Seems I have a stalker on here

Anyway, Eagle kindly PM'd me the IP details as it appears this Canestan chap is posting from the same IP as me!

How the feck is this possible?

Here's what Eagle sent me;

IP address for this post
8x.xx.xxx.xx1 [ 2 Posts ] [ Look up IP address ]

Users posting from this IP address
Thrush [ 28 Posts ]

Canesten [ 2 Posts ]

So, how is this working?

I have three PC's hooked into a router modem, hooked into ADSL.

I entered the IP address into IE and it took me to the router settings page (which needs password and username, both of which only I have).

On that page I get this;

WAN
IP = 8x.xx.xxx.xx1
Subnet Mask = xxx.x.x.x
MAC Address = some random numbers

LAN
IP = xx.x.x.x
Subnet Mask = xxx.x.x.x (same as WAN subnet)
MAC address = same as WAN MAC, cept for one number

Total Number of Lan Interfaces: 1

Number of ethernet devices connected to the DHCP server: 3

IP Address
1 xx.x.x.xx
2 xx.x.x.xx
3 xx.x.x.x

All the IP's there are unique and not the same as any others.

So, I know no-one has been posting from my machine as I was on it both times "Canestan" posted on the BB.... How is someone posting from my IP address? Could it be one of the other machines hooked into my router?

Als, I don't get why the IP that is in question is coming up in my router settings as the WAN Ip - I don't have a Wireless Area Network, only LAN using cat5 cable PC's. I don't even have a wireless card or transmitter in the house...

Lastly, Eagle also sent me a LONG list of IP address I have posted from - some that have a few hundred posts at, some only a dozen or less. Now I have only accessed PF from a dozen or so different PC's - so how come so many IP's????

 

i dont think WAN is wireless summit like wide area network or the network outside of your router ie the local BT or NTL network

 

Okay..... So whats the deal with this IP address then? Do all three of my PC's have individual IP's to identify each one, but when accessing the net they use the same gateway IP or something?

And how come I have so many of the fooker - the list Eagle PM's me shows about a hundred IP's from the past to date that I have posted from - and I only use two of my home PC's for PF, along with a couple of PC's at work, and at a couple of mates houses..... Certainly not 100+ !!!!!

 

Easy way to check...

From each of the machines, go to http://www.whatismyip.co.uk. It will tell you the IP the "internet" believes your connection is originating from. Then, go to each of your machines, go to Start -> Run and type in cmd, press return. At the command-prompt which should appear, type in the following to find out each computer's actual IP address: ipconfig

If the IP you see on WhatIsMyIP is different from the one you see using IPConfig, then it's likely that your router is the only IP that gets displayed to the internet. Additional to this, if IPConfig gives you an IP that starts with either 192.168.xxx.xxx or 172.(16-31).xxx.xxx or 10.anything, then your machines are on a private IP-address behind the router.

So, in most cases, the answer to your question of "Do all three of my PC's have individual IP's to identify each one, but when accessing the net they use the same gateway IP or something?" would be Yes......every single public-facing device on the internet has a unique IP address (if you are using private IP-addresses for your computers, the router would be your public-facing device - if this is the case, your gateway IP will be the router, which will also show up in IPConfig).

The PF logs showing multiple IPs means your connection is likely using a dynamic IP address system (ie. every time you connect to the internet, a different IP address is assigned to your router by your ISP, from a pool of available addresses). So, the logs would show quite a long list of IP addresses, as each time you connect to the internet, you'll be given a different IP address.

Unless post-timings show that both of you were online at the same time, I'd say it's just a case of you both using the same ISP, and you've had the massively-improbable "luck" of Canesten being assigned an old IP address you were once assigned in the past.

And, to answer another query, WAN = Wide (not Wireless) Area Network, it's just another name for the internet......LAN (Local Area Network) is anything your side of the router (hence "local"), WAN is anything the "other" side of the router (ie. through the phone-cable)

 

Dan - that makes a LOT of sense - thank you!

 

No worries!