If Lunch Meat and Deliverator (no offense guys - just an example I'm making up) show up as having the same IP address, it could mean they are the same person, or it could mean they just live in the same house and/or use the same computer. Either way, it provides us with more information (not a lot more, but some).

Well, I'm not insulted. I'm not sure how Lunch/Yukon/Slug feels about it. Or all three of him, for that matter. ;-)

The IP address granted by most internet service providers to home users is dynamic, meaning that it changes from time to time, such as when you reset your modem, or simply when the lease on the dynamic IP expires and is automagically renewed by your modem.

This limits the efficacy of this method as a tool for tracking multiple userids/posts, but is probably better than nothing. It certainly would be effective for tracking within a certain time frame. Computer literate multiple posters would have no problem inserting a fake public IP (spoofing), or simply resetting their modems and changing their external IP address to do their multiple posts (home firewall/routers assign non-routable IP addresses to computers on home networks) . In short, I think it's more of a CYA move than an effective deterrent to posters using multiple aliases.

Oops, did I just teach FC how to spam us?