Is there any number that goes with our computer to internet?

[ENE]

Hello,
Is there any number goes with our computer to internet ?

 

[DiracPool]

Is there any number goes with our computer to internet ?

Um, yes, it's called your IP address. You answered your own question!

 

[ENE]

how many ip is there in my computer
why it is 4 digits?

 

[ENE]

Can we change it edit?

 

[Drakkith]

how many ip is there in my computer
why it is 4 digits?

It's not 4 digits.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_address

 

[Chronos]

Hiding your IP address is a fairly simple matter. This is commonly done via a virtual private networks [VPN], but, other approaches exist, nearly all of which rely on use of a proxy server to interface with external websites. All of this is well known to hackers seeking anonymity to engage in nefarious activites.

 

[CWatters]

There are many other ways web sites can to track you. Cookies for example.

 

[rootone]

There are many other ways web sites can to track you. Cookies for example.

To some extent yes, cookies can reveal what sites are visited, what pages were looked at, but not much more than that.
They can't determine where the computer is physically located or identify who is using it.

 

[rcgldr]

There was a time when processor serial numbers could retrieved by some versions of Windows to check for duplicate installs over the internet. I don't know if this is done anymore. Just changing certain components on a system could trigger a reactivation request, but that was internal, not sent over the internet.

 

[phinds]

There was a time when processor serial numbers could retrieved by some versions of Windows to check for duplicate installs over the internet. I don't know if this is done anymore. Just changing certain components on a system could trigger a reactivation request, but that was internal, not sent over the internet.

Processor chips have never HAD serial numbers, as this would have required separate fabrication for every single chip and be ridiculously expensive. BIOS's may have had serial numbers, but what was tracked was the hard drive serial number which was, and still is, available with a simple Windows system call. I don't know if you can access it with JavaScript and the like or not so don't know if browsers could be forced to report it back off of your computer but it really wouldn't do any good to anyone other than a software vendor who wanted to, as you say, avoid duplicate installs of their software.

EDIT: it did just occur to me that if you put a small EPROM on the CPU chip, you could program identically fabricated chips to have different serial numbers but I don't think this was ever done.

 

[rcgldr]

Processor chips have never HAD serial numbers, as this would have required separate fabrication for every single chip and be ridiculously expensive.

It was the Pentium III, wiki article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentium_III#Controversy_about_privacy_issues

I had forgotten how old this was.

As for hard drives, although the drives do have a serial number, I was able to replace all 4 drives on my system by cloning them, and Windows didn't ask for an activation, although Windows 7 ended up "renumbering" the drives, which fortunately didn't affect the boot process. My system is multi-boot, and XP and XP X64 didn't renumber the drives, only Win 7. This causes some confusion if doing an image restore with Win 7, since the drive letters are scrambled. The BIOS drive numbers were not changed, so the boot up process into any of the operating systems was not affected.

When I do a format / restore on a backed up partition (I have a file / folder backup utility), I have to restore the volume serial number after the format to keep Windows from asking for activation.

 

[phinds]

It was the Pentium III, wiki article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentium_III#Controversy_about_privacy_issues

I had forgotten how old this was.

I'll be damned. Didn't know about that or if I did I forgot it. I guess they DID use an on-chip EPROM. Thanks for the info.

As for hard drives, although the drives do have a serial number, I was able to replace all 4 drives on my system by cloning them, and Windows didn't ask for an activation, although Windows 7 ended up "renumbering" the drives, which fortunately didn't affect the boot process.

Again I had it wrong. I was sure the hard drive serial numbers were drive-specific.

 

[rcgldr]

I was sure the hard drive serial numbers were drive-specific.

Hard drives do have drive specific serial numbers, but Windows doesn't appear to check them. However I've had strange things trigger a reactivation, such as updating a video driver, so it's not clear what or how much of a change triggers reactivation.

 

[FactChecker]

To some extent yes, cookies can reveal what sites are visited, what pages were looked at, but not much more than that.
They can't determine where the computer is physically located or identify who is using it.

CGI programs can collect more information than that and can save it in cookies. I suspect they often keep track of the username so that the communication can be continued with the same username at a later time.

 

[cosmik debris]

Each computer connected to the Internet is given an IP address which traditionally is a quartet of numbers with values 0 - 255 and separated by a full stop. Some Internet providers allocate the number to your computer dynamically and some use a fixed address. In either case it is difficult to change this number without losing access. As someone else has pointed out it is possible to hide this address from other sites by using proxies and VPNs etc.

 

[jbriggs444]

Some Internet providers allocate the number to your computer dynamically and some use a fixed address. In either case it is difficult to change this number without losing access.

In a typical home environment, the Internet provider will allocate the IP address for your home router. Your home router will, in turn, allocate an IP address for your home computer(s) and other home internet devices to use. The allocated IP addresses will often be allocated from the private 192.168.0.x range. (See https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1918 for details on the 192.168.x range)

The router does address translation (NAT) so that the IP address that is visible to servers on the public Internet is not the same as the IP address that is used on your computer.

The IP address on your computer can be seen by going to a DOS command prompt and typing "ipconfig". For instance, my private IP address is:

C:\>ipconfig

Windows IP Configuration
[...]
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.121
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
[...]

The translated IP address that was allocated by your provider and is seen from the public Internet can be most easily determined by visiting a website such as http://www.whatismyip.com.

 

[rootone]

In the case where IP is dynamically allocated, most home connections, it's actually very easy to change it.
Generally all you need to do is switch off your router for a minute or two and the IP you had been using will go back to the pool of adresses owned by your provider.
When you power up again you'll be be assigned an IP from the pool which is very unlikely to be the same one you previously had.
Static IP's are generally assigned for use by servers and can't be easily changed since the IP is directly associated with the server's web address www . something

 

[anorlunda]

Follow up questions please.

What about your cell phone connection, is the IP for that dynamic or fixed? If dynamic, when does it change?

If I connect to the net on a public wifi, is my IP that of the router or unique to my device?

 

[jbriggs444]

What about your cell phone connection, is the IP for that dynamic or fixed? If dynamic, when does it change?

I cannot speak for cell phones. There are a number of plausible implementation strategies.

With a public wifi, your IP address belongs to you. The wireless access point to which you associate works essentially as a piece of wire [It operates at layer 2]. The "router" which acts as your default gateway may or may not be on the same piece of hardware. It is virtually certain that you will be assigned a private RFC1918 IP address while you are connected to the wifi network. Address translation will be used so that the source IP address that appears when you browse the public Internet will reflect the connection from the wifi provider to the Internet rather than the connection from you to the wifi provider.

If you are on an extended WiFi network, you will likely be able to retain your IP address as you move from one access point to the next. If you move from one wireless provider (e.g. from Hilton Honors public wifi to San Antonio airport public wifi) then you will pick up a new IP address from the new wireless provider.

The point of RFC1918 private IP allocation taken together with Network Address Translation is to allow network providers (such as public wifi hotspots) to assign the same private IP addresses time after time without conflicting with any server IPs on the public Internet. The only requirement is that the same private IP address is not allocated twice on the same layer 2 network.

 

[anorlunda]

Thanks @jbriggs444.

Using an Android phone, is there any way to look at your current IP address?

 

[jbriggs444]

Thanks @jbriggs444.

Using an Android phone, is there any way to look at your current IP address?

www.whatismyip.com. I just did it on mine. It was an IPv6 address. I hadn't realized they were doing that. It makes a lot of sense.

Edit: Oh, but you are talking about the IP address of the phone, not that of the provider. No clue for that. But given the use of IPv6, that might very well be the phone's actual address. Plenty of space in IPv6, so there is little need to NAT.

Geolocation on my assigned Android IP says Bedminster New Jersey assigned to Cellco Partnership DBA, Verizon Wireless.

 

[anorlunda]

I just tried whatismyip on this tablet. It came back as a V6 address belonging to Comcast In NJ, while I am in VT. That means to geolocate me, one needs cooperation from the cable provider. Interesting.

 

[jbriggs444]

Plenty of hits on Google. The providers are apparently required to maintain records that can tie it back to your phone.

 

[anorlunda]

Plenty of hits on Google. The providers are apparently required to maintain records that can tie it back to your phone.

Yep. But it also means that Comcast or Verizon can extract payments from advertisers who want to send me geo-specific ads. Pretty smart of the providers.

It also implies that the government can't geotrack me in real time without APIs to the provider's servers.

 

[jbriggs444]

It turns out that it is fairly easy to determine your Android's assigned IP address.

Settings => About Phone => Status. Scroll down until you see IP address.

Source: http://ccm.net/faq/33725-how-to-check-your-android-ip-address

 

[cosmik debris]

In a typical home environment, the Internet provider will allocate the IP address for your home router. Your home router will, in turn, allocate an IP address for your home computer(s) and other home internet devices to use. The allocated IP addresses will often be allocated from the private 192.168.0.x range. (See https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1918 for details on the 192.168.x range)

Yes I know, I was trying to make it simpler for the OP who doesn't seem to know much about IP numbers.

