Changing IP for noobies-Non Proxy Methods

I wanted to change my IP address. I looked all over and tried different things. But I was on a static IP so it did no good to try to try to change IP. My IP did not change until I called my ISP and asked for a dynamic IP.
I found the following information (below) during my search to change IP. The methods do not involve proxies. Instead these are ways to tell your box (modem etc) to switch IP.

I found this informative video.
video: 5 Ways to change your IP
ht*tp://www.y*outube.com/watch?v=7zhGxgV6vG0

#2. whatismyip.com (found it somewhere on their forum)
This works for Windows XP
1. Click on "Start" in the bottom left hand corner of screen
2. Click on "Run"
3. Type in "cmd" and hit ok

You should now be at an MSDOS prompt screen.

4. Type "ipconfig /release" just like that,without quotes
5. Type "ipconfig /renew" without the quotes
Wait a minute. That should do it.

1. Reach down and unplug DSL modem.
2. Count to 10.
3. Plug modem back in.

New IP!

I was gonna make a video of this advanced procedure, but I think the written instructions should suffice.

^ lol

Both of these methods work only if you have dynamic ip address.

Yep, if its static these don't work

iSLaND said:

^ lol

Both of these methods work only if you have dynamic ip address.

Click to expand...

LOL, no kidding... but I didn't say it worked for EVERYONE just that it works for me!

This will work even for a dynamic ip:

Download and install Tech*nitium
http://tmac.technitium.com/tmac/index.html
This will spoof your network card's mac address with a randomly generated new one. Once you have spoofed your mac, log in to your router's control panel. There should be an option to clone your computer's mac address. When you do this, your router gets a new mac address - the same one you just created for your network card. The router reboots itself, and when it tries to connect, your ISP thinks that you are a brand new user, and assigns a different ip.

The added bonus of doing it this way is that some services like yah00 and CL actually ban mac addresses as well as ip's, so use this method to change your ip and you're golden.

Not all routers have the mac clone facility, but to be honest, it's worth buying a new router just for this facility. That's what I did, and I've never regretted it, because ISP ip's are far more robust than proxies. Linksys certainly have the facility, there may be others.

iSLaND said:

^ lol

Both of these methods work only if you have dynamic ip address.

Click to expand...

Yes, if you re-read what I wrote, that's what I said. I had a static IP and during my research on how to change it I came across those sources (the video and instructions). Bottom line is I could not change IP because it was static even though some of the info out there says you can (using Technitium to change MAC address etc). I was not able to change my IP until I called the ISP (internet service provider) and asked what type of IP I had and then when they said STATIC I asked to be changed to a DYNAMIC IP.

The ISP I use goes on the MAC of the modem.
To get a new IP you need to switch off for about 24 hours and then its not 100% guaranteed!

aj113 said:

This will work even for a dynamic ip:
...
The added bonus of doing it this way is that some services like yah00 and CL actually ban mac addresses as well as ip's, so use this method to change your ip and you're golden.....

Click to expand...

Hi,
I have seen such sentences a lot of times, actually a lot of IT companies try to make people think they use the MAC to identify them. It's a lie to cloak their real techniques.
To bring a bit light into this:
You can NOT ban the mac address from any internet site. Yahoo, CL no one can do that, trust me on that. I'll explain it here:

In principe the Internet is built upon 5 layers of protocols:
Layer 0 .. The Physical layer
Layer 1 .. the Link layer
Layer 2 .. the IP layer
Layer 3 .. The Transport layer
Layer 4 .. the application layer

The more general view with 7 layers is called "OSI Model".


Layer 0 is very raw, it defines the way bits and bytes (voltages and frequencies in this case) are transfered over the different media (100baseT etc)
Layer 1 is also low level but here a bit logic comes to play, the MAC address can be found in here, the MAC is a unique ID for each network card to be addressed .

Layer 2 is the Internet Protocol (IP), the IP-Address replaces the MAC Address as unique addressing ID.

Layer 3 is based on 2, TCP and UDP are base of this Layer. Here data can be transmitted, packets can be appended in sequence.

Layer 4 is the end of the story, these are protocols like HTTP,VOIP, Email and built upon Layer 3.


Sorry for the details
When a packet travels from your computer to a destination in the Internet, then it is transmitted to your local switch -> router, all 5 layers are part of the data packet because layer 1 is required to send it to the switch (MAC address) and layer 0 is required to transmit the data over the cable.

As soon as your router transmits that packet to the next router then Layer 0 and Layer 1 are removed.
Layer 0 is the physical layer (we first had ethernet or wlan, now we have a phone cable or fiber cable).
Layer 1 was "the MAC" and the MAC is not used anymore.
Layer 2,3 and 4 contain the information to address your destination and to bring the packet back to you, they stay (but get modified a bit)


So your destination address (as example Yahoo or CL) have absolutely no way to get your MAC address, because it is not transmitted.
There is also no way to get it through Javascript.

Websites use these techniques to identify you:
1. Your IP and subnet and GeoIP location
2. Your useragent
3. Your cookies

Looks too easy, looks not reliable ? Well it's plain facts.
The Internet was not constructed to allow anonymity but it was also not designed to allow re-identification
Change these 3 things properly and your identity can not be revealed by the website.

greets

I have cable with a static ip and a dlink wireless router. I go to the router and manually change 1 digit of the mac address (where you have the option to clone it too), restart the cable modem and power everything back up and i have a brand new IP

As was said above, once the cable modem sees a new mac (device) connected, it forces the ISP to assign a new IP. It works like a charm

justone said:

You can NOT ban the mac address from any internet site. Yahoo, CL no one can do that, trust me on that. I'll explain it here: {snip}

So your destination address (as example Yahoo or CL) have absolutely no way to get your MAC address, because it is not transmitted.
There is also no way to get it through Javascript.

Click to expand...

I'm new to BHW but an old hand at network engineering, so I can vouch for justone's expert analysis and explanation. If you're not a nethead (people who can map subnets and translate CIDR notation in their head), then just remember his conclusion in the above quote.... MAC addresses don't go outside your ISP's network. So don't worry about that.

More importantly, remember what they can track:

justone said:

Websites use these techniques to identify you:
1. Your IP and subnet and GeoIP location
2. Your useragent
3. Your cookies

Looks too easy, looks not reliable ? Well it's plain facts.
The Internet was not constructed to allow anonymity but it was also not designed to allow re-identification
Change these 3 things properly and your identity can not be revealed by the website.

Click to expand...

But this thread is just about easily changing IPs. Here's what I do as a guy with a routed network:

I have a router connected to my cable modem, and I can not simply just power cycle it, because my ISP's DHCP server holds the IP address for me, on a fairly long lease.

I used to be like Vivica when I had DSL, I was able to get a new IP with a quick power cycle of my DSL modem. But not since I switched ISPs and got a cable modem.

aj's right on the money here:

aj113 said:

Not all routers have the mac clone facility, but to be honest, it's worth buying a new router just for this facility. That's what I did, and I've never regretted it, because ISP ip's are far more robust than proxies. Linksys certainly have the facility, there may be others.

Click to expand...

Ny Netgear router has the same capability, I can log into the interface and change the ISP-facing MAC address to whatever I want, which forces a new DHCP reassignment, therefore new IP address.

However there is one more step for me... my cable modem doesn't give me the new address right away. I have to:
1) Change the MAC address in my router's interface, then
2) Power cycle the cable modem.

Probably because my cable modem was cheap, even many years ago before it got old. But this is the only problem it gives me, so I don't bother to replace it.

If your cable modem is better than mine (probably), then you won't have to do step 2...

But in case you try to change the MAC address in your router, and your Net connection doesn't come back within 30 seconds max... try cycling your cable modem (not the router), and see if that works to restore your connection (and give you a shiny new IP address).

justone and mack, thank you very much for that insight. I may need to change my methods ultimately as a result of reading your agreed opinions, however I cannot escape the fact that - despite your attestation to the impossibillities - - changing my IP alone simply is not enough to allow me to continue my activities, I have to change my mac too, which works every time.

So perhaps it's not the changing of the mac itself that is working for me, but some by-product of the process. What could that be?

aj113:
You did not directly say what activies you mean, that would help
Is there custom software on your computer involved?
A explorer-started java applet or an executable can read your mac

We all need to change our IP address (at least) once in a while. But not everyone needs to change their MAC address.

