ok..from what i know you cant have the same IP address over the internet, its a given rule. [dont understand the technical explanation though]. I get my internet connection from a cable company, and what troubles me is that when i go to file hosting sites like rapidshare to download files etc. They say that my IP address is downloading a file, even though I have yet to download anything. Is it possible to have the share the same IP address with other people?. please help me understand this.
There are not enough IPV4 addresses for every computer to have one. As a way around this, the IETF invented something called network address translation, or NAT. NAT allows many computers to effectively share IP addresses, so that a separate public IP address is not needed for every machine. Additionally, there are some IP ranges (10.x.x.x, 172.16.x.x, 192.168.x.x, 192.254.x.x) that are not permitted on the internet. Computers/networks using IPs in these ranges MUST use NAT to get on the internet. Domestic routers use NAT, virtually all company/private networks will also use NAT. Proxy servers also use it, so if your ISP forces a proxy on you then you're behind NAT and someone else using that proxy is already downloading. Your ISP may also force transparent NAT on your connection.
If I understand correctly... There are dynamic and static ip's... Statics conflict with each other dynamics don't. Different Computers will have a slightly different ip to another in the same house I think...
Not quite. Dynamic IPs are assigned by a central server (known as a DHCP server), and this means that there cannot be conflicts. Static IPs are assigned manually (although they can be assigned by a DHCP server if you want a computer to always have the same address, this is called a static assignment) and it is up to the administrator to avoid conflicts, i.e by making sure no two computers have the same address. DHCP is usually used on private LANs, and static assignment is most often used for servers. This has no connection to NAT.
A local IP is different to that on the internet, a local network usually has a similar IP, in my case 192.168.XX.xx, each computer just has a different suffix on the xx. Im pretty sure the router itself also has a local IP. Besides that I think loony pretty much covered everything.
A router actually has both; it has a private IP on one interface and a public IP on the other (domestic routers) A router's purpose is to route traffic between different subnets/networks.
