Why do I have 2 different IP adresses?

K

kevinoh33


Joined
Mar 27, 2010
Messages
18
Reaction score
1
Points
3
Why is it that when I connect my computer to my cable modem, my ip address is completely different than connecting my computer to my netgear wireless router? I checked both on What Is My IP Address? Lookup IP, Hide IP, Change IP, Trace IP and more... and they turned out to be different ip addresses. The ip address started with only 2 digits before the period (69.xxx.xx.xxx) does that have to do with anything?

Is there any way I can change the IP address when I'm connected to my netgear wireless router so that when I go on What Is My IP Address? Lookup IP, Hide IP, Change IP, Trace IP and more... it shows a different ip address?

EDIT:
When I first checked my ip address from the link above when I was connected to my router. It was (69.xxx.xx.xxx). Then when I plugged my computer to the cable modem the ip address was (173.x.xxx.xx). Then I connected back to the netgear router and I checked the IP address again and it was the same as before (69.xxx.xx.xxx). I tried turning off the modem and router on and off and nothing changed.
 
dtravis7

dtravis7


Retired Staff
Joined
Jan 4, 2005
Messages
30,133
Reaction score
703
Points
113
Location
Modesto, Ca.
Your Mac's Specs
MacMini M-1 MacOS Monterey, iMac 2010 27"Quad I7 , MBPLate2011, iPad Pro10.5", iPhoneSE
You want your computers IP the same as the one From your cable provider? That would defeat the purpose of your router. Is the IP on your computer like 192.168.1.100 or something like that?

Maybe I am misunderstanding your question. A router is supposed to give you a private IP address for your home (LAN) Nertwork.
 
Raz0rEdge

Raz0rEdge

Well-known member
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Jul 17, 2009
Messages
15,762
Reaction score
2,100
Points
113
Location
MA
Your Mac's Specs
2022 Mac Studio M1 Max, 2023 M2 MBA
You have one public IP address assigned to your cable modem by your ISP and you have a second private IP address handed out by your router or your cable modem..unless you specifically configured the router and cable modem to use the same range, they will differ..

But seeing address like 192.168.xxx.xxx, 172.10.xxx.xxx are all private Class C IP addresses..

These things don't matter since when you're on the Internet, you only use the public IP address..the private IP addresses are not accessible from the Internet..
 
osxx

osxx


Joined
Jan 19, 2008
Messages
4,695
Reaction score
73
Points
48
Location
houston texas
Your Mac's Specs
09 MBP 8GB ram 500GB HD OS 10.9 32B iPad 4 32GB iPhone 5 iOs7 2TB TC Apple TV3
Each computer in your network will have the same WAN IP but have different LAN IP for
wired and wireless.
 
OP
K

kevinoh33


Joined
Mar 27, 2010
Messages
18
Reaction score
1
Points
3
When I first checked my ip address from the link above when I was connected to my router. It was (69.xxx.xx.xxx). Then when I plugged my computer to the cable modem the ip address was (173.x.xxx.xx). Then I connected back to the netgear router and I checked the IP address again and it was the same as before (69.xxx.xx.xxx). I tried turning off the modem and router on and off and nothing changed.

None of the ip checking websites I've visited detected a 192. or a 172. ip address. I just need to change the 69.xxx.xx.xxx ip address. Is there any way I can do that?
 
dtravis7

dtravis7


Retired Staff
Joined
Jan 4, 2005
Messages
30,133
Reaction score
703
Points
113
Location
Modesto, Ca.
Your Mac's Specs
MacMini M-1 MacOS Monterey, iMac 2010 27"Quad I7 , MBPLate2011, iPad Pro10.5", iPhoneSE
That 69.x.x.x is being handEd out by your ISP. There is no way to change that from your end.

Why are you trying to a change your ip address? Trying to spoof a site with a different IP address?
 
OP
K

kevinoh33


Joined
Mar 27, 2010
Messages
18
Reaction score
1
Points
3
I am not trying to "spoof" and website. I am simply trying change my ip address for personal reasons.

Either way, I still don't understand why I have 2 different ip addresses (when I'm connected directly to the cable modem and when I'm connected to the router.)
 
osxx

osxx


Joined
Jan 19, 2008
Messages
4,695
Reaction score
73
Points
48
Location
houston texas
Your Mac's Specs
09 MBP 8GB ram 500GB HD OS 10.9 32B iPad 4 32GB iPhone 5 iOs7 2TB TC Apple TV3
kevinoh33 said:
I am not trying to "spoof" and website. I am simply trying change my ip address for personal reasons.

Either way, I still don't understand why I have 2 different ip addresses (when I'm connected directly to the cable modem and when I'm connected to the router.)
Click to expand...

All routers that I have ever used or hooked up have always handed out a different ip for wireless versus wired on the same computer and it maybe do to the fact wired is 802.3 and wireless is 802.11 someone with more knowledge may have a better answer.
 
baggss

baggss


Joined
Oct 10, 2004
Messages
10,345
Reaction score
597
Points
113
Location
Margaritaville
Your Mac's Specs
3.4 Ghz i7 MacBook Pro (2015), iPad Pro (2014), iPhone Xs Max. Apple TV 4K
osxx said:
All routers that I have ever used or hooked up have always handed out a different ip for wireless versus wired on the same computer and it maybe do to the fact wired is 802.3 and wireless is 802.11 someone with more knowledge may have a better answer.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Go to any hotel that has wired and wireless and swap between the two, you'll see different IP ranges.

For the OP: The wireless router is assigning a PRIVATE address to your computer as it is supposed to do. Your router uses the actual PUBLIC IP from your ISP and shares access among various devices you may allow on the network, hence the different IP adress. When you hook up to the modem directly your computer now uses the PUBLIC IP provide by your ISP and no other devices can share the network, unless your ISP allows you to have multiple PUBLIC IPs. You can have some sort of sharing enabled from the computer itself, in which case the computer will act as a router and assign PRIVATE IPs to other devices.

There are dedicated PRIVATE Network IP ranges that are standard for all routers / private shared networks. They are:

10.0.0.0 – 10.255.255.255

172.16.0.0 – 172.31.255.255

192.168.0.0 – 192.168.255.255

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_network

Your router should allow the option to choose between any of those 3 blocks and may allow you to dedicate specific IPs within those block to specific devices on your network. In my case, on my home network, I have chosen to use the 10.x block and have set my router to allocate IPs from 10.0.0.2 to 10.0.0.200 for all my devices that connect to my router (both wirelessly and wired) but my actual ISP allocated PUBLIC IP is used by my router to access the internet.

You can only choose between those 3 block of PRIVATE IPs for devices that connect to your router, there are no further options. If you wish to change your PUBLIC IP address you need to contact your ISP and see what they can do.
 
OP
K

kevinoh33


Joined
Mar 27, 2010
Messages
18
Reaction score
1
Points
3
baggss said:
Agreed. Go to any hotel that has wired and wireless and swap between the two, you'll see different IP ranges.

For the OP: The wireless router is assigning a PRIVATE address to your computer as it is supposed to do. Your router uses the actual PUBLIC IP from your ISP and shares access among various devices you may allow on the network, hence the different IP adress. When you hook up to the modem directly your computer now uses the PUBLIC IP provide by your ISP and no other devices can share the network, unless your ISP allows you to have multiple PUBLIC IPs. You can have some sort of sharing enabled from the computer itself, in which case the computer will act as a router and assign PRIVATE IPs to other devices.

There are dedicated PRIVATE Network IP ranges that are standard for all routers / private shared networks. They are:

10.0.0.0 – 10.255.255.255

172.16.0.0 – 172.31.255.255

192.168.0.0 – 192.168.255.255

Private network - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Your router should allow the option to choose between any of those 3 blocks and may allow you to dedicate specific IPs within those block to specific devices on your network. In my case, on my home network, I have chosen to use the 10.x block and have set my router to allocate IPs from 10.0.0.2 to 10.0.0.200 for all my devices that connect to my router (both wirelessly and wired) but my actual ISP allocated PUBLIC IP is used by my router to access the internet.

