Just wondering about tracerouting and why my IP address would show up
when I went here: http://unixvirt-svca.www.conxion.com/cgi-bin/traceroute
(or am I a complete idiot?).  Also, after running the command "netstat
-a" on Win98: what is "encmpss.conxion.com," why is it not a valid
URL, and why am I not allowed to ping their [supposed] IP address?

dystopic-ga:

Thank you for your question regarding the behavior of the traceroute
web-tool hosted by Conxion.com.

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The traceroute web-tool you mentioned dynamically displays the results
of a traceroute attempt initiated from the Conxion server, to the IP
address of the PC requesting the results page. It is able to obtain
your IP address because the request you send to the server for the
results page necessarily contains your address; otherwise, where would
the server send the results page to? If the traceroute is successful,
the Conxion server will be able to trace the complete route between
its location, and the address of your PC.

Traceroute
http://www.freesoft.org/CIE/Topics/54.htm

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As for "encmpss.conxion.com", are you by any chance on a dial-up
connection? That server is most likely an Encompass server operated by
Conxion. Encompass was a company that specialized in software
solutions to make getting online (and staying online) a "more
rewarding experience" for consumers. This was accomplished through
server-side software that optimized content delivery for each user. In
fact, the Encompass technology was integral to the development of the
My Yahoo! experience in 1999, the year that Yahoo! acquired Encompass
Inc.

You can read about the acquisition on the Internet Archive WayBackMachine at:

Encompass.com home page from March 2000
http://web.archive.org/web/20000302114029/http://www.encmpss.com/

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Many servers have been configured to ignore ping requests now in
response to denial of service attacks in recent years such as the
"Ping of Death".

Ping'o'Death
http://www.insecure.org/sploits/ping-o-death.html

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Search Strategy:

encmpss Encompass

"ping of death"

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Regards,

aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher