Is it posable to trace an IP address back to the person that made the post. This person has posted 14 times under 3 names and all the IP address are different, but really close. Can the number be traced to his ISP, and or hopefully to the name on the bill sent to him by his ISP?

If any of this is posable I would love to know how.

It's difficult to track it to an actual person, as it's unlikely that he owns the IP address himself. You can track down his ISP, and if it's a dedicated IP (meaning it doesn't change each time they login) you could complain to his ISP. If the IPs are close, you're looking for a needle in a haystack. If they have broken laws etc.... the ISP may be willing to track down the user on that IP during that exact time etc.... if they are just causing you trouble on your site and being an annoyance, it's unlikely they will get involved.

It's easy for users to get other IPs or use proxy servers... so generally banning by IP is pretty uneffective if the user has some PC saavy.

This page:
http://combat.uxn.com/

Enter their IP into the ARIN section. That'll show you who owns the IP.

Thats about what i thought.

Thanks

Along the same lines I found out that even though I have banned an IP address in the control panel if the user has a direct link to a post he can still view it. Anyway to defeat that?

Threads 6.5

You can always ban the IP at the server level... like in htaccess.

Yeah, banning an IP just blocks them from posting, they can still totally access the site. Server level is a more effective method.