Downloading Anonymously ?

I have a few questions that I just need some simple yes's or no's.



Lets say somebody wants to download files and such that may be questionable or should I say';not bought';, but want to do it without identifying their selves or being tracked.



I am not talking about covering an ip address by using software designed for p2p downloading through utorrent or bitlord, and I am not talking about using or going through a proxy server to surf anonymously.



HEre are my questions



Can a person be identified by their DHCP Server Address?



Can a person be identified by their DNS Server addresses?



Can a person be identified by their MAC address?



Can a person be identified by their Default Gateway?



I have already know how to change a MAC address %26amp; already know you can manually change an ip address by

ipconfig /release then unplugging router and pluggin it back in and doing ipconfig /renew in cmd.



I just notice a couple of things that stay the same no matter what someone does and thats the DHCP SERVER ADDRESS %26amp; the DNS SERVER ADDRESSES. And yes I know you can disable the use of DHCP, but i have been running into problems figuring out the TCP settings.



So again basically, I am asking if you could be found out by your DHCP and or your DNS utmost, if you were to make sure to change your IP %26amp; MAC addresses every time you wanted to go online and download something questionable or not and then change them

(the MAC %26amp; IP) again before you went and did something like oh I don't know....log into a personal email, which if you did would basically connect yourself to the IP %26amp; MAC you were doing the questionable downloads on which would be a big bad thing, I would think.



Cause as I see it, if everytime you go online with a dif MAC and dif IP address and make sure to never go to any ACTUAL PERSONAL ACCOUNTS on the same mac and IP address you did something questionable with, that would possibly identify you, you would be pretty much in the clear.



And well of course this is the extent of my knowledge or guess on the subject as I am here asking you all now.



This is of course just for my knowledge. Not that I would ever actually do something like this. I a, just a curious cat.Downloading Anonymously ?
Yes you can be tracked down.



I assume you are using an Internet Service Provider from home.



The ISP records your presence (address) when you connect, and the modem has an identification code of its own. The web site you visit can record the time of the visit and the IP address. If the web site should find undesirable or possibly illegal activity coming from that IP address, they can get a court order to require the ISP to provide them with the identity of the account using that IP address at that particular time.

For example, if you purchase online, the business will record the time and the IP address to give them data for fraud investiagations.



This can be a huge problem if you have a wireless network. If you do not have encryption enabled, someone outside your home could hack into your network and use your internet connection to do very bad things - and guess who gets blamed for it? The account holder. And how would you prove you did not do it?Downloading Anonymously ?
it still goes through your internet provider which by law has to turn you in
Just tell your parents ';hey parents I love to download porn, get over it';.
I will try to answer your questions as simply as possible.



Can a person be identified by their DHCP Server Address?



This doesn't necessarily make sense. The DHCP server address, as you probably know, is the address that you choose of a device on your network that your computer will talk to in order to be automatically assigned configuration settings like IP address. This is always a LOCAL address on your immediate network, and the question of identifiability does not make sense. Anyone who is using a given DHCP server will have that server's IP address configured in that way.



Usually changing this value does not make sense. You will no longer be able to automatically get assigned network configuration data. For most normal users, their DHCP server is the router that they are connected to.









Can a person be identified by their DNS Server addresses?



This is another question that does not particularly make sense. A DNS server is just a server that you must talk to in order to resolve hostnames, e.g. convert something like yahoo.com to something like 68.180.206.184 so that your computer can contact the Yahoo! server.



Your DNS server, like your DHCP server, is something that probably would not make sense for you to change.



Can a person be identified by their MAC address?



Absolutely yes. A given MAC address, while not guaranteed to be UNIQUE worldwide, does correspond to a specific device. For example, if your laptop has wireless capability and wired networking capability, then it has at least two network adapters. Each of these was built with a MAC address. That MAC address identifies the manufacturer of the adapter, among other things, and is not meant to be changed.



However, no one sees the MAC address except devices SPECIFICALLY talking to that hardware. In other words, if you are plugged into a router, then only that router and MAYBE other machines also plugged into that router care about your network adapter's MAC address. There is no concept of any other machine on the Internet being able to see or care about the MAC address(es) of your hardware.



Like I said, the MAC address is programmed into your device and is NOT supposed to be changed. I suggest not worrying about things like MAC addresses ever again unless you have an address collision (very rare) or take a networking class.



Can a person be identified by their Default Gateway?



See my answer to DHCP Server. For most people, the gateway is actually the same as the DHCP server (usually a router). Don't worry about this either.





In general, all four of these things are configuration data that make up how your machine talks to your router and other machines, and changing them will basically just either break your ability to access the Internet or have no effect at all.



There is no anonymity to be gained by changing any of these fundamental connection settings.



Keep in mind also that there isn't really much anonymity gained from changing your public Internet-side IP address either, since ISPs keep logs of what accounts/locations connect through which IPs at any given time.