21. Who Is My ISP? If you use WebTV (MSN TV) for your internet connection, you may have assumed that WebTV owns the dial-up phone number(s) that you use to connect to the internet. But this is not the case. WebTV has contracts with many internet service providers throughout the country. Think of it this way.... WebTV rents the dial-up numbers of internet providers who are already established. If you have ever wondered about using your own ISP, or internet service provider, you should first find out who you are actually connecting with right now. You are currently using one or more of the same ISP numbers that computer users connect with in your area! To find out who is actually providing your local connection for the dial-up number you used when you logged on, click on the link below. https://grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2 Once there, tap your Scroll Down key twice. You will see a box which begins with this wording: "The text below might uniquely identify you on the Internet." Down below that is the "reverse DNS" string of characters, written in blue. It will end with a domain name, such as uu.net. That is the company which really provides your dialup connection to the internet. For example, my reverse DNS string ends with uu.net. Therefore, MSNTV has contracted with uu.net to provide dialup in my area. Now you too can know who is providing the dialup service in your area! And by the way, that part about "might uniquely identify you on the internet" only applies to computer users; not WebTV users! We connect using a proxy server, and only that proxy is identified in the string. Your privacy remains intact!