You can only choose between those 3 block of PRIVATE IPs for devices that connect to your router, there are no further options. If you wish to change your PUBLIC IP address you need to contact your ISP and see what they can do.
Click to expand...

Are you sure my wireless router is assigning a private ip to my macbook? Because when I check my ip address on What Is My IP Address? Lookup IP, Hide IP, Change IP, Trace IP and more... , it gives me an ip address that starts with a 69. not a 10. 172. or 192.
 
osxx

osxx


Joined
Jan 19, 2008
Messages
4,695
Reaction score
73
Points
48
Location
houston texas
Your Mac's Specs
09 MBP 8GB ram 500GB HD OS 10.9 32B iPad 4 32GB iPhone 5 iOs7 2TB TC Apple TV3
kevinoh33 said:
Are you sure my wireless router is assigning a private ip to my macbook? Because when I check my ip address on What Is My IP Address? Lookup IP, Hide IP, Change IP, Trace IP and more... , it gives me an ip address that starts with a 69. not a 10. 172. or 192.
Click to expand...

Ok to clear it up your actual IP that the outside world connects to you could start with 69. xxx.xxx.xx.
The router/modem could have an IP of 192.xxx.x.xxx
The computer could have 192.xxx.x.xx
The point is every piece in your system that communicates with the net or
your local net has an address that you can change within certain parameters with a static ip.
The actual ip that the provider gave you 69.xxx.xxx.xx can only be altered by them.
 
baggss

baggss


Joined
Oct 10, 2004
Messages
10,345
Reaction score
597
Points
113
Location
Margaritaville
Your Mac's Specs
3.4 Ghz i7 MacBook Pro (2015), iPad Pro (2014), iPhone Xs Max. Apple TV 4K
kevinoh33 said:
Are you sure my wireless router is assigning a private ip to my macbook? Because when I check my ip address on What Is My IP Address? Lookup IP, Hide IP, Change IP, Trace IP and more... , it gives me an ip address that starts with a 69. not a 10. 172. or 192.
Click to expand...

Yes, I am. Did you not understand the PUBIC vs PRIVATE IP concept? The outside world will see that IP for ANY device that connects to your network because its the PUBLIC IP, the PRIVATE IPs are for internal network use only and NEVER get sent over the web. EVER
 
BrianLachoreVPI

BrianLachoreVPI


Retired Staff
Joined
Feb 24, 2011
Messages
3,733
Reaction score
124
Points
63
Location
Maryland
Your Mac's Specs
March 2011 15" MBP 2.3GHz i7 Quad Core 8GB Ram | Mid 2011 27" iMac 3.4 GHz i7 16 GB RAM 2 TB HDD
osxx said:
All routers that I have ever used or hooked up have always handed out a different ip for wireless versus wired on the same computer and it maybe do to the fact wired is 802.3 and wireless is 802.11 someone with more knowledge may have a better answer.
Click to expand...

The Ethernet chipset and 802.11 chipsets each have their own unique MAC addresses.
 
EvenStranger

EvenStranger


Joined
Dec 9, 2010
Messages
844
Reaction score
49
Points
28
Location
Virginia
Your Mac's Specs
Currently 13" Late 2010 MBA, 4GB/128GB; Early 2011 13" MBP, dual core i7 2.7ghz, 4gb ram, 500gb hd
Last paragraph has the questions if you want to skip ahead.