For instance all dialup users, and most if not all DSL users (e.g. Vivica), can simply disconnect from the Net and reconnect, and they'll get a new IP address with no hassle. Those people stopped reading this thread a long time ago.

But you and I and many others aren't like that, we can unplug everything and leave it off, but our ISP will give us the same IP address we've had for months. WE need to do something more drastic, to "force" our ISP to issue us a new IP address...

...and the best way to do that is to change the MAC address of the network card that's plugged into our modem.

So technically yes, changing your MAC address is a necessary step, but not because outside sites can ever detect what MAC address you're using (they can't). Only the router at your ISP detects the MAC change, and when the ISP router does, it's "forced" to issue you a new IP address.

Basically (unlike most DSL and all dialup), our ISPs issue an IP to a MAC address, not to "mack's account" or "aj's account".

So when the MAC address changes (which only our ISP can see), our ISP thinks this a new device, that it has never seen before... so it gives this new device a new IP address.

Folks, let me know if I said anything incorrect (or anything that wasn't clear).

Note for lurkers: Don't forget the first step on changing your IP address: make sure that you don't have a static IP address on your ISP account. It usually costs extra, so you'd know if you have it. No rebooting or modems or MAC changers or any of these techniques will work, until you cancel the static IP plan and get standard dynamic service.

justone said:

aj113:
You did not directly say what activies you mean, that would help
Is there custom software on your computer involved?
A explorer-started java applet or an executable can read your mac

Click to expand...

y@h00 @nswer$ Yes, I am using custom software.

aj113:
If changing IP (without changing MAC) does not help, but changing MAC helps:
Is it the MAC of your PC or of the router you need to change?

If it is the MAC of your computer then the custom software maybe sends it.
If it is the MAC of the router then it would be the first time I heard about that, would be really clever (reading out the arp table) to hide the identification method.

If you are curious about the identification, well you can use a tool like tcpdump or ethereal to see the exact data cent and received. But that would require a bit knowhow about TCP/IP to understand it.
That would be the first logical step to really test what the software checks if you want to use blackhat methods. It might even send unique IDs from windows that will trigger a trap sooner or later. custom software can be a bitch if you don't know its internals.

Vivica said:

1. Reach down and unplug DSL modem.
2. Count to 10.
3. Plug modem back in.

New IP!

I was gonna make a video of this advanced procedure, but I think the written instructions should suffice.

Click to expand...

lol...

I had tried before..yah most of the time it works !

but very time consuming...and you need some strength to to unplug ..lol..

I assumed it was the router that was causing the problem, but I'll do further tests to ascertain if it is indeed the network card mac that is triggering off something.

Thank you for that

heretolearn said:

I wanted to change my IP address. I looked all over and tried different things. But I was on a static IP so it did no good to try to try to change IP. My IP did not change until I called my ISP and asked for a dynamic IP.
I found the following information (below) during my search to change IP. The methods do not involve proxies. Instead these are ways to tell your box (modem etc) to switch IP.

I found this informative video.
video: 5 Ways to change your IP
ht*tp://www.y*outube.com/watch?v=7zhGxgV6vG0

#2. whatismyip.com (found it somewhere on their forum)
This works for Windows XP
1. Click on "Start" in the bottom left hand corner of screen
2. Click on "Run"
3. Type in "cmd" and hit ok

You should now be at an MSDOS prompt screen.

4. Type "ipconfig /release" just like that,without quotes
5. Type "ipconfig /renew" without the quotes
Wait a minute. That should do it.

Click to expand...

thank you i did it.but my ip address is
192.xxxxx
but when i saw in what is my ip.com it is showing 59.xxxx.what is difference between both.

Hi all!

Just wanted to thank all contributors above (and I'll be hitting your thanks buttons) for this thread. I'm on a static cable setup, and I've had to use web based proxies to obtain some files from some sites (not pron!). Nuff said!

I know the dangers involved in that, and I've been looking around BHW and the net in general to find info on how to proxy better. Your thread is much clearer than most I've read and I will prob be asking questions when I've had an opportunity to check a few things out.

Main question at this point, if I request my ISP to change my IP from static to dynamic, will this basically solve the problem if I just unplug the modem when I want to change my IP?

Sorry for the nuub question, but privacy is sort of a passion of mine.

Thanks for any info you care to give.