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Questions about IP

JohnDS said:
Exactly, although 192.168.1.1 is usually the private IP address of the router. (The router has two IP addresses -- a public IP address to connect to the internet and a private IP address to connect to the devices on the internal LAN.)
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So the reason I have to set the DNS on my Mac to 192.168.1.1 before I go into my browser to administer my hot spot is because my hot spot/router has a private IP of 192.168.1.1?

Why is it that my MacBook was assigned 192.168.1.4 for instance? (I have no other devicess hooked up to my hot spot.)

BTW, is it "hot spot" or "hotspot"? :confused:
 
OldMarketMeg said:
So the reason I have to set the DNS on my Mac to 192.168.1.1 before I go into my browser to administer my hot spot is because my hot spot/router has a private IP of 192.168.1.1?

Why is it that my MacBook was assigned 192.168.1.4 for instance? (I have no other devicess hooked up to my hot spot.)

BTW, is it "hot spot" or "hotspot"? :confused:
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Good questions. Yes, that's correct, because the DNS system is distributed (with multiple central authorities) - your router will inevitably know better what IP address "forums.macrumors.com" resolves to than your computer will, because it's connected to other routers that have been there before. And even if that fails, a lookup can happen at one of the central servers, which SOME router will know how to reach.

As for your second question, that's because of DHCP (dynamic host configuration protocol). This technique allows computers that connect to a network of any kind to automatically obtain an unused IP address in the DHCP address pool. Its size can be configured at the router level. A typical configuration works something like this: Router takes 192.168.1.1 for itself, and allows 192.168.1.2 through 192.168.1.255 to be assigned to any devices that connect to it. The way this works is somewhat interesting. Think of it as a conversation:

Computer: I need an IP address.
Router: I am offering IP addresses. 192.168.1.4 is currently unused, will you accept it?
Computer: I accept my IP assignment.
Router: It's yours now (until the lease expires, anyway).

Finally, regarding wireless hotspots: I actually don't know. :oops: Both might be correct / in use...
 
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Okay, thanks for all of the information so far, everyone! :apple:

Now tying today's conversation with my research yesterday...

So I ran DoILeak's test last night on Firefox and Chrome and it says that I am leaking. (I will leave out some info so one of you doesn't show up at my door step asking for supper!) :p

In Chrome...

RequestIP: <IP showing in my VPN client>

DNS Request Source: <IP showing in my VPN client>

SSL Traffic: <IP showing in my VPN client>

WWebRTC IP Leak: 10.xx.xx.xx 192.168.1.xx


Please help me figure out what all of this is saying!


To me, this says that my VPN is acting as my outward facing (i.e. Public) IP address.

It also appears that my DNS lookup for "forums.macrumors.com" is going through my VPN provider and thus isn't public

It appears that any SSL traffic is also going through my VPN

But that last line looks really bad as it maakes it appear that 10.xx.xx.xx 192.168.1.xx aas if I had no VPN on at all?! :eek:
 
10.xx.xx.xx and 192.168.1.xx are both private IP addresses, so if they leak, who cares? They are not routable over the internet.
 
Copy and paste this line into terminal and hit return:

curl ipecho.net/plain ; echo
 
JohnDS said:
Copy and paste this line into terminal and hit return:

curl ipecho.net/plain ; echo
Click to expand...

That's just going to a website... :p
[doublepost=1482876652][/doublepost]Why is it that when I went to the first 6 "What is my IP" websites in Google search that the 1st and 5th IPs matched and the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 6th matched, but there were ultimately two different IPs?

I assume that the IP on my hot spot should remain the same for quite some period of time, right? And the fact the last two octets?? changed back and forth is weird...) :confused:
 
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Old Market Meg, is this additional thread (since you have another one out there about network connectivity) also to help you write your "paper" on changing DNS?
 
phrehdd said:
Old Market Meg, is this additional thread (since you have another one out there about network connectivity) also to help you write your "paper" on changing DNS?
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I don't recall what "other" thread I have...

I am asking these questions, because when I was reading up on DNS I found this site DoILeak.com and it made me realize that I don't understand how IP addresses work, so hear I am trying to piece things together.

And I am not writing a paper, I am writing a guide on Macs, but that is aside to this thread.

Why do you ask?
 
OldMarketMeg said:
I don't recall what "other" thread I have...

I am asking these questions, because when I was reading up on DNS I found this site DoILeak.com and it made me realize that I don't understand how IP addresses work, so hear I am trying to piece things together.

And I am not writing a paper, I am writing a guide on Macs, but that is aside to this thread.

Why do you ask?
Click to expand...

It was just a simple question if you are collecting the info you need for your guide on "changing DNS for safe surfing." Are the answers here helping?
 
phrehdd said:
It was just a simple question if you are collecting the info you need for your guide on "changing DNS for safe surfing." Are the answers here helping?
Click to expand...

If someone could answer my unanswered question in post #34 that is what would help.
[doublepost=1482939612][/doublepost]
satcomer said:
In MacOS just fire up /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app and run the command for the man page:

man networksetup

This will show all the command to see/ change the IPs on MacOS.
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Why would my IP address be different when I checked it on different IP lookup websites>
 
OldMarketMeg said:
Why would my IP address be different when I checked it on different IP lookup websites>
Click to expand...