 

[cosmik debris]

In the case where IP is dynamically allocated, most home connections, it's actually very easy to change it.
Generally all you need to do is switch off your router for a minute or two and the IP you had been using will go back to the pool of adresses owned by your provider.

Yes but I assumed he meant change it to something he wants not just a random change.

 

[rootone]

Yes but I assumed he meant change it to something he wants not just a random change.

If that's the case then he's wanting a static IP, which usually is something a service provider will charge for as part of a business package.
There is no way to have any IP you like.

 

[rbelli1]

You can pick any address that is valid for your subnet and there is a small chance it will work. If it does work you are not guaranteed that it will continue to work. Doing that will likely disrupt someone else's access and will run afoul of your terms and you could get kicked off the network.

What is the reason for wanting to change it? There is likely a solution for you that doesn't involve your ISP at all.

BoB

 

[Vanadium 50]

Using an Android phone, is there any way to look at your current IP address?

Settings/About Device/Status

 

[anorlunda]

This is very interesting stuff, and quite hard to understand what is happening, and why. I think it is remarkable that the whole thing works as smoothly as it does.

Using @Vanadium 50 's tip, I looked up the IP for my phone. It showed two IPs, one V6 address registered to my provider, and also a V4 address.

I rebooted the phone, it gave me new V6 and V4 addresses.

I looked at the IP on my iPad connected to a home wifi operating on Comcast cable. It showed 10.0.0.0 as the IP. Then, I started the wifi hotspot on my phone and connected to iPad to that. Now the iPad shows no IP at all, yet it still works and a page request from the iPad gets a response returned to the iPad.

I know that I could add another link to the chain (after jailbreak and using the Foxfi app) by making the iPad a bluetooth hotpot, while the iPad is getting wifi from my phone. Similarly, I could tether a second phone to the first via USB, then make that second phone a wifi hotspot. I have no practical reasons for doing so, I just find it curious that these things work at all, and that no matter how many links in the chain the identity of my device will still be traceable.

 

[imort]

Hello,
Is there any number goes with our computer to internet ?

Hey
You always have your own IP address (4 digits are looking like 128.128.128.128, each of them can be from 0 to 254 with some restrictions).
So your IP address can be tracked up to your home router device.

Usually, you'll have one external IP address for the all yours network devices at home, where your home internal IP addresses can look like 192.168.x.x or something like that. It names the private network addresses (192.168.x.x, 10.x.x.x, 172.16.0.0 - 172.31.0.0)

 

[nikkkom]

I'll be damned. Didn't know about that or if I did I forgot it. I guess they DID use an on-chip EPROM. Thanks for the info.

It's not EEPROM, it's fuses. It has many uses. For example, to permanently set allowed CPU frequency range after CPU was tested ("binned") by manufacturer and this particular chip's tolerances are determined. For disabling parts of chip which were found to be defective (cores, part of the cache, on-die GPU, etc).

https://www.reddit.com/r/hardware/comments/3onp1m/how_do_companies_like_intel_or_amd_disable_cores/

"Fusing use to be done by way of focusing a laser on regions of metal in the die to intentionally overheat the metal in a catastrophic failure manner causing the circuit to then become an electrical open. This method of "fusing off" certain areas of the chip has been replaced with actual electrical fuses in the sense of the phrase in which certain parts of the chip (the fuse) is over-volted in such a way that the flow of current combined with Joule heating (ohms law) overheats the metal line in the fuse causing it to melt in a catastrophic manner resulting in an electrically open circuit.

Fusing is done for most of your typical "chip harvesting" yield enhancement techniques. Sram redundancy, core segmentation, etc."

 

[rbelli1]

Laser fusing was done on external bridges on some AMD processors. You could reprogram the fusing with an Xacto and a conductive pen.

BoB

 

[rcgldr]

Regarding ip addresses, cable modems support up to 16 external ips. DSL static block ip modems start off with 8 ips, but use 3 of them for the ISP, leaving the user with 5 external ips. There are DSL modems that provide a larger static block (more than 5 user ips). ISP's may limit this, for example my cable ISP limits the number of external ips to 3 (at cost of $7 (USA) / month for the 2nd and 3rd ip). Usually, the modems use the MAC addresses of the devices connected to the modem, along with some database at the ISP to assign external ips to the devices. With some ISPs, the user can configure part of the ip if it's available. With this setup, the network between the modem and the devices is an extension of the internet, not a local area network, and the only local area network would be on the internal side of a router connected to the modem.