The world sees my IP address (I read everything) Is there no bettersolution?

The question:
- How can I change my IP address (what stone did I leave unturned)?

The problem:
- I don't want all my yahoo nyms having the same external IP address.
- I don't want all my nntp nyms having the same external IP address.
- I don't want all my http searches having the same external IP address.
- I don't want all my chat nyms having the same external IP address.
- I don't want all my 'subscriptions' (free or otherwise) w/ the same IP.

What I need:
- I need advice to change the IP address the outside world sees for me.
- It needs to work for multiple protocols (http, nntp, tcp, etc.).

What I have:
- Home WRT54G wired to roof antenna with line of sight to ISP AP.
- Windows XP SP3, and Linux PCs, Skype phones, Blackberries, etc.

RTFM:
- I've read & tried everything I can about "changing my IP address".
- I need help even after all that effort (details below).

Technical Support:
- My ISP is a small company with only a few hundred customers.
- I have spoken to their expert technical support thrice to clarify.

ISP's Network:
- The ISP tells me they assign me a 192 IP address on their LAN.
- When I release/renew the lease on my WRT54G, I still get a 192 address.
- They say the lease is 4 days but that's for the 192 internal IP address.
- They say I will ALWAYS get the same IP address to the outside world.
- They say I "share" that IP address with many of their customers.
- They say that's permanent and that's the way it is.
- I am in the boonies so cable and DSL are not an option.
- Satellite is too slow. There are only two Line-of-Site providers.
- The other line of site provider said they assign the IP permanently too.
- So I'm stuck with my existing ISP (unless you have a better idea).

Refresh:
- The ISP tells me my IP address the world sees isn't unique.
- The ISP tells me ALL my communications will have the same IP address.
- The ISP says many of their customers have that same IP address.

Solutions I've tried:
- I'm very familiar with changing DSL-assigned IP addresses (it's easy).
- Those techniques do not work because all I can change is the 192 IP.

WRT54G failed attempts:
- I've tried many times and many ways, so I'll outline just one way tried.
- Logging into the WRT54G, I release the lease to the ISP 192 address.
- I then power down the rooftop antenna which has power over ethernet.
- I then change the MAC address on the WRT54G.
- I then power down the router and leave it down for as long as I can.
- Days later, I power the antenna first, then the router, then the PCs.
- The ONLY thing that changes is the 192 address the router sees.
- The world still sees the same IP address as it did before!

Workarounds:
- I installed TorButton in Firefox so http will have a different IP.
- The problem is these free proxies are slooooooow.
- And very many http forums block actions from these proxy servers!
- TorButton, in essence, is slow, is often blocked, & only works for http.

Another workaround:
- I installed Vidalia/TOR on Linux (but have yet to get it to work right).
- I assume I'll have the same problems (slow, blocked) as with TorButton.

Another workaround:
- I can go to a public WiFi site and then get a different IP address.
- I can use an email server (gmail for example) that hides the IP address.
- But the first is inconvenient; and the latter protocol specific.

The Summary:
- I'm not doing illegal activities (that's why subpoena's were invented).
- I just don't want all MY activities to have the SAME IP address!

Caveat:
- I don't fully understand how the ISP can be assigning multiple people
the same IP address shown to the outside world (the support guys said it
was just like my home NAT). But even so, all MY activities have the same
IP address so it doesn't matter for my purpose that OTHER people also
have the same IP address. For example, I'm probably the ONLY one using
NNTP of all their customers (they told me as much).

The question (again):
- How can I change my IP address (what stone did I leave unturned)?

