55
Are ISPs responsible for bots having residential IPs or is this a user problem? (lemmy.world)
submitted 3 weeks ago by Maroon@lemmy.world to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
42 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I'm trying to understand the bot problem in the internet and finding more ways to defend myself. One thing that I can't seem to understand is why most bots, scrapers and crawlers seem to have residential IPs.

  • Is it that ISPs are being paid by tech-bros to assign them these IPs?
  • Is it that residential devices have been hacked /contain malware that does this?
  • Is it trivial for companies to assign themselves residential IPs?
  • Paid volunteers are doing this for AI companies?

Or is there is some other reason for this?

Obviously this is a problem because one can rotate / cycle through residential IPs and if I aggressively block each offender in my logs permanently, then the next person assigned this IP who may be a legitimate user will be unable to access my site.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 0 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

I can pay for internet in cash and the only details I gave them are fake and a random username. 4G internet isn't even tied to the same location as I can move freely.

As I'm not bothered about doing cybercrimes I don't bother doing that much about security though.

[-] Mordikan@kbin.earth 7 points 3 weeks ago

4G/5G cellular? So, in some ways you're actually easier to find. Your cell gateway is connecting to a tower which is logged and includes cell strength metrics. That gets compared to other towers and via trilateralization your location is determined.

Again, going back to what I previously said: there is a path back to you even if only for either billing or connectivity purposes.

[-] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz -1 points 3 weeks ago

So it's easy to find me living at home doing nothing, and hard to track a determined criminal who would just move it when doing crimes?

[-] Mordikan@kbin.earth 2 points 3 weeks ago

Yes it is easy to find you. No, it is not hard to track someone just moving it.

[-] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 0 points 3 weeks ago

Time to do some crime. Let's go to a remote location. Turns router on, does crimes, turns it off. Goes home.

[-] Mordikan@kbin.earth 2 points 3 weeks ago

IMEI. You really would make an awful criminal lol.

this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2026
55 points (92.3% liked)

Selfhosted

60723 readers
230 users here now

A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.

Rules:

Detailed Rules Post

  1. Be civil.

  2. No spam.

  3. Posts are to be related to self-hosting.

  4. Don't duplicate the full text of your blog or readme if you're providing a link.

  5. Submission headline should match the article title.

  6. No trolling.

  7. Promotion posts require active participation, with an account that is at least 30 days old. F/LOSS without a paywall has exceptions, with requirements. See the rules link for details. Tags [CBH] or [AIP] are required, see the links in Rule 8 for details.

  8. AI-related discussions and AI-involved promotional posts have additional requirements for tagging, as noted in Rule 7 and the AI & Promotional Post Expanded Rules post, and find example disclosures here.

Resources:

Any issues on the community? Report it using the report flag.

Questions? DM the mods!

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
ruud@lemmy.world
Loki@lemmy.world
CannaVet@lemmy.world
devve@lemmy.world
ayyy@sh.itjust.works
curbstickle@anarchist.nexus
curbstickle_lw@lemmy.world