There are number of concepts here that need to be addressed. First, IP addresses are kind of like phone numbers - moving from broader information to more specific information. Your phone number would start with a country code, in the US that's 1+, then area code, denoting a large region within a state usually, then local code specifying your neighborhood or community, and then exchange, or your phone. Same with IPs. IP addresses are divided into four sets of numbers, or octets (based on 8 binary digits from 00000000 to 11111111, or 0 to 255). Your first octet is the broadest scope. It can literally cover millions of websites and individual internet accounts. Then it proceeds to narrow down through the second and third octets to finally end at the fourth octet, your network's IP. If every possible numeric combination was assigned to a computer, our current IP setup could handle about 4.2 billion (255^4) connections. However, large blocks are set aside for government use, education, different countries, or just overhead.

Several large blocks are set aside also for private use. IPs beginning with 10.x.x.x, 172.16.x.x and 192.168.x.x are used by routers to map an internal network without requiring multiple public IP addresses. Think of a switchboard at any company - they have one public phone number, but once the call reaches the switchboard, it can be passed to an extension within the company. Your router is doing the same thing.

Now, as to why you are receiving two different public IP addresses on two different connections to supposedly the same network, I don't know... If it's the same network, both devices should be showing the same public IP addresses, just like two phones in the same company would be accessible through the same main number. I'm wondering if you are certain you're connecting to the correct wireless network. Netgears are pretty prolific, and if you're using the generic Netgear name as your wireless network, it's easy to get it mixed up with someone else's network. Is there a VPN connection going on somewhere? Proxy software that routes your computer through a remote host? Do other computers behave the same way - a 69.0.0.0 wired and a 173.0.0.0 over wireless? If not, then you know it's a setting on your computer somewhere.

I hope this helps... let us know what you find out.
 
OP
K

kevinoh33


Joined
Mar 27, 2010
Messages
18
Reaction score
1
Points
3
EvenStranger said:
Last paragraph has the questions if you want to skip ahead.

There are number of concepts here that need to be addressed. First, IP addresses are kind of like phone numbers - moving from broader information to more specific information. Your phone number would start with a country code, in the US that's 1+, then area code, denoting a large region within a state usually, then local code specifying your neighborhood or community, and then exchange, or your phone. Same with IPs. IP addresses are divided into four sets of numbers, or octets (based on 8 binary digits from 00000000 to 11111111, or 0 to 255). Your first octet is the broadest scope. It can literally cover millions of websites and individual internet accounts. Then it proceeds to narrow down through the second and third octets to finally end at the fourth octet, your network's IP. If every possible numeric combination was assigned to a computer, our current IP setup could handle about 4.2 billion (255^4) connections. However, large blocks are set aside for government use, education, different countries, or just overhead.

Several large blocks are set aside also for private use. IPs beginning with 10.x.x.x, 172.16.x.x and 192.168.x.x are used by routers to map an internal network without requiring multiple public IP addresses. Think of a switchboard at any company - they have one public phone number, but once the call reaches the switchboard, it can be passed to an extension within the company. Your router is doing the same thing.

Now, as to why you are receiving two different public IP addresses on two different connections to supposedly the same network, I don't know... If it's the same network, both devices should be showing the same public IP addresses, just like two phones in the same company would be accessible through the same main number. I'm wondering if you are certain you're connecting to the correct wireless network. Netgears are pretty prolific, and if you're using the generic Netgear name as your wireless network, it's easy to get it mixed up with someone else's network. Is there a VPN connection going on somewhere? Proxy software that routes your computer through a remote host? Do other computers behave the same way - a 69.0.0.0 wired and a 173.0.0.0 over wireless? If not, then you know it's a setting on your computer somewhere.

I hope this helps... let us know what you find out.
Click to expand...

