IP addresses

Ayedavanita

Can someone explain to me what an IP address is?
Does it stick strictly to your laptop or does it come from the internet access you've logged in with? Like, say I've traveled to another state and I'm using the internet at a hotel, will my IP address still be the same?
Can someone create a profile from my IP address? How would they be able to do that?
How can you find out where an IP address is coming from...city/state?

CranMalReign

IP addresses are not tied to your hardware (laptop, PC, smartphone, etc). They are provided by the network you are connected to.

In fact, you can have a different IP address from one day to the next in your own house, depending on how your ISP (internet service provider) issues them. You will definitely have a different one in a hotel room than at home.

An IP address is not a permanent identity. It is only a number assigned to you for a particular period of time. Think of it as a number you take at the deli line. While you have it, you're #47 and no one else is. Once you throw it away (or the ISP resets it, your router reboots, whatever), that number is gone and you get a new one.

Ayedavanita

Thank you VERY much!!! There have been profiles created that show my IP address that have harassed other people and it's not me. I wondered how this could happen!

Brisk.

What i've been studying the past year.

By good definition - An IP address is an address of an internet protocol interface.

Well if you set it automatically then the DHCP will give you one, this means that you could be using an ip address of someone who for example just finished their session on the internet. You have to pay for static ip's which you keep.

TravisTheSky

I was recently browsing a different forum. One of the members had apparently created a second membership for herself several months after her first. She was pretending to be two different people. The mods/admin explained that they knew it was the same person because the same IP address was used both times.

CranMalReign

Brisk. wrote:

You have to pay for static ip's which you keep.

While this statement is true, it does not mean that the IP address binds to your machine for all time. All that means is you have a consistent, non-varying IP address on that particular network. Basically, as long your computer is using that ISP, you will have that IP address and no one else will. This is useful if you are doing things such as hosting web pages, FTP servers, etc. Your machine with your website/FTP/whatever can always be found since it always has the same address. In that case, if someone starts pulling crap using your IP address, you know you have a spoofing problem.

However, if you pick up your laptop and travel to Nantucket and use the hotel internet, you will still have a new IP address... whatever the hotel provides you on their network.

In summary, static IPs just mean every time you connect to your ISP, you have access to the same IP that no one else has access to, but there is no actual binding to your machine. If you get a new machine, the old static IP can route to it. If you take your old machine to another network, a new IP can route to it.

Ayedavanita

Thanks again!

Starfall

TravisTheSky wrote:

I was recently browsing a different forum. One of the members had apparently created a second membership for herself several months after her first. She was pretending to be two different people. The mods/admin explained that they knew it was the same person because the same IP address was used both times.

I used to do the same thing - I would always register two accounts, one for my normal use, and I would register my actual name to prevent someone else from taking it.

I never pretended to be anyone other than myself, though.