On Fri, 10 Sep 2010 20:13:28 +0000 (UTC), JoeSchmoe
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>The question:
>- How can I change my IP address (what stone did I leave unturned)?
>
>The problem:
>- I don't want all my yahoo nyms having the same external IP address.
>- I don't want all my nntp nyms having the same external IP address.
>- I don't want all my http searches having the same external IP address.
>- I don't want all my chat nyms having the same external IP address.
>- I don't want all my 'subscriptions' (free or otherwise) w/ the same IP.
>
>What I need:
>- I need advice to change the IP address the outside world sees for me.
>- It needs to work for multiple protocols (http, nntp, tcp, etc.).
>
>Technical Support:
>- My ISP is a small company with only a few hundred customers.
>- I have spoken to their expert technical support thrice to clarify.
>
>ISP's Network:
>- The ISP tells me they assign me a 192 IP address on their LAN.
>- When I release/renew the lease on my WRT54G, I still get a 192 address.
>- They say the lease is 4 days but that's for the 192 internal IP address.
>- They say I will ALWAYS get the same IP address to the outside world.
>- They say I "share" that IP address with many of their customers.
>- They say that's permanent and that's the way it is.
>- I am in the boonies so cable and DSL are not an option.
>- Satellite is too slow. There are only two Line-of-Site providers.
>- The other line of site provider said they assign the IP permanently too.
>- So I'm stuck with my existing ISP (unless you have a better idea).
>
>Refresh:
>- The ISP tells me my IP address the world sees isn't unique.
>- The ISP tells me ALL my communications will have the same IP address.
>- The ISP says many of their customers have that same IP address.

I agree with your ISP. You can't change your routable IP because you
don't have a routable IP. You're being NAT'd along with some or many
of their other customers.

>Caveat:
>- I don't fully understand how the ISP can be assigning multiple people
>the same IP address shown to the outside world (the support guys said it
>was just like my home NAT). But even so, all MY activities have the same
>IP address so it doesn't matter for my purpose that OTHER people also
>have the same IP address. For example, I'm probably the ONLY one using
>NNTP of all their customers (they told me as much).

It truly is just like if you had a NAT router in your house. That
router would have an IP address assigned to it on its WAN interface,
and in turn it would assign IP addresses from a different subnet to
the various devices on its LAN interface. It looks like your ISP does
exactly the same thing. They probably buy connectivity and a small
block of routable IP's from a reseller, then they sell NAT accounts to
their subscribers. My brother lives in a small town of about 5000
people and his ISP works the same way.

On Fri, 10 Sep 2010 16:01:46 -0500, Char Jackson wrote:
> They probably buy connectivity and a small block of routable
> IP's from a reseller, then they sell NAT accounts to their subscribers.

As additional information, the technical guy said something about he
'could' change a 'routing table' but he said that he wasn't going to do
that for every customer who calls wanting a new IP address.

I don't understand what 'routing table' that is ... but is there any way
I could change it for him?

On 9/10/2010 4:13 PM, JoeSchmoe wrote:

> - I don't fully understand how the ISP can be assigning multiple people
> the same IP address shown to the outside world (the support guys said it
> was just like my home NAT).

It would seem that your ISP likely has a small public IP address block
so they are doing exactly the same thing (NAT) that your home router is
doing. The support guy is telling you the truth.



> The question (again):
> - How can I change my IP address (what stone did I leave unturned)?
>
>

Other than a proxy there isn't any way to change the public IP address.

On Fri, 10 Sep 2010 22:16:48 +0000 (UTC), JoeSchmoe
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>As additional information, the technical guy said something about he
>'could' change a 'routing table' but he said that he wasn't going to do
>that for every customer who calls wanting a new IP address.
>
>I don't understand what 'routing table' that is ... but is there any way
>I could change it for him?

It's basically a translation table that tells the ISP's router to
which routable IP address your private IP address should be
translated.

They could enter a specific rule in the table just for you, but what
happens when you want to change it multiple times in a day? It's a
manual process for them to update the rule, and it just isn't going to
happen. There's nothing in it for the ISP.

You don't have access...

On Fri, 10 Sep 2010 18:41:54 -0700, bod43 wrote:
> TOR works by configuring the browser (e.g firefox) to use a proxy.

I did discuss this in the OP. But I'll repeat the salient items.

I am using TorButton in Firefox on Linux.

But that's an insufficient solution because, for example, this nntp post
has a header based on my real IP address as it is covered by the Firefox
TorButton.

After using TorButton for a month, I'm thoroughly disgusted with it as
the speed is atrocious, many forum web sites and mail client sites block
the proxies used, and it doesn't cover nntp.

I tried to get Vidalia/Tor working on Linux, but maybe I have to try
again.

