Hi! What does it mean if at the same time, two external IP addresses are identical except the last set of numbers, like 123.1.12.16 and 123.1.12.213?

Question

The IP addresses are of two users that are logged in at the same website at the same time. Does this mean the users are on different routers but at the same location or on the same intranet?

There is not enough information to correctly answer that. See this two-part answer for how IPv4 addressing and subnetting work. — Ron Maupin, Jun 11 '20 at 14:46

score 2 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 11 '20 at 14:48

IP addresses are 32-bit binary numbers. That's how your computer sees them. But we humans have a hard time remembering all those ones and zeros, so we came up with the dotted decimal notation. The "dots" between the digits are there only to make the numbers more readable -- they have no significance to the computer.

So you answer your question, you can't tell just from the IP address. And to your website, it makes no difference. You would have to know the subnet masks of the networks the computers were on in order to tell.

Hi! What does it mean if at the same time, two external IP addresses are identical except the last set of numbers, like 123.1.12.16 and 123.1.12.213?

1 Answers1