Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2014 March 10

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March 10

Possibility of tracking who are using torrent files!

Is it really possible to track who are using (downloading or uploading) torrent files?--Joseph 05:33, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

Yes. Your IP address becomes apparent when you are sharing a torrent. 217.158.236.14 (talk) 10:03, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

Correction: When you are sharing AND downloading a torrent.217.158.236.14 (talk) 10:10, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

Regardless of whether you are uploading or downloading bittorrent files, your ip address is available for all participants to see. 220.239.51.150 (talk) 12:21, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

That's what I was trying to say!217.158.236.14 (talk) 14:03, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

The "who" in the OP's question is up for debate, though. An IP address only tells so much. By seeding/downloading you are connecting with other people. Each has to know your IP in order to send or receive data. It's not hard, then, to look for all of the IPs downloading or seeding a certain torrent. If you go to a website that shows your ip (whatismyip.com is one, but I don't know how reliable it is so refraining from linking), you'll see it also has geographical information and the name of your provider. If you're using the IP provided by your internet provider, then a subpoena can have them cross-reference who they assigned a given ISP to at a given point in time, eventually leading to you. This is why many torrenters place another neutral computer between them and other peers (VPN being the most common). This way the IP downloading the torrent belongs to this proxy computer, who sends it along to you. Still not fool-proof, though, since there's nothing keeping a VPN from furnishing subscriber information except for their own policies. --— Rhododendrites ^talk |  16:04, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

Windows 8.1 changed my account from Administrator

Hello! I logged into Windows this afternoon and thought it was strange that my desktop picture had been changed to a default. Within seconds, I also realized that I could not access most of my files...eventually, a pop up came up and told me I was logged into a temporary account. I only have one account on the PC, and I had logged into it as usual. I rebooted the computer, and got the same thing. Two shutdowns later, everything seemed fine and back to normal.

So I don't really need a solution, but it was pretty scary. What happened, though? How can I prevent it in the future? 74.69.117.101 (talk) 22:47, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

Bug. 70.174.141.142 (talk) 01:39, 11 March 2014 (UTC)

LAPTOP TASKBAR

The taskbar of my laptop has been rotated from the bottom to the right. I have to apply for one day's leave to take it to the agent in the town for repairs. Is there any simple remedy? Thank you.175.157.25.119 (talk) 23:36, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

Just drag it back to the bottom. — Edokter (talk) — 23:40, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

Exactly. 70.174.141.142 (talk) 01:32, 11 March 2014 (UTC)

I have solved the problem and thanks to wikipedia and volunteers who provide ideas to sort out the problems. thanks 175.157.93.222 (talk) 03:21, 12 March 2014 (UTC)