What is the general solution to change your IP address on NNTP posts and
AIM chats and FTP sessions?

On Fri, 10 Sep 2010 18:41:54 -0700, bod43 wrote:
> You can alternatively pay for a commercial VPN solution.

I always thought VPN simply encrypted the contents of your packets.

I didn't realize VPN also changes your originating IP address?

Can you elaborate on that?

In <i6e3h8$lej$(E-Mail Removed)> JoeSchmoe <(E-Mail Removed)> writes:

>The question:
>- How can I change my IP address (what stone did I leave unturned)?

[lots of good stuff, including the anwers, snipped]

A bit more background to "how things work" that might help
you undersand why you can't, at least not easiy, do what
you're requesting.

Your internet provider has a small number of actual "public"
IP addresses. Your own connection is going to, pretty much
by definition, have to get one of those.

It looks like you've been assigned to a specific one, that
you get each time. But even if they quasi-randomized your
system each time you hooked up, you'd still be in the
same ballpark, so to speak.

For example (made up), you might be getting 355.401.218.2
these days. If they reset you each time, you'd get
something from 355.401.218.1 thrugh 355.401.218.24.

All of which would still map back to your ISP.

To give you an analogy, let's take a look at a
typical large user of phone lines, namely yout
local 50 bed hospital. (Note this is far from
an exact analogy, but it'll help you understand
what's going on).

The hospital has the 50 beds, each of which has
a telephone. It also has another 50 phones used
at various desks. They'll be one at each of the
(for example) 5 nurses' stations. Another onw in
the lab. Five in the admissions office. Five in
the admin office. etc., etc., for a total of 100.

But they don't have 100 separate phone listings
in the book, nore can these 100 lines be directly
dialable from the outside.

Instead, the listing is for, let's say, 555-1001.
You call into that and you get a "please punch
in the extension number you want, or wait for
an operator".

You punch in 115 for room number 15, and that phone
starts to ring.

You can NOT cimply dial "555-0115" to get that room.
If you try, you'll bother someone at the gas station.

Similarly, if someone in that room dials out to you,
the caller id will show "555-1001" and "comm. hospital".

(the hospital actually has additional "trunks" rather
than just the one line associate with 555-1001, but
they don't have their "own" phone numbers. So it's
not quite the same deal as the ISP. But they _don't_
have 100 trunks, just perhaps 20).

Carrying the analogy a bit farther, the hospital _will_
have, perhaps, two additional "outside', direct dial,
numbers. One will be for the fax machine and one
will be the "red phone" in the emergency department
that the local disaster folk will call in on. But again,
aside from these small additions, everything gets routed
through that 555-1001 number.

Now there are ways for you, just like the hospital, to
"look like" your "coming out" from another IP. It involves
setting up a tunnel to a different internet provider
and exiting to the general interent from there. This is
, loosely speaking, called going through a proxy.

But you'd need an account at that second place.

This is handy, for example, if you're trying to
view a "youtube" file that's restricted to only
appear in the US and you're in the UK.

A similar term to "setting up a tunnel" is "establishing
a virtual privte network connection". Not quite exactly
the same, but close.

In these cases your local ISP "sees" that you've
connected up to (for example) "acme proxy svcs". But they
don't get to view the traffic you've got going there,
In other words, if you're at a motel in Georgia, they
won't see you're reaching out to "general-sherman-was-right.com".

Hope this helps.


--
__________________________________________________ ___
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
(E-Mail Removed)
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]

In article <i6f1bj$2oe$(E-Mail Removed)>,
JoeSchmoe <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> But that's an insufficient solution because, for example, this nntp post
> has a header based on my real IP address as it is covered by the Firefox
> TorButton.

Se get a different nntp provider. Both Astraweb and Mixmin "privatise"
your nntp posting host; they log it in case you do anything stupid. I
don't actually see your ip in your headers, btw.
--
Next year in Sarajevo ...

In article
<e178abe2-ee56-406e-a26a-(E-Mail Removed)>,
bod43 <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> This one should have the real IP which is in the UK.

Now you're using Google. Get a better nntp provider.
--
Next year in Sarajevo ...