Does this forum software shows users' MAC Address?

[Lollitannia]

Title^
Or just plainly IP address?
Thanks for answering.

 

[Mike]

No website has access to MAC addresses from a simple request. Only the IP address is ever sent.

 

[Vincent]

You can always set up a custom userfield where they are required to fill it in on registration, but I don't see why you should have it?

 

[Lollitannia]

My forum runs weekly events for prizes based on thanks received and likes and a load of things like that, but it has come to my attention that some users abuse their own likes by making multiple accounts with an easy IP change.
Well thanks anyway, I might take a look on the mentioned custom userfield thing.

 

[SheepCow]

My forum runs weekly events for prizes based on thanks received and likes and a load of things like that, but it has come to my attention that some users abuse their own likes by making multiple accounts with an easy IP change.
Well thanks anyway, I might take a look on the mentioned custom userfield thing.

MAC addresses are only used at the physical layer, which is basically up to the first non-switchy thing - so typically up to their router, they don't make it onto t'Internet

 

[Lollitannia]

So other than IP address, there is no other way to detect unique users. Is that right?

 

[Biker]

Via the forum software? No, there is not.

 

[a legacy reborn]

Set a cookie to their browser and/or you can just moderate to see if the likes are coming from actual people. Ultimately if your community is small enough where likes can be boosted significantly by false likes then you can't really stop it if people are determined.

 

[Saeed]

You may want to give this a go.

http://xenforo.com/community/threads/multiple-account-detection.6373/

 

[shawn]

you can't really stop it if people are determined.

This.

Let's say your user has IE, Chrome, and Firefox all installed on one machine. They can post three times, regardless of what tracking cookies you employ. They can open a new incognito window and post again from there. If they're already changing their IP addresses in order to avoid getting caught, there's little you can do. Tracking cookies help, but they're far from bulletproof. And MAC addresses never make it that far up the network... and even if they did, the users could change their MAC address, too.

 

[a legacy reborn]

This.

Let's say your user has IE, Chrome, and Firefox all installed on one machine. They can post three times, regardless of what tracking cookies you employ. They can open a new incognito window and post again from there. If they're already changing their IP addresses in order to avoid getting caught, there's little you can do. Tracking cookies help, but they're far from bulletproof. And MAC addresses never make it that far up the network... and even if they did, the users could change their MAC address, too.

The only way to make it full-proof(which btw has never been successfully done) is to run a Physical Impulse Mechanical Bypass Stress Routine(kick it).

 

[Adam Howard]

No website has access to MAC addresses from a simple request. Only the IP address is ever sent.

That's not technically true.


There is away to track someone's MAC address via a combination of using cookies and a js script. But it is a good way to violate several international privacy laws and have your website taken down and added to every spam & rouge IP filter list in a hurry.

I'd not recommend it. In fact I strongly suggest you don't.

 

[Lollitannia]

Alright, thanks for the heads up guys!