New Data Acquired: AOL IP's and IP Masking - READ IN!!!

[Hottest_eBay_Goddess]

So I've been on the hunt for a solution to the AOL changing IP problem. Basicially, most of you who used to use AOL Browser for accessing your eBay accounts used to be able to close it, open it back up, and you'd get a new IP each time no matter if you were using a high speed connection or dial-up. Recently, it seems that doesn't happen. For some reason, it gives you the same IP it gave you before. For example, my real IP is 98.xxx.xx.123 but when using the AOL Browser, it gives me an AOL IP of 207.200.116.201. I once also received 207.200.116.203.

So what was originally thought was that if I access multiple eBay accounts and my IP is always one of those, I would get booted right? I think NOT. I spent the last 2 hours+ talking with AOL Representatives about their proxies and how they work.

Here is a COMPLETE list of AOL IP Addresses Available:

(The 0/19, 0/22, 0/25, etc. means that it is that IP with the end being between 0-19, 0-22, 0-25, etc.)

64.12.96.0/19
149.174.160.0/20
152.163.240.0/21
152.163.248.0/22
152.163.252.0/23
152.163.96.0/22
152.163.100.0/23
195.93.32.0/22
195.93.48.0/22
195.93.64.0/19
195.93.96.0/19
195.93.16.0/20
198.81.0.0/22
198.81.16.0/20
198.81.8.0/23
202.67.64.128/25
205.188.192.0/20
205.188.208.0/23
205.188.112.0/20
205.188.146.144/30
207.200.112.0/21

AOL has an estimated 8.7 Million Subscribers using these IP addresses (not including the tons of people who use their software as FREE users but also gain access to these IP's). So from the numbers above you can see there is a total of approximately 477 IP's available to people worldwide using AOL. If there were only the 8.7 Million subscribers using them (which is not the case) that would mean each IP is associated with roughly 18,239 users.

So if I used a single AOL IP address for my eBay accounts and eBay decided to ban all eBay accounts associated with that IP, isn't it safe to say that they would possibly ban 548 eBay account if even 3% of those people had logged onto an eBay account (which is a very low number).

This new-found data would lead me to believe it is perfectly safe to use the AOL Browser or other similar AOL tools to manage your eBay accounts. As long as you have a good system for clearing cookies and flahs objects, etc or you are doing the smart thing and using different User Accounts on your PC or MAC, you should be fine.

I can't wait to hear the responses on this one. Please don't be quick to add in your two cents. Look at the data. It doesn't lie.

-HeG

[GreenBean]

Going to get a lot of interest on this.

[aspkin]

Nice research Hottest_eBay_Goddess, this to me makes a lot of sense. And it goes with what I and other members have been saying for a long time now, AOL is the only safe proxy service to use with eBay. Ebasy knows millions of users use AOL proxy service and a lot of them are on the same ip address, so they can't ban those people on IP address linking alone so they don't. Again good research. Thanks.

[Hottest_eBay_Goddess]

Thank you aspkin. We are here to help each other, and this place wouldn't exist if it wasn't for you first offering things you knew to others. I just hope others will give information as they find it as well. Hopefully this works out in everybody's favor!

[Hottest_eBay_Goddess]

Hey Modee, I checked it through a handful of IP Programs including the site you always mention , whatismyipaddress.com.

I would like to do further testing if you can point me in the right direction.

-HeG

[Hottest_eBay_Goddess]

I just did a traceroute on the IP it gave me and it came back with:

Traceroute

Tracing route to 207.200.116.201

1 1.492 xo-gateway 140.239.191.1 Santa Ana, CA, United States
2 9.056 ip65-47-242-9.z242-47-65.customer.algx.net 65.47.242.9 Los Angeles, CA, United States
3 9.076 ge6-3-0d0.mar2.santaana-ca.us.xo.net 207.88.81.197 , , United States
4 104.274 p5-1-0-3d0.rar2.la-ca.us.xo.net 65.106.5.85 , , United States
5 9.692 te-4-1-0.rar3.la-ca.us.xo.net 207.88.12.153 , , United States
6 8.773 207.88.12.154.ptr.us.xo.net 207.88.12.154 , , United States
7 161.084 pop1-las-g3-1-0.atdn.net 66.185.137.133 , , United States
8 41.339 bb2-las-p0-0.atdn.net 66.185.137.130 , , United States
9 17.356 bb2-sjg-p7-0.atdn.net 66.185.152.23 , , United States
10 17.935 bb1-sjg-p2-0.atdn.net 66.185.153.26 , , United States
11 21.088 dar1-ntc-s0-0-0.atdn.net 66.185.152.62 , , United States


That is a bounce of 11x before it gets to Destination X. Since AOL's Proxy Servers are Caching Servers, I do not see why you would think it is giving your original IP address. Caching Servers collect data and then send it to the original requester, but the the data is first given to the remote server, which is the last thing eBay sees.

