Did someone hijack my IP address?

Well I'm a member of these certain forums you see, and well it all started a few days ago.

A bunch of spammers came and created forum accounts mimicking other forum members, they would change a letter, or a word of the original members name, then spam the forum.

I've never been one to spam, as personally I find it immature and childish to attempt to steal someone elses and slander it.

So I was quite surprised when I found out I had been warned, not for calling out on the spammers childish behavior and lack of backbone (I didn't say it as nicely xD) but for creating a spam account of a very good friend of mine, so now not only do people think I'm a spammer, I can't even post without having a mod view my posts first.

Since no one else ever goes on my laptop, I was wondering if my IP had been hijacked? And if so is there anything I can do to prevent that from happening again?

Oh is there a way I can change my IP Address without contacting my ISP? They are a real hassle to talk with about these type of things... They ask you the most random questions that have NOTHING to do with what you are asking them about.

 

I don't know that you could or would want to. The IP address is usually assigned when you connect to the ISP server. If you dynamically change it, your ISP server will no longer communicate with your PC since it will no longer recognize your new IP address. I don't believe it is possible to "call out" to your ISP server to notify it that your IP address has been changed. Server systems don't have the capability to adjust IP address once they are assigned. Someone who works with servers can probably provide a better answer to your question.

 

The only way someone could possibly use your computer for spam attacks like you are saying is because of something you may have downloaded.

It may have installed a BOT system on your computer used for Brute force type attacks and spam attacks. that is the only way i could see it plausable that they would be useing your ip adress.

But other then that why are you telling us this on here? why dont you explain this to the admin of the website your useing and see if he can sort it out.

Also run an anti-spyware/Virus scan so you can be sure you are not running a BOT or Zombie computer.

 

OP-
Are you the only user on your LAN?

 

most ISP don't assign a static IP address to users,it changes everytime you reboot your router or your modem,so unless you have a static IP address I wouldn't have thought stealing it was really of much use,now your mac address!!