John,

Hopefully I can clarify any confusion you are having in regard to "ISP" and "IP". [Linked Image]
    [*][color:blue]ISP: "Internet Service Provider", which technically is a company that provides access to the Internet to its clients.[*][color:blue]IP: "Internet Provider" but better known as an "identifier". An IP number is similar to a Zip Code address in that each set of numbers represents and increasingly specific place. A more technical explanation is here:
    Every computer that communicates over the Internet is assigned an IP address that uniquely identifies the device and distinguishes it from other computers on the Internet. An IP address consists of 32 bits, often shown as 4 octets of numbers from 0-255 represented in decimal form instead of binary form. For example, the IP address 168.212.226.204.

    in binary form is

    10101000.11010100.11100010.11001100.
    [/LIST]Using the above IP address 168.212.226.204, the end user is identified with the "204", providing that the IP is "static"; i.e., it never changes. However many ISP's provide "dynamic" IP's to their clients, which means that the last set of numbers change, sometimes with each connection to the Internet.

    So, to address your question about being able to ban individual users, for example, from a board like this one. If the IP is "static", it is quite easy to block that IP number access to the board. If, however, the IP is dynamic, you would either have to enter each of the IP numbers individually as they change. (Obviously this can be a tedious task.) Or, a much easier method is to enter just the first 3 sets or even 2 sets of octets rather than all of them. What this does is to block a broader area. The drawback in doing this is that the broader the scope the more people are affected. In fact, one can easily block an entire "domain", e.g., AOL.

    Fortunately, the scripting for this particular board allows us to block "undesirables" in several ways so that only that individual is blocked and normally no one else is affected.

    Does that answer your question(s)? [Linked Image]

[Linked Image]

simul iustus et peccator

[Linked Image]