[brucecw]

IP numbers are of limited usefulness in many cases.

For one thing, IP numbers for dialup are dynamic, so anyone who dials into a particular server could show up on that IP - even if the server's phone number is a long-distance call from the actual computer, they still would show up as being where the server is, not where they're sitting.

For another, often you can go through several gateways to get to a particular site or server (sometimes the gateway has been hacked, sometimes not) ... with the result that the IP that was logged may show only the last hop in the chain, seeming to place your address half a world away from where you really are.

There are various ways to cross-correlate IP addresses, especially if you have access to ISP records (as law enforcement does in many cases). In general it's difficult for end-users to do much tracing unless the target of the trace isn't trying very hard to hide.

[Labyrinthos]

Interesting. So when Norton Internet Security tells me that there was an attempted intrusion throught the firewall, and then I run the IP numbers through the tracer on the Symantec website to an origin in South Korea, the information is not necessarily accurate?