How Do I Trace a Troll?

[navane]

I was wondering if anyone could help me identify a troublemaker on another discussion board I belong to.


You see, this person has been posting nasty racial slurs about specific people all week long. The attacks are not directed towards me, but people I know. I'm not the board moderator either. The board mod tried to ban the offender's IP address, but apparently, people with dynamic IP addresses just get a new one every time they log in.


Plus, most of the time these punks are from AOL accounts. We can't ban AOL accounts because sooooo many people have AOL; that would take out the good with the bad. The poster has been writing in the distinct style of a person we know, but we suspect that it may actually be someone faking like he or she is that person in order to cover their tracks. Anyway, I just get sick of these people getting online and thinking that they can post anonymously without regard for anyone but themselves. Which, FYI, is not a thinly disguised commentary about GC. Anyway, the heaps and heaps of racial slurs about Asians and African-American people is what prompts me to want to out this person.


The board mod posted this person's IP address. It is:


DIALUP-4.240.210.30.DIAL1.PHOENIX1.LEVEL3.NET/4.240.210.30


I tried an ARIN lookup but didn't come up with much. At least, I'm not sure I make sense of it. It comes up with Level 3 Comm. out of Colorado.


I also tried doing a trace on the IP via a service at Stanford and got this:


traceroute to dialup-4.240.210.30.Dial1.Phoenix1.Level3.net (4.240.210.30): 3-30 hops, 38 byte packets
3 192.68.191.146 (192.68.191.146) 0.546 ms (ttl=252!)
4 snv-pos-slac.es.net (134.55.209.1) 0.788 ms (ttl=251!)
5 snvrt1-ge0-snvcr1.es.net (134.55.209.90) 0.820 ms (ttl=250!)
6 paix-pa-snv.es.net (134.55.208.205) 1.49 ms (ttl=249!)
7 209.245.146.145 (209.245.146.145) 1.38 ms (ttl=249)
8 so-2-1-0.bbr1.SanJose1.Level3.net (4.68.114.153) 3.53 ms (ttl=247!)
9 so-0-1-0.mp1.Phoenix1.Level3.net (64.159.1.121) 20.2 ms (ttl=246!)
10 so-10-0.hsa1.Phoenix1.Level3.net (4.68.113.242) 20.1 ms (ttl=246)
11 *
12 *
13 *
14 *
15 *
16 *
17 *
18 *
19 *
20 *
21 *
22 *
23 *
24 *
25


Riiiiight. I have no idea what I'm doing. Help!


Do I need to get the IP off an e-mail from the suspected person and then try and compare the data or something? Is this something I can do myself online or do I need some special software? If nothing else, I figure I can learn something new about the internet today.


Thanks!


.....Kelly