-HeG

[aspkin]

I really wish you would help everyone out and post some details on things sometimes... You know if you did I would have found a solution to this problems a long time ago...

Solution to this is to have a firewall setup blocking X-Forwarded-For headers... easy..

Look it up if you don't believe me... And you know that's what AOL uses to forward a real IP address, if eBay even uses this technique to grab real IP addresses I hardly doubt it.. but it can be blocked...

You know what.. you don't have to look it up, I'll post my findings..

===========

x-forwarded-for Header

A quirk of Hiptop browser/proxy is that it does not include an x-forwarded-for HTTP header. This means web applications cannot tell the IP address the request originated from, making location awareness impossible.

[edit] Sample HTTP request

A sample request from the Hiptop Browser. Note the X-Forwarded-For: unknown header/value pair.
GET / HTTP/1.0
Accept: text/html, text/xml, application/xml, application/xhtml+xml, image/png, image/jpeg, image/gif, text/plain, */*
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Danger hiptop 3.3; U; rv:1.7.12) Gecko/20050920
Accept-Language: en-us,en;q=0.5
Host: Example Web Page
Accept-Charset: ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7
Via: 1.0 stbl10.dngr.org:3128 (squid/2.5.STABLE14)
X-Forwarded-For: unknown
Cache-Control: max-age=259200



===========


Connection: keep-alive



Then, Rapidshare does not check the value for "X-Forwarded-For" request header entry to get the actual originating IP address, and so people using their service completely within their rules end up with being unable to download anything.


==========



There were historically many problems with AOL's proxy management
system. Users rapidly cycled through thousands of IP addresses, making
them virtually immune to MediaWiki's IP-based block methods. To make
things worse, there were so many legitimate users operating from AOL
that blocking all AOL IP addresses was impractical.
The solution came in late 2006, when AOL agreed to send X-Forwarded-For headers, which identified AOL users' home IP addresses and made it possible to block users directly, bypassing AOL's proxy system. This page is no longer relevant due to this agreement.



================

X-Forwarded-For - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wikipedia:AOL - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


===========



After doing many hours of research, I truly can say at my level the problem lays within how eBay’s WebPages are handled through a user’s firewall. My firewall has two options standard or enhanced. While running in standard, I'm able to opt out and the setting holds. However, while in enhanced mode selecting the opt out located at the bottom only pushes me back to top of the webpage and no popup to opt out.

Maybe the information below will help developers correct the problem that's affecting many unhappy customers who made eBay.

While running in standard the following headers are blocked:

From
Server
User-Agent
Link
Via
X-Forwarded-For


When switched to enhanced all headers except the following are blocked:

Allow
Authorization
WWW-Authenticate
Cache-Control
Content-Encoding
Content-Length
Content-Type
Date
Expires
Host








All random information that told me x-forwarded-for is the bad guy... and that we can use firewalls to block that header...

[viking23]

No $ in it if he helps us for free:D.

[Hottest_eBay_Goddess]

We ARE trying to find a good high speed solution to running multiple eBay accounts, and I think we should all do some testing as I think this will most definitely play out to our advantage. You say this is NOT it for our purposes, and I beg to differ with you on this.

I doubt that eBay used the X-Forwarded-For method themselves, but even if they did, I received this data from Digital Sanctuary, in response to the X-Forwarded-For headers;

"...The caveat is that the header can be ⊗⊗⊗⊗d, and that some ISPs/companies, such as AOL, do not set the true end point of the user, and you can only see back to their outgoing proxy server. In AOL's case in particular, they can also route subsequent requests by the same AOL user through different AOL proxy points, which will make it appear that someone is hijacking a session... So be aware of the limitations."

You see, due to the amount of clusters your request is ported through, the X-Forwarded-For header will only show that of the last Proxy your request cycled through before getting to the next! You can see by the particular IP I posted above, the request went through 11 different servers before making it to the final cache server. The X-Forwarded-For request will not keep an original IP through eleven different cycles. It only has the ability to handle a single one meaning that each time it goes to the other server, it will change the 'original IP' to that of the last server it was on.

-HeG

[aspkin]

Originally Posted by Modee

There is more to it than the XFF headers, and no a firewall will not solve the problem unfortunately in that XFF headers are not the issue.

The issue is not proving that something works: the issue is finding out why it does not, if it does not. What do we care if AOL works or does not work? All we want is a solution and AOL proxy is not it for our purposes.

The issue is you say it doesn't work, but you have ZERO PROOF OF THAT but yet you're right and everyone else is wrong... I'm trying to figure out the problem and solve it because anything can be solved yet you have nothing backing your suggestion. I came up with x-forwarded-for which AOL uses to forward the originating IP address and you say that's not it? How can that not be it when AOL says that's it?

