Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Can my IP Address be used by someone else?

N

needananswer

macrumors newbie
Original poster
My IP address has shown up in an email from another person, can someone please tell me how this can happen
 
Last edited:
technically no, but thats granted others dont have access to your network, as your IP address is provided to you by your ISP.
 
is there any way my IP address can be used by someone else, it has shown up on emails sent to another person
 
If your IP address is a dynamic IP address provided by your service provider, then yes there is a chance that someone else can get the IP.

Keep in mind that only one network device(ex; computer) can have the IP address at any one point in time.

Cheers!
 
basher said:
If your IP address is a dynamic IP address provided by your service provider, then yes there is a chance that someone else can get the IP.
Click to expand...
Yes, someone can find out what the IP address is, but they can't use it for anything. It only identifies the computer that it belongs to.
 
needananswer said:
My IP address has shown up in an email from another person, can someone please tell me how this can happen
Click to expand...

It depends which IP address you mean.

If it's your LAN IP address - the IP of your computer on your home network - then it's very likely that someone else will have that same IP. If you've got a home network, and it's based off a router using default settings, then chances are you've got an IP like 192.168.0.2 or 192.168.1.10. That's because the routers are factory configured to provide those IPs to any device you connect to them (they're ones used by the Netgear and Belkin routers I've used, other brands may differ). So for example, anyone with a Netgear router using default settings is probably using 192.168.0.n addresses. This is possible because they're only used on your home network - they're not attached to the internet. All the internet sees is the WAN IP address of your router, not your computer.

If it is your WAN IP address (the one you see when you go to www.whatismyip.com) then this could be because you have a dynamic IP address. If your ISP issues dynamic IPs (in the UK it's quite common, don't know about elsewhere) then you could easily have different IPs every time you connect; which would also mean that someone else will get your IP at some point (as you would theirs).

Those are the two most likely ways to see your IP somewhere else - does that help?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back