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    Why does my IP address keep changing?

    This is very confusing, hope someone can tell me what's going on.

    I've been trying to work on a client store that is protected by an IP-address whitelist. Only the shopping pages are protected; I can get to the admin. I checked my IP address on the Store Settings admin page, and sent it to the client; and the next day he mailed me saying that I was added to the whitelist. But I still couldn't get to the shopping pages; it turned out that my IP address had changed.

    I'm working from home, and I know that consumer-oriented ISPs do change customers' addresses from time to time. So I sent the new address to the client, and by the next day, he had added it to the whitelist. But I still couldn't get in; my address had changed again.

    That was yesterday; today it's changed again. Even a consumer ISP (in my case, it's AT&T) shouldn't change my IP address every day. I suppose I need to contact them about this; but first I wanted to ask this community. Has this happened to you? Do you know what's going on, and how to fix it?

    I've also been checking my address at a public site, whatismyipaddress.com. That one tells me that I have two addresses; one in the long IPv6 format, and another in the older, shorter, IPv4 format. According to that site, only the v6 address is changing every day; the v4 address seems to be holding steady.

    When I log into various clients' admin pages, some of them show the v6 address, and some show the v4. Why is that? Is there some way to configure the server to use one or the other?

    If anyone can clarify what;s going on with these addresses, I'd appreciate some help, just to understand it better.

    Thanks --
    Kent Multer
    Magic Metal Productions
    http://TheMagicM.com
    * Web developer/designer
    * E-commerce and Miva
    * Author, The Official Miva Web Scripting Book -- available on-line:
    http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/IS...icmetalproducA

    #2
    In most areas of the country, it would be very unusual to receive a new IPv4 address from your ISP on any regular basis if your modem/router has not reboot. There are exceptions to this where in extremely high density areas even the external side of your modem/router has a non-public address and the traffic is translated a second time to a public address later on; that can occur in places like NYC, LA, etc.

    Since it seems you have an ISP who has enabled IPv6, more likely what's occurring is you have a computer that is making use of IPv6 privacy addresses. This is a behavior operating systems have introduced to make you less able to be tracked. What occurs is you get an entire IPv6 network dynamically assigned to your modem/router, which will have literally 18 quintillion addresses available; it will typically look like 2001:db8:abcd:abcd:w:x:y:z/64 where the first four segments are related to your internet provider and the network you've been assigned, then the remainder (w:x:y:z/64) is specific to your home network. Your computer will be assigned an address in that range, but instead of using that for outbound requests, it will generate a random address on its own that will only last for a few minutes to a few hours, but it will typically remain sticky for one website for a long period of time.

    What you may be able to get away with is to only give the target website operator the first four segments, a double colon, and /64. So in my example, you'd tell them please whitelist 2001:db8:abcd:abcd::/64 which should cover every address your computer will possibly generate.

    Alternatively, you can disable IPv6 privacy extensions since they're mostly a failed effort anyway, as all the tracking companies already distill down addresses into those blocks to figure out it's the same computer.
    David Hubbard
    CIO
    Miva
    [email protected]
    http://www.miva.com

    Comment


      #3
      There are exceptions to this where in extremely high density areas even the external side of your modem/router has a non-public address and the traffic is translated a second time to a public address later on; that can occur in places like NYC, LA, etc.
      Having lived in two major cities, I can confirm this is the case. My home IP address is changed almost daily by my ISP.

      If David's IPv6 suggestion doesn't work, you can try using a VPN service. This will give you an IPv4 address that will remain relatively stable as long as you remain connected to the same VPN server.
      Todd Gibson
      Oliver + S | Sewing Patterns for Kids and the Whole Family

      Comment


        #4
        Thanks, gentlemen, for the info. I use Windows at home, so I found some instructions on-line on how to turn off IPv6 privacy extensions in Windows. I just did it last night; I'll be checking every day for a few days, to make sure it worked.
        Kent Multer
        Magic Metal Productions
        http://TheMagicM.com
        * Web developer/designer
        * E-commerce and Miva
        * Author, The Official Miva Web Scripting Book -- available on-line:
        http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/IS...icmetalproducA

        Comment


          #5
          Hi, here's a quick follow-up for anyone else who may be having this problem. I followed the instructions I found at: https://support.binarylane.com.au/su...ion-in-windows

          At first it didn't seem to work. But then I rebooted my computer, and that seemed to get it working; my IPv6 address has stayed the same for almost a week.

          Thanks for your help, and Happy Holidays to all!
          Kent Multer
          Magic Metal Productions
          http://TheMagicM.com
          * Web developer/designer
          * E-commerce and Miva
          * Author, The Official Miva Web Scripting Book -- available on-line:
          http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/IS...icmetalproducA

          Comment

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