If that's not it, then what? What is the problem? Maybe there is a way to fix it, if not and you can prove me wrong then fine I'll be happy with that. Otherwise don't say something doesn't work and not have a reason why.

[aspkin]

Originally Posted by Modee

Research the internet. Do you think that companies allow proxies to reveal nothing but the false address they provide? There is an automatic cooperation between most proxies and the venues, and AOL is one of the worst at this cooperation.

Based on your post there, I researched and found X-Forwarded-For which can be blocked..You say that isn't it.. then what is it then?

If you have nothing then say so.

[JamesYaBaoy]

Im not a mod..but I dont see a reason why...Like your finding says eBay knows about Aol's proxy anyways.

[iamaseller]

So is it safe to say that we can pretty much use AOL to set up multiple accounts after cleaning cookies each time or do we need a firewall set up as well.

[aspkin]

You'll need a firewall that blocks X-Forwarded-For header or there is a good chance your broadband IP address will be passed on to ebay.

[simogold]

Originally Posted by aspkin

You'll need a firewall that blocks X-Forwarded-For header or there is a good chance your broadband IP address will be passed on to ebay.

how do we block the X-forwarded-For header if we have a firewall?
thank you.

[denerren]

First post.

I joined this forum after a quick read w/r/t AOL broadband proxy. I've been experimenting with AOL broadband for nearly a month and happening on this forum was a lucky coincidence.

It's been my experience that creating an EBAY account using AOL broadband proxy in the conventional sense is impossible. All of my accounts created using AOL broadband received the dreaded MC169 Abuse of Ebay tag within two hours. I was, however, able to log into and fiddle around with older, more established ebay accounts with no problem.

All accounts were created using aol 9.0 vr while on a comcast highspeed cable modem.

Thanks to this forum I looked into blocking X-forwarded-for but masking or spoofing XFF seemed beyond my technical expertise so I cobbled together a more rudimentary approach to test for XFF. I replaced my router two separate times resulting in a new IP address for each test. I then set-up new Ebay accounts with all new cc / address/ email/ phone that corresponded to the geographical location of my new comcast IPs. In other words, as far as Ebay was concerned I should have appeared to have been a legitimate comcast customer using AOL broadband.

My ebay accounts were still closed within the hour.

Neither of these IP addresses was ever used for Ebay purposes. I do not use Ebay on anything but dialup and both my new comcast IPs were confirmed using What Is My IP Address? - IP Address Lookup, Internet Speed Test, IP Info, plus more.

I don't pretend to be an expert like Aspkin or this Modee fellow, but I have been doing this a long time. In my opinion, I don't believe that AOL broadband is a viable solution for creating accounts.

If anyone has had an account, which they've created on AOL broadband, survive more than 24 hours I would love to know so we can compare notes.

Thank You

[JamesYaBaoy]

Ive had aol accounts going on 3 months..BUT i discovered AOl was blowing right through my AOL "PROXY"....

To see if eBay can see your REAL ip try this link : https://mathlab.utsc.utoronto.ca/cou...x/printenv.cgi

[Hottest_eBay_Goddess]

I've had it work fine. The data is conclusive, just as you need to have a XFF block in place or eBay will see your IP. It was talked about on this thread as well as a few others. The facts are final. If your not blocking your XFF Headers with AOL Broadband, it will show your real IP.

[JamesYaBaoy]

How do you block it?Im having no luck with my router

[GATOCATMLWK]

Assuming they were not expensive,
could renting a dedicated server, with added ip addresses be a solution?

Can someone inform us a little about:

- Dedicated servers IP Address or addresses.
- Additional IPs for your a non-clustered dedicated server.
- IP Subnets for server clusters.
- Distribute IPs throughout a VLAN on a dedicated server cluster.

Thank You..

[JamesYaBaoy]

Originally Posted by Hottest_eBay_Goddess

I've had it work fine. The data is conclusive, just as you need to have a XFF block in place or eBay will see your IP. It was talked about on this thread as well as a few others. The facts are final. If your not blocking your XFF Headers with AOL Broadband, it will show your real IP.

could you log in your aol and click my link in the last post and see what ip it picks up

[GATOCATMLWK]

Originally Posted by JamesYaBaoy

Ive had aol accounts going on 3 months..BUT i discovered AOl was blowing right through my AOL "PROXY"....

To see if eBay can see your REAL ip try this link : https://mathlab.utsc.utoronto.ca/cou...x/printenv.cgi

Thanks a lot for this test and info, you made it a lot more clear now.

Do you recomend any firewall or software that I can play around with, in order to solve the X-FORWARDED HEADER problem.

I´m not a newbee so it does not matter if the software has to run in linux, freebds, etc., I´ll have to make it work anyway, so I can acomplish this task once and for all.

I appreciated.

Ps. I did clicked on your link using AOL Software and it printed my original ip address, which is overseas.