How do I change my IP address?

IP address is given by your ISP you can't do anything for it. Sometimes it's fixed, sometimes it changes everyday.

milkmustache said:

I read somewhere that Macs have there own unique identity so you can always be found out. Is this true? If so, where can one find this identity in an IP address?

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You probably mean the MAC address of your network interface; the acronym MAC has nothing to do with your Macintosh, it stands for Media Access Control. Every network interface ON THE PLANET has a unique MAC address, it's the foundation of network communication.

From what I understand you want to change your Global IP (The ip that a website server sees you as) and this isn't possible to do unless you phone up your ISP.

If you want to change your computer IP (the way the router sees you) then you just go through network preferences > Advanced >TCP/IP and instead of using DHCP, do DHCP with manual IP.

This is a similar problem to being flagged as a spammer because you have been given the IP address of a spammer that used it previously to send millions of junk messages. ISPs usually hand out temporary IP addresses unless you pay more for static IP service.

To check if you IP is fixed or not, switch off your router on the evening and check the day after if it's still the same IP.
I think it changes at every connection, or everyday. But more and more you get fixed IPs.

If using a wireless router, clone the router mac address to something different. Then reset your modem. Your isp will see it as a new device establishing a connection, and issue a new ip.

The IP address under system preferences>network>Advanced >TCP/IP, is your local IP in your home network and has nothing to do with the IP you are using in the internet.

Your MAC address has also nothing to do with your connection to the internet. It is your layer 2 address used by your router in order to build your home network.


If you want to see your public IP address which is used for your internet access, all you have to do is to go under your router's menu and find somewhere the getway info where your public IP address is appeared.

If you want to know if your public IP is static or dynamic you can simply log out from the internet by switching off and then swith on your router and check out the gateway info again. If the publuc IP has changed, you will definetelly use dynamic IP address assigned each time from your Internet service provider. Normally what you should get is dynamic IP unless you have a business connection from your provider.

milkmustache said:

GGJStudios: I have never been banned before. I was giving an example. You really are not helping me and I would appreciate other responses.

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he did help you. he just assumed you were banned from a site/game. if it was the case go somewhere else, they banned for a reason, don't try to circumnavigate

you can check if you have a static or dynamic IP address on your ISP's website or contact them. i know some game servers block the IP address range and so all your dynamic addresses are blocked too.

proxies can change your external IP… search -> Google

A website is impossible to ban a specific computer in the internet from having access, because the only almost unique element in this computer, which is the MAC address, is not accessible by this web site. Only your local router knows this address and nobody else outside in the Internet.

What a website usually bans is IP addresses. The most common case is when due to copyright restriction, a website bans a group of IP addresses coming from a specific country or specific service providers. There is no point to ban one specific IP address because as you can imagine it is easy to change this address either by dynamic routing or by connecting from another service provider. But still for such a groups of banned IPs, most of the times you can also bypass this ban by using proxy servers.

Maybe the case you are referring, concerns a banned registered account on this website and not a general access to the site.

When ban occurs, the user account is locked and the IP address is blocked.

At a forum I modded, we had wave after wave of spammers from a certain part of Russia, always coming from a certain subnet (that may not be the correct word... I'm not big on TCP/IP). We blocked wide ranges of IP addresses at a time because the first two or three sets of numbers of each spammer were always the same.

Maybe we were blocking major portions of eastern Europe at a time, I don't know, but it worked.

milkmustache said:

Thanks Melrose and Click.

So let me ask this. If your computer signs you on with different IP addresses everyday, what happened to the other IP address? Is it given to someone else? If so, I do not see anyone can definitely identify that it is you unless they go further and get a history from google or bing of all of your searches, email logons, etc...

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Mostly likely, any tracking, location-wise, would be done through your ISP; That's why when you go to some sites they have ads for things happening within 30 or so miles of where you live - or at least of where your ISP is located.

I never heard of IP addresses changing every time you go online. To me that doesn't sound likely - but again I don't know a lot about networking.

There are ways to obfuscate all that stuff, but you'll have to dig them up yourself.

internet service provider ... and is easy for people to see

ISP=Internet Service Provider, in other words is the company you pay for having access to the Internet.

Between your local router and any other webserver in the net hosting websites, there is always your ISP’s server in the middle where exchanging data are passing through. Your ISP gives you a unique IP address in order to have access to the Internet. Every ISP has bought a number of unique IP addresses, which are assigned to its customers. The total number of ones ISP’s customers is normally larger than the total number of the bought IP addresses. However statistically online customers never exceed the number of these IP addresses.

That's why ISP’s are using dynamic IP addresses, which change every time you go online. By doing this they save money since they do not need to buy additional IP addresses. When you are not online, your last used IP address is very probable to be assigned to someone else. But if for some reason you want static IP address (for instance you have a business) you can ask for a dedicated IP address from your ISP, but in that case it costs you more money.

milkmustache said:

If you were, for example, booted from a forum based on your IP address, is it possible to change it or can they still figure out it is you? Will changing the IP address allow you access to the forum again?

I read somewhere that Macs have there own unique identity so you can always be found out. Is this true? If so, where can one find this identity in an IP address?

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If you think it is your IP address that is blocked then simply try a proxy server or TOR or such like.


If you don't know what I am talking about use Google.

(And next time watch your Ps and Qs so you don't get booted off again and hopefully you're not breaking the law..)

P.S this should be in a different forum. e.g. networking.

I use Proxy Switchy plugin for Chrome to change my IPs when I need it.

Play with networksetup. -> https://developer.apple.com/library...n/Reference/ManPages/man8/networksetup.8.html

Remember to sudo any command.

Absolutely nothing will go wrong there that does not help the net at large. Be sure to come back and tell us how it went for you doing that. Problem solved.

KaraH said:

Play with networksetup. -> https://developer.apple.com/library...n/Reference/ManPages/man8/networksetup.8.html

Remember to sudo

Absolutely nothing will go wrong there that does not help the net at large. Be sure to come back and tell us how it went for you doing that. Problem solved.

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There are simpler was of changing a machines or routers IP address but if the block is at the ISP level won't help.

Using a proxy will (and has the other advantages that go along with it)

wackymacky said:

There are simpler was of changing a machines or routers IP address but if the block is at the ISP level won't help.

Using a proxy will (and has the other advantages that go along with it)

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*whoosh*

The fact that I said it would help the net at large just MIGHT have been a clue as to what I was doing about someone who wanted to get around an IP block from something. Technological darwinism in action.

KaraH said:

*whoosh*

The fact that I said it would help the net at large just MIGHT have been a clue as to what I was doing about someone who wanted to get around an IP block from something. Technological darwinism in action.

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Point taken.