I renamed the default name "NETGEAR" to my first name so I wouldn't get confused with others. There's not VPN connection or proxy softwares. I also have a desktop computer that uses a Belkin wireless adaptor to recieve wifi from my router and it also as the same IP Address (69.xxx.xx.xxx) as my Macbook Pro. So maybe I'm thinking, if I change the router, will it give me a new IP Address?
 
dtravis7

dtravis7


Retired Staff
Joined
Jan 4, 2005
Messages
30,133
Reaction score
703
Points
113
Location
Modesto, Ca.
Your Mac's Specs
MacMini M-1 MacOS Monterey, iMac 2010 27"Quad I7 , MBPLate2011, iPad Pro10.5", iPhoneSE
The issue is you keep using the IP Address test ON THE INTERNET. That is always going to show the SAME IP Address that your ISP hands out. It will NEVER show the Local IP of each computer as that is on a different Subnet and invisible to the outside world. That is why it's a Private IP. You look at each computer to get it's IP address, not the IP Address thing on the Web.
 
baggss

baggss


Joined
Oct 10, 2004
Messages
10,345
Reaction score
597
Points
113
Location
Margaritaville
Your Mac's Specs
3.4 Ghz i7 MacBook Pro (2015), iPad Pro (2014), iPhone Xs Max. Apple TV 4K
kevinoh33 said:
I renamed the default name "NETGEAR" to my first name so I wouldn't get confused with others. There's not VPN connection or proxy softwares. I also have a desktop computer that uses a Belkin wireless adaptor to recieve wifi from my router and it also as the same IP Address (69.xxx.xx.xxx) as my Macbook Pro. So maybe I'm thinking, if I change the router, will it give me a new IP Address?
Click to expand...

The 69.x IP is what is assigned by your ISP. That is your PUBLIC address. Changing the router probably won't change the PUBLIC IP address, but I have seen it happen.
 
mrplow

mrplow


Joined
Oct 1, 2007
Messages
7,163
Reaction score
275
Points
83
Location
UK
Your Mac's Specs
Mac Mini i5 (2014 High Sierra), iPhone X, Apple Watch, iPad Pro 12.9, AppleTV (4)
baggss said:
The 69.x IP is what is assigned by your ISP. That is your PUBLIC address. Changing the router probably won't change the PUBLIC IP address, but I have seen it happen.
Click to expand...

Agreed.

If your ISP issues you a static public IP they may have will issue it to a particular devices MAC address.

This isn't necessarily what's happening but you could be getting different IPs because the ISP is detecting different device MAC addresses.

Just a thought
 
mrplow

mrplow


Joined
Oct 1, 2007
Messages
7,163
Reaction score
275
Points
83
Location
UK
Your Mac's Specs
Mac Mini i5 (2014 High Sierra), iPhone X, Apple Watch, iPad Pro 12.9, AppleTV (4)
If you want to change your public IP, contact your ISP.

If your personal reason is so you can access your network from anywhere then consider a service like no-IP which tracks your IP changes for you so you never need to know it.
 
bobtomay

bobtomay

,
Retired Staff
Joined
Dec 22, 2006
Messages
26,561
Reaction score
677
Points
113
Location
Texas, where else?
Your Mac's Specs
15" MBP '06 2.33 C2D 4GB 10.7; 13" MBA '14 1.8 i7 8GB 10.11; 21" iMac '13 2.9 i5 8GB 10.11; 6S
kevinoh33 said:
I renamed the default name "NETGEAR" to my first name so I wouldn't get confused with others. There's not VPN connection or proxy softwares. I also have a desktop computer that uses a Belkin wireless adaptor to recieve wifi from my router and it also as the same IP Address (69.xxx.xx.xxx) as my Macbook Pro. So maybe I'm thinking, if I change the router, will it give me a new IP Address?
Click to expand...

Maybe, maybe not. Every device, whether you have 1, 10, 25 or 50 connected to the modem that serves your Internet access is going to have the exact same IP address out on the web. That address is assigned by your ISP... You cannot change it. If you disconnect or reset the router, the ISP may assign that exact same IP to you again or it may assign another one.

That's how all data is sent back to you - via that single IP address.

Each device on your local network will have an individual IP address. This address is assigned by the router. As the data comes back from the internet via that one single IP address, it then routes (get it, router) that data to the correct individual IP addresses on the local network.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top