The mystery of IP addresses

[Grandad]

I am not entirely sure how IP addresses work. I DO know that they may change if you switch your modem off for a day or so but as my modem is always switched on, the IP remains the same, 92.0.110.25.
What I cannot understand is that when I opened whatismyipaddress.com it tells me that my location is Bridgewater Somerset, about 250 miles from my actual location.
I wonder if Horus, in your infinite wisdom knows why this should be and if in fact it signals something that I should be aware of security wise. Hope you have some clues H or perhaps if Bulletmagnet looks in he can explain

[Horus]

No need for BM Grandad
I would not worry too much about it, it is a complex thing to explain, but think of it as a small parcel of information from your computer that gets passed from hand to hand until it reaches its destination so there can be many hands in the chain. It is not unknown for rogue servers to be in that chain. but it is unlikely, if you are still concerned, switch of your router for about 5 minutes and when you restart it again it will probably change the IP address, although this is not always the case.

[Grandad]

No need for BM Grandad

I know H and I meant no disrespect but many years ago BM, or whatever he was called at the time, did help me with a problem way back when I was only on the Blue side. I know he has looked in and was hoping that he might come over and post. Always interesting posts and I know he has just been to Turkey and hoped he might have something to say about that.

I switched my router off this morning and as you say, it now has a different IP but at least it now has the correct location.

[LovelyLadyLux]

Isn't looking at IP addresses how Keefy used to figure out who all had double and triple accounts?

BUT if getting a new router address happens every time you turn off your laptop or computer then how did he figure this out?

[Horus]

Far too many questions LLL, but basically it is a code that identifies your modem, so when you switch it off and on again it goes off and gets itself a new identification number. It doesn’t matter what that number is, it is just a way of knowing where to pass the information to, or where it came from just so long as it can pass information. If you try to use different identities they will still be showing the same IP address for different people, this can and does happen when more than one family member uses the same computer to have an identity on here or the Blue side. When this happens Keefy would usually contact them to ask what was happening or if they were trying to create multiple accounts. One way around this of course would be to use several computers in separate locations, it is no use in the same house as they would all log into the same router. Phew