Trying to help a friend find an answer...

[Brendi]

He asked me, "Do you know much about ip internet address or what they mean exactly when they say if you change ip addresses when you log into some sites you will get banned?"

What do I tell him? Can someone help me with this one?

Brendi

[KDLA]

Well, sometimes for secure sites, your user name and password are associated with the IP address for your computer. For example, my credit card company associates all my information with my home computer's IP address. If I try to access my account at work, I have to contact the company and get them to send me some credentials in order to access the account from the "unregistered" IP address, which is my work PC. It's similar for my account with my insurance company; however, if I attempt to log in from another IP, I'm blocked from accessing the information. I HAVE to access it from home. And, if I attempt so many times (I think it's three), my account is instantly locked out, and I have to call the company to fix it.

So, depending on the amount of security for a site and their policies, it could be that IP's attempting to access accounts not associated with the original IP (registering the account) could be banned/blocked from future access.

[bflosabre91]

KDLA, I thought that a computer IP address changes ever so often, so how does the credit card website always know your IP. Or do you have to use a static IP? just a little curious, ive always wondered about IP address in that way. thanks

[KDLA]

Well, your computer actually can have several IP addresses, depending on if your computer is hooked up to a network, and the type of internet connection you have (LAN or ISP). In my case, both of my computers have static IP addresses, due to their being part of a network.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_address