IP address question

[GAThraawn]

Maybe this isn't the right forum for this question, but I was wondering if moderators or administrators were able to view member's IP addresses. I'm posting from a computer away from home, and I'm trying to figure out if there's any way to find my home computer's IP address (which is the computer from which I've made most of my other posts.). If there's another, easier way, I'd love to hear it too. Thanks, Playground.

[Zeb The Troll]

The nature of IP address assignment to non-commercial users makes this a moot point. Your home computer could have had a new IP address every two days, or once a week, or every two months or anything in between unless you're paying for a static IP address. Most home internet users have no need for this. Knowing the IP address of your home computer (or actually modem, most likely) the last time you posted from it wouldn't help at all in knowing what it's IP address is right now, I'm afraid.

[Rawhide]

Maybe this isn't the right forum for this question, but I was wondering if moderators or administrators were able to view member's IP addresses. I'm posting from a computer away from home, and I'm trying to figure out if there's any way to find my home computer's IP address (which is the computer from which I've made most of my other posts.). If there's another, easier way, I'd love to hear it too. Thanks, Playground.

You haven't stated what operating system you have. In order to find your computer's IP address on Windows, you need only go to the Start Menu, click on Run and then type "cmd" (sans quotes) and click OK (if you have Windows Vista or 7, you can skip the Run button and type directly in the search box). In that black command prompt, type "ipconfig" (sans quotes) and press Enter. That will show you your computer's current IP address.

If your IP address begins with 10.*.*.*, 172.16.*.8 to 172.31.*.* or 192.168.*.*, then you have a private IP address which your router will be translating to its IP address. (Also, if you have an IP address beginning with 169.254.*.*, then you most likely cannot connect to the internet, as that is reserved for when your computer can't find the IP address assigning server, called a DHCP server.)

Even if you don't have a private IP address, this might not be completely accurate, as your ISP (or other environment) may have placed you behind a proxy.

To find out what IP address is being used publically, you will need to go to a website such as http://www.petri.co.il/whats_my_ip_address.htm. Compare the results to what you got from ipconfig.

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In some cases these days, your IP address is completely static and will not change ever. In other cases, your IP address might be dynamically assigned, but stay the same for a considerable time due to the "always on" nature of modern internet connections, this is the most common. It is rare, but some providers do deliberately force you to change IP addresses frequently.

[Zeb The Troll]

Rawhide - I got the impression he's trying to figure out the IP address of a computer other than the one where he's sitting. I'm also getting the impression that no one's currently sitting at the one he wants to know, either.

[Chambers]

Google Mail logs the IP address every time you log in, so if you've been logging in from different IP addresses you can view the log. Don't know if you use Gmail, but it could help.

Scroll down to the bottom of the Gmail page and you'll see something like: "Last account activity: 17 minutes ago on this computer. Details." The Details is a link that brings up the log with the IP Address and Date/Time stamp.