Can someone hijack an IP address ?

Mountainsandh

Our internet is extremely poor, has always been so, but it's been much much worse of late. For example right now Ping is 33s, downloads 0.24 Mbps (we're paying for 3 Mbps), uploads 0.05 Mbps. It's dire. We're on to the provider regularly, who promises to call, and doesn't, but we have no other option being rural.

Today I noticed a strange notice while reading something on wikipedia telling me to check messages, that someone wanted to tell me something. There was a list of warnings and admonitions to stop changing or deleting some articles on wiki. There is a note on that page saying that my IP address has accessed these articles, and edited them.

I can see a list of all articles accessed and modified on wiki from my IP address. I suspect one or two are the husband's, as they relate to his work, they date from a while ago, like last year.

The rest is all stuff that we are not at all into in my household, namely sports, GAA, and even yesterday (!) some modifications on articles on the Olympics and Patrick Hickey !

The fact that some modifications from yesterday are appearing in that list baffles me, and other notifications are quite recent too (this year).

Otherwise I would have thought that maybe our address had been recycled.

But it seems like this is happening right now, someone is using our IP.

We have our own router, and a little white box that I think looks straight onto the mast up a hill which gets our broadband, so it's wireless. The mast is quite a distance away, so I think there might be a relay on the way.

We have a digits and letters sequence sort of password for our home network.

The wiki articles accessed about GAA tell me that it's a local person who seems to use the same IP. (local team)


Is it possible that our internet provider has assigned the same IP to several people ?
I have seen people advising to reset IP address from computer, is that possible ?

I have recently restarted our router, only switched it off a few minutes though, should I maybe try and switch it off for longer and see if I get a different IP ?

I'm clueless here, but I'm sort of hoping that someone hijacking iP might be the root cause of our very poor connection, and that it can be fixed easily.
Thanks for any advice.

ED E

Mountainsandh wrote: »

Is it possible that our internet provider has assigned the same IP to several people ?

Exactly this.

Its quite common for FWALA providers (what you have) to only buy a few Public IPs(What websites see) and then give each customer their own private IP (free, sites never see this). Its cheap, usually doesnt matter too much, but stuff like this will mean you and probably everyone else off that mast will be prevented from editing Wikipedia soon most likely.

Ask your provider for your own public, but they may want you to pay extra for this.

Mountainsandh

Thanks ED E, would our own private IP then have some number added to the public IP or something ? When I search for my own IP online, it tells me the same as the one mentioned on wiki.

Also, coul that mean we are basically sharing bandwidth ? (provider assured us several times that this wasn't the case...) Or at least, that we are likely to encounter congestion ?

Thanks

stevek93

ED E wrote: »

Exactly this.

Its quite common for FWALA providers (what you have) to only buy a few Public IPs(What websites see) and then give each customer their own private IP (free, sites never see this). Its cheap, usually doesnt matter too much, but stuff like this will mean you and probably everyone else off that mast will be prevented from editing Wikipedia soon most likely.

Ask your provider for your own public, but they may want you to pay extra for this.

Doesn't matter to much? What if someone is doing something illegal with that IP address and the guards come knocking to the OPs door?

I would be using a VPN if I was the OP.

ED E

Mountainsandh wrote: »

Thanks ED E, would our own private IP then have some number added to the public IP or something ? When I search for my own IP online, it tells me the same as the one mentioned on wiki.

Also, coul that mean we are basically sharing bandwidth ? (provider assured us several times that this wasn't the case...) Or at least, that we are likely to encounter congestion ?

Thanks

In simple terms:
Website--English---Your Provider--French--Your devices. The provider does translation so when you google whats my IP you see the providers routers IP not yours.

If you can login to the router in your house you can see what your private address is, it'll be something like 10.x.x.x but this might be a little tricky for you(no offence, just going by the tone of the OP) or not allowed (some providers lock you out).

All wireless providers share bandwidth, many will claim they dont but they do. They might have 50Mb at the site but they're selling it to 100 people at 3Mb each. You can do the math there.

stevek93 wrote: »

Doesn't matter to much? What if someone is doing something illegal with that IP address and the guards come knocking to the OPs door?

I would be using a VPN if I was the OP.

They won't. The Gardai would serve his provider with a court order to tell them who was using that address at X time and the provider would say "everyone" and that'd be the end of that line of enquiry.

Mountainsandh

stevek93 wrote: »

Doesn't matter to much? What if someone is doing something illegal with that IP address and the guards come knocking to the OPs door?

I would be using a VPN if I was the OP.

It has occurred to me, plus I remember the provider saying to us once, as we were giving out about speed : "sure, haven't you been downloading films last week ?". We laughed in his face, as we can hardly watch YouTube videos, the notion of downloading films was and still is ludicrous.

What's a VPN stevek93 ?

Mountainsandh

ED E thanks no offense taken I don't have a clue, but enough to leave that provider the day something else is available. We don't have a phone line (it was satellite when we used to have a landline), mobile coverage is very poor, and other providers are not available up our way so we're stuck with our guy.

Thanks for the info, I'll bring up the wiki issue if and when(ever) we talk to provider, as husband does need the odd access to upkeep his article and some eejit nearby is trolling sporty contributors articles.

ED E

Keep an eye on Imagine FibreConnect. Its new and while not perfect its very good and destroys providers like yours in areas with no fixed line services.

Mountainsandh

Mountainsandh wrote: »

It has occurred to me, plus I remember the provider saying to us once, as we were giving out about speed : "sure, haven't you been downloading films last week ?". We laughed in his face, as we can hardly watch YouTube videos, the notion of downloading films was and still is ludicrous.

What's a VPN stevek93 ?

Edit : I've checked it out, it seems to bring its own issues, at least being aware of the situation will allow me to discuss it with provider.

Mountainsandh

ED E wrote: »

Keep an eye on Imagine FibreConnect. Its new and while not perfect its very good and destroys providers like yours in areas with no fixed line services.

Yeah, I just rechecked them last week, they're our best bet but not our way yet. Keeping a close eye on them. We are in one of these left over areas that are now pushed back to 2020 for any chance of national broadband provision.

stevek93

Mountainsandh wrote: »

It has occurred to me, plus I remember the provider saying to us once, as we were giving out about speed : "sure, haven't you been downloading films last week ?". We laughed in his face, as we can hardly watch YouTube videos, the notion of downloading films was and still is ludicrous.

What's a VPN stevek93 ?

VPN stands for virtual private network, it basically created a secure connection over your network and assigns you your own IP address. Cyberghost is a great option for this. If you look online you can get a discounted subscription for 15e a year.