What websites? I tried a few random ones and got the same answer each time. Presumably, WAN facing IP addresses are likely to be assigned via DHCP (see post #27) and thus can change if the lease runs out. Unless you're using a static IP assigned to you by your service provider (which is unusual), you have no control over the IP that your router or hot-spot or WAN-facing device gets, nor do you care what it is.

Unless you are going to make a serious effort to include an Internet networking tutorial in your guide, I have a feeling that you might be falling down a rabbit hole. I will very tentatively suggest that you might do better to find one or two really good tutorials on Internet networking and protocols and refer to them instead of trying to do it yourself. Then, your guide can focus on the mechanics of how to set things up on the Mac, and leave the concept stuff to someone else. Unfortunately, I don't know of any good tutorial, but I've never looked; does anyone have a suggestion or two? I know how I would want to go about presenting such a thing myself, but it would be more than a few minutes worth of work :) and I have other things that I am supposed to be doing for my employer!
 
Ah, sorry, I misunderstood. I think my suggestion of finding a good network tutorial stands, though, if someone can suggest one, and that might help you understand your situation.
 
OldMarketMeg said:
Why would my IP address be different when I checked it on different IP lookup websites>
Click to expand...

Probably because your hotspot provider is using a dynamic IP address. So each time the hotspot starts it may or may not be assigned a different IP from a pool used by the provider.
 
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Weaselboy said:
Probably because your hotspot provider is using a dynamic IP address. So each time the hotspot starts it may or may not be assigned a different IP from a pool used by the provider.
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I went into Google and typed "Find my IP", and then I went to the first six listings in Google and wrote down what each website told me.

As mentioned in post #34, websites #1 and #5 gave me one IP address for my hotspot, and websites #2, #3, #4, and $6 gave me a different IP address for my hotspot.

I did this in a matter of 60 seconds, so this is not a DHCP issue.

I am just trying to really understand how IPs work, and this thread is becoming fragmented. :(
 
OldMarketMeg said:
I went into Google and typed "Find my IP", and then I went to the first six listings in Google and wrote down what each website told me.

As mentioned in post #34, websites #1 and #5 gave me one IP address for my hotspot, and websites #2, #3, #4, and $6 gave me a different IP address for my hotspot.

I did this in a matter of 60 seconds, so this is not a DHCP issue.

I am just trying to really understand how IPs work, and this thread is becoming fragmented. :(
Click to expand...
Hmmm... yeah if you did it back to back without restarting the hotspot, it should still be in the same IP.

When you start seeing the different IP on say site #2, then go back to #1, what do you see?
 
Weaselboy said:
Hmmm... yeah if you did it back to back without restarting the hotspot, it should still be in the same IP.

When you start seeing the different IP on say site #2, then go back to #1, what do you see?
Click to expand...

As you can imagine, I don't want to post my IP here, however this should give you an idea...

Code: 
xxx.yy.123.78

xxx.yy.45.99

xxx.yy.45.99

xxx.yy.45.99

xxx.yy.123.78

xxx.yy.45.99

This was all within 60 seconds with no changes to the hotspot or my Mac.

You would assume that "You get what you pay for" and that some of these websites are wacked, but since I am trying to learn how IPs work, I figured I better point this out! ;)
[doublepost=1482946894][/doublepost]In Google...

what is my ip

xxx.yyy.222.333


http://whatismyipaddress.com/
xxx.yyy.88.99

https://www.iplocation.net/find-ip-address
xxx.yyy.222.333

https://www.ip-secrets.com
xxx.yyy.222.333

https://www.whatismyip.com/
xxx.yyy.222.333

http://whatismyip.org/
xxx.yyy.88.99

http://mxtoolboxxx.com/whatismyip/
xxx.yyy.222.333


That makes absolutely no sense to me. This second test was after a MacBook reboot and a hotspot reboot.

Can someone explain what is going on?
 
Those all show the same IP for me, so I'm just guessing it is something odd your hotspot provider is doing with regard to IP allocation and routing that may be fooling these sites.
 
What sort of hotspot are you talking about here? I'd expect this sort of thing if you were running a dual-homed router with multiple ISP's, but I can't think offhand of another way you would see this. Is it possible that you have two different routes to the Internet running simultaneously? (wired to a home router and wifi to a phone hotspot, let's say.)

I also only get one IP from all of those sites.
 
Weaselboy said:
Those all show the same IP for me, so I'm just guessing it is something odd your hotspot provider is doing with regard to IP allocation and routing that may be fooling these sites.
Click to expand...


So how do I know which IP is my hotspot's "real" IP?
[doublepost=1482950939][/doublepost]
kschendel said:
What sort of hotspot are you talking about here? I'd expect this sort of thing if you were running a dual-homed router with multiple ISP's, but I can't think offhand of another way you would see this. Is it possible that you have two different routes to the Internet running simultaneously? (wired to a home router and wifi to a phone hotspot, let's say.)

I also only get one IP from all of those sites.
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I have an AT&T hotspot that I bought so I always have Internet when I travel and so I don't have to use free wi-fi which is more susceptible to hackers It is about 2" x 3".

I also have a MacBook Pro.

Those are the only two devices involved as far as this thread is concerned.

I don't mean to be a pain asking all of these details, but I am trying to learn how all of this stuff works to make me a smarter computer user! :)
 
OldMarketMeg said:
So how do I know which IP is my hotspot's "real" IP?
Click to expand...

Well, they are both "real" at that moment in time, or that web site would not work. What I am saying is it may be something odd upstream with the way AT&T is routing traffic to that hotspot. You might call them and ask.
 
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