Questions about IP

[phrehdd]

1) you need to understand how your computer's IP addressed is assigned (why that octet if (IPv4)).
2) you need to understand how hot spots work and in general, about subnet masks and gateways.
4) you might want to further investigate creating super subnets and what they are and why are they used
5) you may want to understand the limitation of trying to search externally for internal IP addresses and why it fails
6) external searches may be inconsistent given the total path to the end point (router at the hotspot) and the tool or command used.


Perhaps going to youtube and look up both "Network+" and "Security+" (CompTIA certifications) as there are plenty of free lessons there that include indirect discussion of the above.

 

[OldMarketMeg]

When I ran DoILeak's test, I get these results...

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

Based on what has been said so far, can we go over the line bolded above and the supposed leak?

1.) I think it was said above that 192.168.1.xx cannot be seen by the outside work, right?

2.) And I think it was said above that 10.xx.xx.xx cannot be seen by the outside work, right?

 

[kschendel]

Neither 192.168.1.xx nor 10.xx.xx.xx are routable, so yes they are private and mean nothing on the general internet.

A rough analogy might be to compare your full shipping address, which presumably is complete enough to find you no matter where a package is sent from, to the address "Third door on the left". I can put that address on a package and drop it into the mail, but it won't go anywhere useful. It might however mean something in the interoffice mail.

 

[OldMarketMeg]

Neither 192.168.1.xx nor 10.xx.xx.xx are routable, so yes they are private and mean nothing on the general internet.

A rough analogy might be to compare your full shipping address, which presumably is complete enough to find you no matter where a package is sent from, to the address "Third door on the left". I can put that address on a package and drop it into the mail, but it won't go anywhere useful. It might however mean something in the interoffice mail.

Very good analogy! +5

So lets do a recap...

1.) My MacBook has an IP address and I can find that in Terminal by typing ipconfig getifaddr en1

This IP is in the format of 192.168.1.xx

It is private

It is of use to my hotspot (router), but useless (and non-identifieable) to the outside world


2.) My hotspot has a public IP address and I can get that (sorta) by going online to one of those "What's my IP address" websites.

xxx.yyy.zz.aa


3.) My hotspot also has a private IP address that came up in the DoILeak website.

10.xx.xx.xx

It is private

It apparently serves some purpose _______, however it is useless (and non-identifieable) to the outside world.


How does that sound?

 

[JohnDS]

Are you using any sort of a proxy, VPN or anonymizer?

 

[OldMarketMeg]

Are you using any sort of a proxy, VPN or anonymizer?

I have a VPN, but when I checked my IP above it was off.

 

[JohnDS]

What happens if you try those sites using a different browser, say Firefox or Chrome instead of Safari, or Safari instead whatever you were using?

 

[OldMarketMeg]

What happens if you try those sites using a different browser, say Firefox or Chrome instead of Safari, or Safari instead whatever you were using?

Same discrepancy in FireFox and Chrome.

 

[mfram]

If you are using an AT&T hotspot, then we're talking a mobile network. In that case, there are lots of layers of routing and NAT (network address translation) going on within the AT&T network before your packets ever hit the real, public Internet where they need a public address. Even your hotspot on the "Internet" side has been given a private address within the AT&T network. Your hotspot itself doesn' have a public, routable address directly assigned to it. As long as you are using your device as a "client" (game, web browser, et.), then this isn't a big deal. Your computer and your hotspot has no public IP address.

All this would make more sense to you if you were connecting your computer to a router on a land-line based ISP where they are handing you a real, public IP address. But modern mobile networks don't do that. There are too many mobile devices out there to give them all public IP addresses. And mobile devices usually use the Internet in such a way that they only need access to a public IP address long enough to transfer information from a server on the Internet.

How about Wikipedia on network address translation? This will give you some information. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_address_translation

I recommend you do web searches on IP addressing, routing, and NAT to get a better feel for all this stuff.