Is it true that each time you connect to the Internet, you connect with a DIFFERENT IP address?

Question

If so, then how can any company track your "IP" address if it changes each time you connect? Just curious.

Answer 1

Some of the previous answers are completely bogus.

Basically, you can be tracked by your IP no matter if it is static or dynamic. Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) logs connections in a way so individual customers are not easily identifiable. Usually this is sometype of internal ID matched to your IP address at that moment.

The ISP can track the IP that you had at any moment in time, back to your user account using their logs. They can divulge your identity and connection details if they are presented with appropriate court ordered search warrant from law enforcement.

Answer 2

Sometimes.

There are different ways that this can work, but I'll describe the most popular one.

IP addresses are tied to your MAC address (something hard-wired into your network card) by the system that assigns them and given a time limit, let's say a week. (It varies.) If your computer is off when that week is up, and someone else signs onto the system that IP is now "free" and they get it instead of you. Then when you turn on your computer again they get it instead of you. Then you turn on your computer, and you get assigned another one.

If you don't turn your computer off, you can keep the same IP for weeks, months, or even years.

As I said, there are other ways this is done. Sometimes you are assigned one and only one IP by your ISP and that's it. Sometimes a system called NAT is used and that is more complicated so I will not get into it here.

Regardless of how it's done though, the reason your activity can still be tracked is because your ISP simply logs who has what IP when.

So lets say you use a stolen credit card to do some online gambling. The police could call the gambling site and ask them what IP address did it. Then they call the ISP that owns that IP address and say "Hey, who was online with this IP at X date and Y time?" The ISP gives them your info, and presto.... you are busted.

There are ways around that. Most of them fail to totally hide your IP, but make it a lot harder to track down.

Sometimes though, it's as easy as doing your illegal activity while connected to an unsecured wireless router... or even a secured one cause they aren't that hard to crack. There are plenty of creative ways to do things using someone else's internet connection and thus that is usually the prefered method for not getting busted.

Edit: To the others answering, using dial-up does not guarantee it will change each time. Dial-up ISPs tend to have shorter IP leases but some have longer ones. Nothing about the type of connection determines this. It is entirely based on the ISPs IP lease policy.

Again, I'm amazed at the people answering who have no idea what they are talking about.

Edit #2: In fact, every single other person who has answered so far has at least one huge misconception about how it works. Belle is so far off the mark I can't imagine why she decided to attempt any sort of answer at all. Now this dude is gonna be confused because he has gotten entirely inconsistant answers. I have to think most of you are intentionally giving him wrong information for that reason alone. I'm looking at you Belle.

Answer 3

Yes, no and maybe. If you are using dial up then it will change every time. If you are using cable or DSL, it depends on how the ISP set it up. Some use an IP pool so that each time you log on you grab the next available number (like dial up does). This lets them have fewer IP addresses (they have to pay for them), but risk them running out of addresses. Others lease you the address for a length of time (usually 3-7 days). If you use that address during the lease, then it starts over and you keep it. If you do not use, it goes back into the pool and you are asigned a new one next time you log in. Still others assign them to a hardware address (called the MAC address) within the cable/DSL modem. That address never changes, nor does the IP assigned to it.

The way the Internet is going, the number of "permanent" connections has probably passed the number of "changing" ones. So while it is not perfect, it is still a good way for companies tracking you to do it. It works more often then it fails.

Answer 4

Most ISP's use dynamic IP addressing. So yes, each time you connect you are very likely to get a different IP address. As far as the "tracking", it depends on what you are meaning. If you are talking about haw a site can say "hello, " then that is usually done with a cookie (a small file) that is stored on your computer. If you are talking about how the record industry can track you back to your computer when you download a song illegally, well that is because the sites keep logs of what songs were downloaded to what IP address at what time. And the ISP's keep records of what IP address was assigned to who at any particular time. Basically you leave a trail of connection records behind you.

Answer 5

Yes & no.

Most of the numbers stay the same when you reconnect. High speed internet..DSL, cable, T-1, 2, 3, etc have the same basic numbers at the beginning. I've been on sites that show my IP address, taken a screen shot, closed my browser, reopened it, went to same site & did another screen shot & saw slightly different numbers. Some of the numbers were in a different order too.

Dialup is the only consistent IP address. No matter which company you use, it's the same address each time you connect. If you change dialup access, the numbers change & remain the same for each connection.

Answer 6

that varies based upon your connection type and your ip status. if you are on a dialup connection then yes your ip will be changed everytime you dial in and connect...if you are on a broadband connection (dsl/sat/cable) then your ip is either DHCP/Static. almost every single residential user has a dhcp ip as there is a limted number of ips and therefor not everyone can have their own ip. that being said with a dhcp ip your ip address will change however it varies based upon your provider and what their DHCP Lease is. Some have it set at 7 days, some at 4 some at every few hours, so it just depends. As well just because you have a DHCP does not mean that you will have a different ip at the end of every lease. You have a very good chance of having the same ip assigned to you at the end of your lease.

Now with the explanation of the ip changing down I will explain how a company can track you with a changing IP. Simple terms they can not. Except of course your ISP. Your ISP holds a log of every ip that you have been assigned with the date and times that the ip was assigned to you, so based upon their policies they can provide that information to various groups that request it (providing again they meet the ISPs policies on it which most require a court order but not all) and a company can track that way. As well the individual sites/companies you would be traveling to can trace your ip that is used to log into your account and they maintain a record of all ips per account. Hope this helps your understanding

Answer 7

That depends on your carrier, and your method of connection.

If you are dial-up, then generally the answer is YES, each time you connect, you get a different IP address. Dial-Up carriers only have a limited number of addresses assigned to them, and they rarely carry one for each customer. They will carry 1 for each phone line they support, and you will get the one associated with the phone you call in on. However, if you call in tomorrow and get a different phone line, you will probably have a different IP address.

If you have DSL, ADSL, or Cable Modem, then you are (generally) assigned a static IP adress by your provider. This is because they have to have as many IP addresses as customers - every customer has a direct connection to their central servers.

The IP address is only part of what identifies your computer. Your NIC also has a MAC address - that is, your computer hardware has it's own unique number identifying it. That's why 4 people in your house can share 1 high-speed line through a switch or router - each one is identified to the Internet by it's MAC address.

Both your IP address and your MAC address are required to positively identify which computer you are using on an Internet Connection.

Answer 8

It doesn't change every time you connect to the internet, therefore it can be tracked. You can pay money to get it changed, and there is one way that I know of to do it yourself. You can also pay for a service to "hide" your IP address.

Answer 9

I've heard AOL does that but most use a static IP address.

Answer 10

nope. you always have the same ip adress. your computer has a permenant ip from the beginning.