IP address

Snow_Bunny

Hello,

could somebody please advise me on the IP addresses. If you have several computers at home, does it mean they all have same IP address or different? It looks like the same and I always assumed they should be different! Does it depend on the router in your home?

Marty_J

They'll all have the same IP on the internet, but a different IP on your home's network.

Lokolo

The IP address for the interet will be the same (unless you have numerous telephone lines).
Your network IP address will be different for each computer connected.

Usually network IPs are like this:

192.168.2.1 is the router
192.168.2.2+ computers

Depends on the make and model though.

Snow_Bunny

Thank you for your answers! The reason I'm asking is that I -very rarely but still do- enter competitions from my son's pc (when the rules say "one entry per houshold") to double the chances. So I was wondering if the promoters see same IP address or different? What do you think?

john_s_2

The way I understand all this...

Your ISP will issue you with an IP number when you connect. Sometimes this will always be the same number - this is called a Fixed IP address. But most ISPs will issue you with a different one each time (Dynamic IP addresses or something like that).

This number applies to your connection. If you use a Router to connect to the net then it is your Router that 'divvies' out the connection to your multiple computers (and your Router also allocates them a separate IP address, but that number is known only to your Router and each PC). As far as your ISP is concerned all internet activity on your connection (ie between your Router and them) is one and the same. They cannot determine whether it is being carried out by one computer or ten computers.

In other words, there is one IP address that handles the connection from your Router to your ISP, and different IP addresses that handle the connections from your Router to your PCs.

An analogy would be when we receive our online groceries. Sainsbury's are the ISP and the shopping is the internet traffic. My wife is the Router. She divvies out the goodies to me and the kids (I get the tobacco, the kids get the chocolate milkshakes).

Erm... I'm sure I've got a few details wrong but that's how I understand it anyway. And I'm sure there's better analogies as well!

Marty_J

Snow_Bunny wrote: »

Thank you for your answers! The reason I'm asking is that I -very rarely but still do- enter competitions from my son's pc (when the rules say "one entry per houshold") to double the chances. So I was wondering if the promoters see same IP address or different? What do you think?

Another computer on the internet will see the entries as coming from the same IP. They might not check the IP at all; I would imagine looking at the address you enter would be an easier way of doing it. If they don't ask for an address, they might be looking for entries with the same email address.

Anyhow, if you want to win, it's probably a good idea not to break the rules.

john_s_2

Snow_Bunny wrote: »

I -very rarely but still do- enter competitions from my son's pc (when the rules say "one entry per houshold") to double the chances. So I was wondering if the promoters see same IP address or different? What do you think?

Hmmm... others answered while I was waffling.

I would say it's unlikely they'd bother checking as it's so easy to get round. Every time you disconnect from the net (and with a router this means your router disconnecting, which you can do simply by turning it off and on, although you can also do it through its control panel) your ISP will issue you with a new IP address. So long as you don't have a Fixed IP address that I mentioned. Which would be very unlikely as it's cheaper for ISPs to allocate you a new number each time (they have less numbers to dish out than they do customers, and I'm sure there's other reasons as well). Some ISPs will issue a fixed IP address but will usually charge extra for the privilege.

For this reason it's unlikely that they'd use this to check. As you could claim it must have been someone else who'd been allocated your number at a later date. Although if the entries were only minutes apart you'd have to agree it would be stretching the bounds of possibility somewhat.

Mind you, the conditions of the competition are that only one entry per household is allowed so giving this advice should not be taken to be condoning what you're doing ;-)

Snow_Bunny

Marty_J wrote: »

Anyhow, if you want to win, it's probably a good idea not to break the rules.

Yep, you are right. And less bother! Thank you all very much again!

totalsolutions

Snow_Bunny wrote: »

Thank you for your answers! The reason I'm asking is that I -very rarely but still do- enter competitions from my son's pc (when the rules say "one entry per houshold") to double the chances. So I was wondering if the promoters see same IP address or different? What do you think?

You are a cheat, Sir

Snow_Bunny

Ho-ho :-) I am not alone- I must assure you.
That's just some promoters say that they will see straight away that entries were sent from the same IP address. I quite naively assumed that 2 pcs mean different IP addresses.

Antispam

Most ISPs use a dynamic IP address to connect on net, they can change every time you connect. Some ISP's provide static IP address which is the same all the time, the helps if you run a server at home for a web site etc or want to connect from another pc in another location using some software to control that pc at home using program like realvnc I run that on my server

Your router will have its own IP address as mentioned above
each pc them connects to that router at home with a dynamic ip addrees or you can set each one up to use a static IP address, however that is a different address from when you conenct on net and you can be traced static IP address is more easier to trace dynamic IP address many other users could us that IP address during teh course of the day if you disconnect and then reconnect