Strange Happenings With IP Address In My Forum

[glennk]

I thought it was starnge to see 25 guests viewing my forum at at once. Then I checked the stats and all the guests were viewing the same 1 topic. THen I looked at the Ip addresses and all were identical except the last 2 numbers

 

Any idea what is happening here ?

 

195.93.21.67

 

195.93.21.40

 

195.93.21.106

 

195.93.21.129

 

and lots more pretty similar. all 195.93.21.

[nick]

AOL is happening

 

when AOL users browse the internet they all connect through the same small range of IP addresses. Doesn't matter who or where they are from. It's a nightmare for administration

[Jack Sparrow]

Yep you just gota love AOL when your forum admin, as it make life that bit more difficult if you have a problem member

 

regards

Jack

[Leon Roskilly]

Was it this thread?

 

http://www.whitbyseaanglers.co.uk/forum/in...php?topic=721.0

 

 

If so, then it could be the result of an admin notice calling attention to the thread, which AOL delivered to AOL users all at the same time, and a number of them were clicking on the link having near simultaneously recieved the email with the link.

[glennk]

Hi Leon,

 

No it wasn't that one. It was probably one of the most irrelevent topics on the forum. A word association game.

 

Its not like aol robots or anything like that ?

 

Im just astounded they were all looking at this topic at the same time

 

http://www.whitbyseaanglers.co.uk/forum/no...a-bit-of-fun/0/

[glennk]

Theres is roughly 15 of thgem in there now all reading the same topic this time its the list of recent posts they are all reading.

 

Very strange - can it be aol robots ?

[nick]

Hi Glenn it ain't robots. It is one (or possibly more) AOL users.

 

AOL connects to your site to collect the content needed by it's users - then the user gets the content from AOL.

 

It's a weird way of doing things, but that's AOL for you.

 

You cannot tell how many AOL users are viewing your site at any time, just that someone is.

 

Don't let it stress you too much

[glennk]

:D

 

Don't worry be happy !!!

 

Cheers Nick, made me smile that last comment.

 

Funny how little things can brighten up your day.

[Steve Walker]

AOL connects to your site to collect the content needed by it's users - then the user gets the content from AOL.

 

So AOL users effectively see the web through a proxy server? What a weird and intrusive way of running an ISP. I knew that AOL did some odd proprietary things (many of which amount to trying to make users think of "The Internet" as "AOL") but that's just odd. Presumably they can then apply content filtering, snooping or whatever.

[nick]

So AOL users effectively see the web through a proxy server? What a weird and intrusive way of running an ISP. I knew that AOL did some odd proprietary things (many of which amount to trying to make users think of "The Internet" as "AOL") but that's just odd. Presumably they can then apply content filtering, snooping or whatever.

 

But you are making the classic mistake of many of AOL's users. Thinking that it is an ISP. It ain't really

 

It is a proprietory network system which allows it's members to connect into it's network for access to it's own resources. They also allow members to access the internet as an added bonus.