IP Question

[isle_of_infamy]

i am 2000 pro user, and i am using a linksys wireless router G series on my desktop so that i may run my laptop , but here's my quandary.

1.) when i open up active ports 1.4 and i see my connections to yahoo or msn messenger i see that my IP number is 192.***.*.*** right ?
2.) but when i go to whatsmyip.com my IP shows as 68.***.**.**

i used the astericks as dummy numbers. my point is 1 IP starts with 192 and the other with 68
now the thing is i never encountered this when i was not using a router.

why do i have 2 different IPs with a router ?
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but see this stems further into some high tech complicated stuff i wanna know about.
there's a program called SMAC which bascially allows you to spoof ur MAC ID number in order to obtain a new IP address once u reset ur network and modem, however since using the router I am unable to do that. would anyone know why ? would anyone know how to resolve that problem ? The reason I wanna change my IP address is for security purposes.
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[warriorfan808]

This is because one of your IP addresses is a private IP address which isn't routable over the internet and the other is a public IP address that is given to you from your ISP.

Your router or NAT carries your public IP from your ISP and issues out private ip addresses to clients. The private IP range that one usually carries is something like 192.168.x.x or 10.10.x.x

This feature does two great things.

First, it blocks your actual IP to the world. The world will only see one IP address if the decided to sniff your network from the outside.

It also allows you to share a connection without the trouble of subnetting.

[warriorfan808]

Sorry, I didn't see the second part of your question before I replied. Have you tried logging into your router and then find the option to release your IP address and then renew? I know that there is something like that on the router at work, but I don't exactly remember. I know it does work sorta like ipconfig /release, followed by ipconfig /renew

Hope I was able to help.

[isle_of_infamy]

warrior thanks for replying and explaining that to me. you raise an interesting point in logging into the router. I never heard of that nor do I know how to do that. what do you mean by that ? well the better question is how would I do that ?

[BrainStop]

Hi isle,

Typically, there are two ways to connect to your wireless router:

- using your web browser
- using telnet

Both methods should be mentionned in the user guide for your router. Actually, it sounds like it's high time you take a look at this, as it probably means that you have not setup any security on your wireless link (i.e. did you enable WEP or some other encryption key?)

To connect to your router, try to go to http://192.168.1.1 in your web browser (I'm guessing that's the IP address of your router). It should bring up some kind of interface. You then just need the admin password for the router (if never touched, it will be in your user manual).

Telnet would give you the same kind of thing, only text based.

If you don't have the user manual, you can probably download it from the Linksys website.

Good luck.

Cheers,

BrainStop

[warriorfan808]

Isle,

BrainStop is right, however you might also want to try 192.168.0.1. I've come across this one a lot of times.

While you're in there, you might want to change your SSID and WEP. Since it's your first time logging into your router, I'm assuming you're not running anything.

One important thing though, make sure you hardwire your connection when making any changes to your router with your web browser. Just simply connect to your router with one of it's four ports on it's built in four port switch, I'm assuming it's a built in four port switch. Once you start fiddling with configurations wirelessly, there's a good chance you'll lose connection.

If you don't know the password to your router, it'll probably be something really dumb. Default passwords tend to be that way. For example : password; admin; etc. You can either try those or go on the net and find out what it is. You'll be suprised how fast you'll be able to crack it if you just mess around with it.

As for the WEP and SSID, I'm pretty sure there are tutorials on here that tell you what they do. Basically, they're just a built in user name and password that goes on each user that connects. Just make sure you write them down, you'll be given more than just one WEP. BTW, there are better authentication methods out there like WPA; LEAP; etc.....just depends on your hardware and how far you want to go.

[BrainStop]

Hey all,

Linksys being Linksys, I'm betting that the SSID is "linksys". They do have a nice tool to translate a passphrase into a 26-character encryption key.

Where you want to be, more or less, is at least:

- WEP 128-bits
- SSID changed
- Do not broadcast SSID

One thing though ... when you change all that, make sure you write it down somewhere ... or make sure you can remember it.

Cheers,

BrainStop

[warriorfan808]

Originally posted here by BrainStop
Hey all,

Linksys being Linksys, I'm betting that the SSID is "linksys". They do have a nice tool to translate a passphrase into a 26-character encryption key.

Where you want to be, more or less, is at least:

- WEP 128-bits
- SSID changed
- Do not broadcast SSID

One thing though ... when you change all that, make sure you write it down somewhere ... or make sure you can remember it.

Cheers,

BrainStop

If he has the skills to memorize a WEP ID, then my hats off to him. I know it's not impossible, I know a guy who can do it and he's a freak of nature.

I normally don't write mine down, I just screen capture and save it as a gif (lazy).

[Tedob1]

you really might want to do an 'ipconfig' to get your default gateway address...that's your routers address for this kind of setup. learn how things work first before you learn how to try and spoof anything.

[isle_of_infamy]

ok wow this is all new to me let me kinda take it all in and see what i can play with as far as configuring the router. thanks all for the input. I will post a follow up later this week to keep the thread going.