Re: how come my ip address doesn't change anymore?
dslr595148
Community Leader
Community Leader

@skyliner34 wrote:

i like to change my ip monthly is because incase hackers know my ip address then i can just change it every month so it won't be that easy to guess 



That is a not bad reason, but there is/are flaws to that.

#1 If there is malware on one of your computers behind the router, that malware could tell the bad/evil people your new IP Address.

#2 If the bad/evil people know your user name, depending on the service they can find your current IP Address.

For example with IRC.

^^^

Re: how come my ip address doesn't change anymore?
smith6612
Community Leader
Community Leader

Believe it or not, changing your IP address won't stop hackers from penetrating your system/network if they really had the intention of doing it. Changing your IP address might be fine if you're trying to avoid something such as a forum ban or are looking to escape a DoS attack the easy way, but other than that, it's security by obscurity. As dslr pointed out above, most hackers understand that people use Dynamic IPs, and thus in order to actually be "hacked" a piece of malware would have to be present on the machine. Normally, this is nothing more than a drive-by download obtained from simply viewing websites, but these applications can basically set up direct communication to a system a hacker has set up. At that point, you may or may not notice an infection occurring but the hacker on the other end will know your IP the instant your PC obtains a network connection.

Truth be told as well, you can literally Google search information on IP addresses in a matter of seconds and find out info about it, usually nothing more than the ISP for starters, but information such as GeoIP can be used.

So my suggestion would be to not worry about the IP address changing. It will change sometime in the future after a lengthy power outage or when Verizon restarts their equipment, and that is a part of having Residential service. Just ensure the security of your PC is up to snuff, and the router will basically take care of the rest (preventing direct access to your network via NAT). There are plenty of exceptions to this rule, but it honestly is nothing to fret over. Trust me; unless you have really angered someone out there or someone is extremely bored, you won't be targeted. There are more practical ways out there to attack a network/machine than simply probing IP addresses and trying to find an exploit.

Re: how come my ip address doesn't change anymore?
skyliner34
Contributor - Level 2

Oh i though finding out your ip was the way to hack 😛 thanks for the info 

Re: how come my ip address doesn't change anymore?
smith6612
Community Leader
Community Leader

Back before routers were popular and everyone was directly connected to their Cable/DSL/3G/Satellite/Dial-up modems, hacking was "easy", especially on machines without decent firewalling. On Cable systems for example, you could connect to PCs located on the same cable network you happened to be located on and actually view their Windows shares and what not, but this was before many providers started using "tagging" to identify which modem is meant to be receiving which data, and from where. The same goes with the dial-up days, where machines were wide open to the Internet and anyone who knew your IP could connect to any form of "server" running on your PC. These days with routers being in everything, including basic DSL modems it's a bit harder to hack. The most a person can do with your IP in many cases is flood it with data, creating a Denial of Service Attack or port scan it to find a vulnerability in a piece of software/hardware being used. That's not to say things can be hacked, but there are more likely ways to be hacked that do not require the knowing of your IP address. So, it's really moot.

Re: how come my ip address doesn't change anymore?
skyliner34
Contributor - Level 2

what is moot?

Re: how come my ip address doesn't change anymore?
smith6612
Community Leader
Community Leader

By moot, I mean "nothing to worry about."

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Re: how come my ip address doesn't change anymore?
viafax999
Community Leader
Community Leader

@Smith6612 wrote:

By moot, I mean "nothing to worry about."



Well maybe, moot is a word in transition.

Actually it 's sort of a 60/40 split as to whether moot means that it's meaningles or debatable.  To you it's 'nothing to worry about;' and to the OP it's not so I guess you're on the the 60% and he's on the 40% side