"...The fact that both of these email servers have the same IP address means that they were operating on the same network, and sharing physical space. A computer expert tells Breitbart News that the servers were probably operating on the same machine. It is also possible that they were operating on different machines on the same network, which still means that the machines would have to be close enough to exist in the same physical location...."
As a Luddite when it comes to this tech stuff ( I just turn my computer on and off) could someone kindly explain the difference between "server" and "machine" as used in this sentence. I understand what a network is, but thought that Server and machine were the same..
Thanks in advance, and remember...please use small words..
Ken5050,
A server is a piece of hardware. If you are handling a LARGE email service or webpages, you may have 2,3 5, 10 maybe 20 machines all linked together physically.
But the outside world would essentially see 1 piece of hardware. That is the IP Address.
For a hacker, this would be like striking oil in a gold mine.
In any sane universe, the fact that the Clinton Foundation and Clintonemail.com shared the same IP address would be DEVESTATING news to Hillary Clinton. There is NO WAY IN THE WORLD that anyone wanting to stay out of prison would have approved this setup.
Nowadays people run a lot of virtual "servers" all on the same hardware. In other words, you load the "host" operating system and then you load any number of "guest" operating systems aka "servers". That doesn't imply much collusion however. It is essentially like having separate servers each on their own hardware ("machine"). The only thing one administrator could do is mount the files from any of the servers onto the host although typically there will be files mounted from the host onto some of or all of the "guests".
When an administrator sets up the above type of network, typically all of the guest servers will have the same IP as the host. The host NATs the guest servers, essentially relaying all the internet traffic as if it were coming from the host but in reality the host is running its own internal virtual network that all the guests use.
But the above is no different than having multiple servers on hardware (machines) and NATing them through a router. In that case both the servers have the same IP address even though they are on different machines. That was certainly the cheapest way to set it up although nowadays you can set up your own servers each with their own IP for $5 a month. The bottom line is the fact that they could be NATed through a router versus NATed on a host does not matter much at all.
The fact that they have the same IP means that the people who created the network were cheap and didn't want to pay for more IPs, although like I said, nowadays they are $5 per month with a virtual server (with minimal storage and processing), $10 or $20 a month would be enough to run anyone's email however.
But back in those days (i.e. 5-6 years ago) the extra IPs would cost $50 a month more each especially to an unsophisticated buyer in an off-market like Arkansas. So they used NAT with a router or with host and virtual guests. The fact that they used one IP does not mean very much, and certainly does not prove that the servers shared files. In fact it is just as easy to share files across servers no matter how they are set up.
One other possibility is two email servers on a single OS (in this case we would call that OS the machine). The two email servers would server different domains (e.g. @hillary-state-com and @clintonfoundation.com) but that does not seem like a very strong possibility since it is harder to set up. It does have the advantage of being exceedingly cheap though.
Chances are, if they are using the same ip address, then both email domains were being hosted on the same physical machine. There are ways to have two different computers share the same IP address, but I seriously doubt that was the case here. I’ve been saying all along that if they =rezlly= wanted to know what was going on they’d have a couple of nerds working on this who really understand how email is handled and processed. It has been obvious to me from the start, that the “investigations” have been designed to telegraph enough to the Clintons that they could walk. That goes for everything the republicans have been doing as well. It is a sham and has been from the start. There is a different set of rules for the political class, you know.