need help

[whoami191]

Hi, I am getting mails from a person who says he knows where I stay and he is an expert in hacking and computers/internet. And says that he will use my ip address to put me in some trouble by doing illegal things...I want to know if this is real and can somebody just use one's IP address and location and hack into his computer (not email acct) and do stuff to put him in trouble.

Initially he seemed to be my ex-colleague so I replied to few of his messages and bcz of this I think he got my IP address. Please help me by letting me know if he can harm me in any way.

[clanmills]

I suspect he/she is mad.

I'm not a hacker, so I'm not sure what he can do with your IP address - maybe another reader can offer better advice. However, make sure your firewall's enabled. Even better, make sure you're behind your router and not connected directly to the modem AND enable your firewall. If you're connected directly to the modem, go down to the local PC store and buy a router to put between the modem and your PC - it'll cost about $20-$30.

[AboveTheLogic]

and if you are using wireless, make sure its secured

[McGuffy]

First, emailing someone doesn't give them your IP address - the best they would get is the IP address of your provider's mail server.

The other posters are correct, you should secure your home network. You need to have a router between your computer(s) and your internet connection, with the password changed, and use at least WPA to secure your wireless, WPA2 preferred (WEP is useless). Also, make sure your system isn't already infected - I prefer the free malwarebytes (www.malwarebytes.org) and Spyware Doctor (www.pctools.com) - I am not affiliated with either company.

I would say that there's a one in a million chance this person actually has the skills to carry out his threats, but basic security on your systems is a prerequisite these days.

Originally Posted by whoami191

Hi, I am getting mails from a person who says he knows where I stay and he is an expert in hacking and computers/internet. And says that he will use my ip address to put me in some trouble by doing illegal things...I want to know if this is real and can somebody just use one's IP address and location and hack into his computer (not email acct) and do stuff to put him in trouble.

Initially he seemed to be my ex-colleague so I replied to few of his messages and bcz of this I think he got my IP address. Please help me by letting me know if he can harm me in any way.

[wimiadmin]

Originally Posted by McGuffy

First, emailing someone doesn't give them your IP address - the best they would get is the IP address of your provider's mail server.

That depends. If you're emailing them from home via Outlook, Outlook Express, etc. then they WILL get your home IP address in most cases.

However, if you're using a web interface to access your email like hotmail, yahoo, or gmail, then they will ONLY get the IP of the associated mail server and not your home IP.

We discuss this more at length in our E-mail Tracing Forum