISP is. On a house cyber web connection in many cases maximum ISPs run DHCP to assign IP addresses. it fairly is fairly gonna remember on how the ISP has their leases assigned to the hosts set up on their DHCP server. maximum DHCP servers will perform on an 8 day hire, and nil.5 way in the process the expiration time (4 days), the laptop (or modem, or router) will deliver a request to resume that hire. if it is the case, then your superb danger at getting a clean IP tackle is to disconnect your cyber web for a minimum of 8 days. this could nonetheless no longer assure which you will get a clean IP, via fact that your ISP could assign IP addresses to the purchasers on a 6 month hire. yet another selection could be to call your ISP and request a different IP, yet I have not any theory in the event that they're going to adjust to your request. back it fairly relies upon on who the ISP is, and what their coverage is in this form of request on a house account. thus (from a lot of journey), Verizon is the worst ISP there is to tackle while it is composed of tech help and alter requests. I choose you success.

Answer 5

NO. Ask your ISP.