Public IP Adresses

[-Demosthenes-]

A ISP said they'd throw in a public ip address. As I said in the irc room last night I lock a fundimental understanding of the internet (I swear quest said we'd get 4 megabits, never downloaded past 1.3 or ~170 kilobytes per second ). Anyway, what is a public ip address for and why does it sound so cool?

[Klaynos]

Everyone connected to the internet has a public IP address (they may have ment a static one which does not change on reconnections). It is the internet adress of your computer, so when you say to a server "Hey I want x file" the server sends that file to your IP.

 

Public just means it's your internet IP, not your IP on your LAN.

 

Please note this is VERY VERY simplified, to the point of being wrong.

 

See:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_address

[5614]

What Klaynos said is basically right. It's like your computer's house number, is the analogy I like to give. So saying that they're giving you a Public IP is like when you buy a house being told that you will get a house number.

 

The analogy breaks down though, as two people can have the same house number, no two Public IPs can be the same. A better analogy would be the address or fingerprint of a computer. A unique identification number.

 

As Klaynos suggested there are slightly different types of Public IP. Ones which change every time you restart your Internet connection, and those which are the same forever. This might have been what they're advertising, although it's really nothing to show off about.

 

If you want more detail about how IPs work within a LAN (Local Area Network), in simple terms, then just ask!

[Dak]

i'd be inclined to assume this is the isp companies going 'lol, look at how little people know about the interweb, lets take the piss'.

 

like... i think it's BT... who offer 'wireless compatable broadband'.

 

like you'd have to phone up your isp and say 'excuse me, could we upgrade our broadband so that we can make a wireless local network?'

 

so yeah, maybe it's that. 'buy the internet from us -- now with free public IP adress'

 

if it was AOL, it may have meant public proxy? ie, a proxy server that all local AOL customers can use, so you can't track someone by IP (as any IP you use will also be used by lots of other AOL customers), allowing you, for example, to vandalise wikipedia without your IP being banned.

[5614]

Yeah, I agree, 3 letters... dude, doesn't sounds the same as 4nums does it!? So yeah, I agree, Dak!

 

Not that anyone would ever vandalise wiki!

 

'wireless compatable broadband', I hadn't seen that one, but it's such a joke. How little some people know and how far that is exploited by companies. There's probably people phoning BT saying "my service isnt called wireless compatable but I want wireless network, help", and I mean, tbh, it's quite sad.

 

I can't belive an ISP would actually advertise an IP addy, but then I wouldn't have believed that BT one either...

[Aeternus]

Although unlikely (given that this is a home connection and you'd never really use a second IP), it could be that they allow you to be assigned another ip address for your own use (an IP is not infact unique to a computer, or strangely enough even to a network interface), so you could use that other IP for various things (often it can be useful for having multiple webservers or various other services).

 

Or again, although unlikely, it could be that they are rolling out IPv6 across their network and they are informing you that you are being assigned an IPv6 IP and won't have to use one of the various 6-to-4 gateways.

 

The other explanations are more likely, but I just thought I'd list a few more possibilities.

[Dak]

4nums. hehehe.

 

hmm... i may have been a bit harsh on bt...

 

i was googling to see if it was 'wireless compatable broadband', or the less cheaky (but still misleading) 'wireless broadband', when -- lo and behold -- i found this

 

so... maybe not so cheaky afterall.

[Klaynos]

54 hotspots in my city, that's about 1 per 2000 people!

 

It could always be that their normal terms and conditions don't allow you to use a wifi network, so their wireless compatible one would

[-Demosthenes-]

They said it would be good if I was a gamer ???

[JesuBungle]

That would definately be a good thing for gaming. With my setup, I have to forward idk how many ports just to be able to host a game server. Kinda wish I had a public IP.

 

EDIT: Static IP that is. My bad : /

[-Demosthenes-]

So it was probably a static ip address. That makes more sense

[Klaynos]

That would definately be a good thing for gaming. With my setup, I have to forward idk how many ports just to be able to host a game server. Kinda wish I had a public IP.

 

EDIT: Static IP that is. My bad : /

 

 

 

You'd still need to forward the ports.

 

Statics have their advantages, but they do oc mean your movements around the web can be monitored alot more easily.

[5614]

Yep, you still need to forward ports.

 

Regarding static IPs, from a gamers point of view:

 

Advantages

1) Were you to host a server your IP would always be the same, people would know and recognise it as, hopefully, a good server. It also means that if you want to invite someone to your server you know your IP, without having to check it (although that does only take 2 seconds).

2) If a game's tracking system worked by IP and your IP kept changing then the game couldn't track you personally as you would keep playing under different IPs, it couldn't properly track you unless there was an IP-independant login system.

 

Disads

1) If you get banned (usually occurs by your IP) then you're stuck. Whereas if you could change your IP you could get around the ban.

2) It's easy to track you. Everyone knows that your IP is your IP, you can't change it, it identifies you.

 

To be honest though, with the growth of broadband and 24/7 connections many people have a dynamic IP which they never change, so it seems like a static IP. So for example my dynamic IP only changes when I reset the router. I do this occasionally to save settings, however the average person doesn't change their router settings, they do not reset it either. So although their IP could, in theory, change (it is dynamic) as they are always connected and never reset their connection, their IP remains the same and seems as if it is static. A dynamic IP only changes when you reset the connection.