how does a website know where the user is coming from?

[iinfi]

Assume a website say a news site keeps a track of what the end user is doing by cookies/session ID. if say from the home page of the site 100 users head to the sports section and 900 head to the business section they will look to provide better services in the business section as it is the more popular of the two.
now if a website wants to see if the same user is coming back to website or for that matter a user from the same PC is coming back to the website the website mite use cookies/watch the IP address of the user.

If a user who is using a dial-up connection and deleting the cookies in his browser after every session then is it possible for the website to see if the same user is coming back? will the user who has hit the website for the second time be treated as a new user?

note: the site does not require you to log in to read its content.

[wORm]

I'm not aware of any way of tracking return traffic other than IP or cookies. My guess is there is no way for a website to track a person if he deletes/disables cookies and has a dynamic IP.

[QwertyManiac]

many sites have logging enabled in every folder of thiers...

Mebbe that does it.

Edit :
Logging of IP
and also , wat site xcept a few like rapidshare etc have cookies for non users (registered)


And about d/l up > I dunno bout u guyz but mine remains static

[wORm]

Originally Posted by QwertyManiac

many sites have logging enabled in every folder of thiers...

Mebbe that does it.

[GNUrag]

Originally Posted by QwertyManiac

And about d/l up > I dunno bout u guyz but mine remains static

Are you sure your dialup IP remains same across different connections?

@iinfi , there's no way (that i know) to track users if the site does not use Logins/Cookies or if the IP keeps on changing. If you have seen such a behaviour with any website then let us know.

[QwertyManiac]

yes, i have 2 dial up accounts , one of BSNL and One of VSNL (TATA)

Every time i get the same 216.somethin (all digits r same, i cant remember them coz now i have BBand)

Edit :
It never changes a bit i tell u honestly !
I have seen it for 4 days continuous !

[popper1987]

no doubt websites keep a track of us through Ips and cookies but let say for example we visita website ,it says you are from india ,that is identified from
the ip for example the ip is of type 202.xxx.xxx.xxx the xxx part will change and 202 will remain same,the 202 is the part of the isp which is a network broadcaster in india (as it is saved and recorded in world DNs data bank).if you use proxy then you can be 40-50% anonymous

[iinfi]

even if you have a dynamic IP u can track from which city the user is from if the ISP has diff sets of IPs for diff cities.

@GNUrag: i also do not know any way of tracking if the user has dynamic IP and deletes cookies. i was just asking if there is a way to do it.