railsfid-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org
2008-Apr-29 01:37 UTC
Differentiating computers on same network
What would I be looking at to differentiate computers on the same network? (using Ruby/Rails code) Also considering computers that are assigned a different ip over a wireless office network. Would I be looking at extracting the MAC address or is there a better way? --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby on Rails: Talk" group. To post to this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk-unsubscribe-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
Unsure what you''re trying to do here, but you perhaps want to be looking at using session or cookie information to identify unique users of a rails app. If however, you are asking a more generic networking question...then IP''s are non-unique. Take for example multiple computers (CPE''s) behind a NAT-router. They will all appear as the same IP on the WAN side. MAC addresses are unique. However, they can be spoofed/modified and as such are not a secure way to identify ''unique-ness'' either. Take the same example of the CPE''s behind a NAT-router. They will all appear to the WAN side as a single MAC address for their network traffic. (This is in-fact how Internet routing works). So basically MAC addresses will not transit a router in the network as they are Layer 2 entities. IP''s are Layer 3+ and will transit routers, but not NAT routers (which are very common). I''m sure it is possible to get MAC information via a cookie or some such inquiry, but that is no guarantee of uniqueness considering that MAC''s can be modified. -Dale --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby on Rails: Talk" group. To post to this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk-unsubscribe-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---