My IP address and a new router.

I bought a new laptop and a wireless router. Will this change my IP address? More importantly, will freebie sites think I am logging in from a different location?

[quotedae9fd1590="double_d"]I bought a new laptop and a wireless router. Will this change my IP address? More importantly, will freebie sites think I am logging in from a different location?[/quotedae9fd1590]

No, as far as I know. Your IP address is assigned to you be your ISP and not by your computer/router.

I think your fine too. As long as you use the same cable modem to connect to the router, it shouldn't change.

Yep, I'm using the same ISP and cable modem.

Your IP is assigned and held by MAC Address unless you have a statis IP. So yes if you connect a new router or new computer you will have a new IP. That shouldn't matter to the freesites though as the IP will be from the same IP range.

IP addresses are assigned dynamically to the modem. And they will change anyway -- unless you get a static IP, your cable/DSL IP will always change. Lease times vary, most change every few days to few weeks. Almost all will change on a power cycle. My DSL IP changes about every 2 weeks if the modem doesn't power cycle, or the connection doesn't drop.

My point is, most likely your IP has changed several times already since you started doing freebie sites. Don't sweat it. This is also the reason that freebie sites can't put a lot of stock in people's IP's changing. As long as your new IP is from the same ISP or geographical area, you should be fine. If any site has a problem with dynamic IP's (and I've never heard of one who did), then they're quite unprofessional, not to mention ignorant of how residential internet service works. Either way, not a site to do business with.

I think the bigger point here is that logging into one account via multiple IPs isn't a problem...logging into multiple accounts with one IP is where the problem lies. I log onto my premiumipod account at home, and here at work all the time. Tell me if its different for other sites?

[quote5ac3407862="dmorris68"]IP addresses are assigned dynamically to the modem. And they will change anyway -- unless you get a static IP, your cable/DSL IP will always change. Lease times vary, most change every few days to few weeks. Almost all will change on a power cycle. My DSL IP changes about every 2 weeks if the modem doesn't power cycle, or the connection doesn't drop.

My point is, most likely your IP has changed several times already since you started doing freebie sites. Don't sweat it. This is also the reason that freebie sites can't put a lot of stock in people's IP's changing. As long as your new IP is from the same ISP or geographical area, you should be fine. If any site has a problem with dynamic IP's (and I've never heard of one who did), then they're quite unprofessional, not to mention ignorant of how residential internet service works. Either way, not a site to do business with.[/quote5ac3407862]

That is not how cable providers work. Maybe DSL but I'm not too sure. IPs are tied to you mac address not your modem. Yes some companies force IP lease to expire but new hardware will force you to get a new one too. Not that it matters because the sites aren't going to DQ your for that. I change mine all the time and no one has ever said anything.

You can easily test this if you don't believe me.

Disconnect/turn off your cable modem from your pc or router. If your nic card allows you to spoof your mac address you can change it there. If not most routers allow you to. They normally have options to use the same as your computers nic card or input your own. Once you have changed it on either reconnect your modem and power it on. Check your IP you will have a new one. And no it's not because your turned your cable modem off because lease times vary. You can test that by turning it back on before you change MAC address, you will still have the same one.

I have had Comcast, Cox, and RR and they all work this way. I have forced an IP change many, many of times. The router on their end keeps the IP map tied to your mac address, change your MAC and it thinks your a new user/pc so it issues you a new IP. I am CCNA certified but it's been awhile since I took the test so don't quote me too much.

Actually without getting into the whole history of the internet, that was the purpose of MAC addresses.

[quote625977f599="ronmm"][quote625977f599="dmorris68"]IP addresses are assigned dynamically to the modem. And they will change anyway -- unless you get a static IP, your cable/DSL IP will always change. Lease times vary, most change every few days to few weeks. Almost all will change on a power cycle. My DSL IP changes about every 2 weeks if the modem doesn't power cycle, or the connection doesn't drop.

My point is, most likely your IP has changed several times already since you started doing freebie sites. Don't sweat it. This is also the reason that freebie sites can't put a lot of stock in people's IP's changing. As long as your new IP is from the same ISP or geographical area, you should be fine. If any site has a problem with dynamic IP's (and I've never heard of one who did), then they're quite unprofessional, not to mention ignorant of how residential internet service works. Either way, not a site to do business with.[/quote625977f599]

That is not how cable providers work. Maybe DSL but I'm not too sure. IPs are tied to you mac address not your modem. Yes some companies force IP lease to expire but new hardware will force you to get a new one too. Not that it matters because the sites aren't going to DQ your for that. I change mine all the time and no one has ever said anything.

You can easily test this if you don't believe me.

Disconnect/turn off your cable modem from your pc or router. If your nic card allows you to spoof your mac address you can change it there. If not most routers allow you to. They normally have options to use the same as your computers nic card or input your own. Once you have changed it on either reconnect your modem and power it on. Check your IP you will have a new one. And no it's not because your turned your cable modem off because lease times vary. You can test that by turning it back on before you change MAC address, you will still have the same one.

I have had Comcast, Cox, and RR and they all work this way. I have forced an IP change many, many of times. The router on their end keeps the IP map tied to your mac address, change your MAC and it thinks your a new user/pc so it issues you a new IP. I am CCNA certified but it's been awhile since I took the test so don't quote me too much.

Actually without getting into the whole history of the internet, that was the purpose of MAC addresses.[/quote625977f599]
I'm not disagreeing with you, but I think we're arguing from 2 different directions or something. What I described is exactly how cable companies work that use DHCP to issue IP addresses -- it isn't a cable issue, it's a DHCP issue. The original poster was expressing concern over his IP changing, and I was merely pointing out that his IP has already changed numerous times (in all likelyhood). Unless you have a static IP, your cable IP will change over time, although lease times certainly vary widely from provider to provider.

Your argument seems to be related to forcing an IP change, which wasn't the subject of this thread or my post. Of course all endpoint ethernet equipment is identified by MAC, whether cable or DSL modem. And DHCP tracks IP's by MAC, as you said. Changing MAC's to get a new IP works on DSL equipment same as cable or anything else.

IP leasing is a DHCP function and has nothing to do with either DOCSIS (cable) or ATM (DSL) standards, which are at a lower level on the network stack. If your cable company uses DHCP to assign addresses (and virtually all do that I know of), lease times are determined by the DHCP configuration. DHCP tracks leases by MAC address, but if a lease time is configured then it overrides and causes a new IP to be generated at lease expiration. Charter, our local cable company, assigns IP's by DHCP and they certainly do expire and IP's get changed -- you do not keep the same IP just because your MAC never changes. That was my point. ) DHCP can certainly be configured to never expire leases as well as to use static mappings (something I do on my internal DHCP server), but then that kinda defeats the purpose of dynamic address assignment -- you may as well assign a static IP.

Oh, and one thing many cable companies do that DSL providers usually don't, is bind your account to a single MAC on the client end. If your backend router or PC changes, your cable modem no longer issues an IP and you have to call the cableco to give them the new MAC. Which sucks if you move around between a lot of equipment like I do. Another reason I don't like cable (and another being the usual prohibition on running servers).

But all of that has nothing to do with the OP's question and the point I was making about how his IP address has likely changed many times already, due to DHCP lease expiration.

Now that we've bored all the non-techies to tears, we can move on... )