# [SOLVED] Two Separate IP Addresses For Same House?



## shewillnotdie (Mar 2, 2009)

Me and my girl friend both work from home doing freelance work using the internet. The company we do freelance work for allows one agent per ip address and checks the ip address for multiple agents I guess. Well she plans on moving in, and we both need our jobs, but I only have one modem, router, and two computers, but I believe they are on the same ip address. 

Is there a way to have two different ip addresses so we wouldn't have any issues with our work here? She was saying she saw some firefox add on that blocks or hides your ip but isn't there a way to just have two? I'm not sure, that's why I'm asking. 

I was thinking with two modems the ISP could set us up a second one?... Would be more money though and I'm trying to avoid that. 

Any suggestions here guys? Would the firefox add on work? Would they realize I was blocking my ip address?


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## Phou (May 26, 2011)

*Re: Two Separate IP Addresses For Same House?*

You don't need two modem, you can buy a second IP address from the ISP. Setting it up depends a lot on your equipment though.


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

*Re: Two Separate IP Addresses For Same House?*

two computers wont have the same IP address because they will have different NICs. Now as far as I know if your using one router then you would have to buy a hub and manually set IPs for each pc or get your ISP to allocate you two IP addresses.

You dont need add ons to block and IP address a firewall does this job for you so say for example your IP is 192.168.1.1 then when your on a website or logged in somewhere your IP will look like 68.182.1.0 (these are just made up). If your firewall is good enough or you have it set right nothing should be able to penetrate your system hwoever in case of dialling into a company then they must know what your IP is.


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## Wand3r3r (Sep 17, 2010)

*Re: Two Separate IP Addresses For Same House?*

I take it you don't do this work from anywhere but one location then?

The "company" would not be concerned about the local lan ip. It would only be concerned about the wan ip since that would be as far as they could trace back.

I would suggest you talk to the company. They should have no issue with both of you on the same 'registered to them the company' ip address.

If your public ips need to be unique then it does get a bit more complicated as Phou has suggested.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

*Re: Two Separate IP Addresses For Same House?*

From the outside the IP address will be the same from the ISP, the only sure way around it is to have 2 ISP accounts and modems, or a use a proxy but proxy's are not always reliable.


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## Wand3r3r (Sep 17, 2010)

*Re: Two Separate IP Addresses For Same House?*

If the isp is supplying two public ips as suggested by Phou than this is a moot point.


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## shewillnotdie (Mar 2, 2009)

*Re: Two Separate IP Addresses For Same House?*

Okay, a lot of talk going on here and I'm not sure what some of it means so I'm going to respond one person at a time so this doesn't turn into a long, jumbled, confusing response.




Phou said:


> You don't need two modem, you can buy a second IP address from the ISP. Setting it up depends a lot on your equipment though.


Is providing a second IP address a common thing for an ISP to do? If so what equipment would I need to setup the second computer? 



greenbrucelee said:


> two computers wont have the same IP address because they will have different NICs. Now as far as I know if your using one router then you would have to buy a hub and manually set IPs for each pc or get your ISP to allocate you two IP addresses.
> 
> You dont need add ons to block and IP address a firewall does this job for you so say for example your IP is 192.168.1.1 then when your on a website or logged in somewhere your IP will look like 68.182.1.0 (these are just made up). If your firewall is good enough or you have it set right nothing should be able to penetrate your system hwoever in case of dialling into a company then they must know what your IP is.


So would the "hub" be the equipment I would need to purchase to allocate two separate IP addresses to the two separate computers if I purchased another IP address from my ISP? I'm not sure how my company checks the IP address and I've never heard of any problems with other agents, but I do know it states in the guidelines one agent per household so they have to check somehow. I don't exactly "dial in" but I do login to my rater page and with the company toolbar I have installed in my browser... 



Wand3r3r said:


> I take it you don't do this work from anywhere but one location then?
> 
> The "company" would not be concerned about the local lan ip. It would only be concerned about the wan ip since that would be as far as they could trace back.
> 
> ...


I only do work from home, yes. Well is there a way I can safely secure my Wan IP from being viewed so I don't have to worry about them realizing they have two agents working from the same house? I'm not dealing with my company. They specifically state "one agent per household" and if you're a company looking to employ more than one agent then to call them. I'm not a business, nor do I think they'll care about my exception. I understand why they don't want multiple agents in one household. They think a single person will be racking up multiple hours on easier task since more of the simple task would be available to multiple names. That's not the case here, we both individually work for them and need to be able to continue from the same household when she moves in. They won't care about my specific situation and I don't want to risk having my contract let go, or hers, because our work is our life line. Not sure what you mean by unique, we just simply need to be able to work from our two separate computers on my one internet connection without worrying about them seeing that we are at the same location and both of us loosing our job. 



wrench97 said:


> From the outside the IP address will be the same from the ISP, the only sure way around it is to have 2 ISP accounts and modems, or a use a proxy but proxy's are not always reliable.


So you are saying my ISP will have the same IP address for say another person living in my apartment complex? If it were that simple then there must be some way of them making sure there aren't multiple agents with them at the same address.... Somehow. Could I be over thinking this and they only check the billing address we receive our checks at? I mean from what I'm reading they can only go as far as a WAN IP because the IP will be universal for others using that ISP's services right?


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## Wand3r3r (Sep 17, 2010)

*Re: Two Separate IP Addresses For Same House?*

"I only have one modem, router, and two computers, but I believe they are on the same ip address. "

You get a bill for the internet service? If so you have your own wan ip address which is unique to you not the building with multiple users.

To cut to the chase do as Phou suggests and talk to your isp. It is usual under a business package to get more than one public ip.

Then you would need to do the following.

Put a 4 port switch between the modem and the present router.
Connect your router and a new router to the switch.
Connect your pc to one router and your SO to the other router
Each of you now are on a different public ip address


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## Jay_JWLH (Apr 30, 2008)

*Re: Two Separate IP Addresses For Same House?*

You are most certainly going to have to bring this up with the companies that you both work for. Surely there isn't anything stopping both companies from recognising the IP address at your home (I assume it is a static IP, or it can change). Then there wouldn't be any problem.

If you were to have two IP addresses, it would either be complicated, or you would have to install another line as a second broadband connection to your house (maybe even an extra phone line).

Don't try and get the LAN confused with the WAN. One WAN IP address, multiple LAN IP addresses. Then you have NAT (network address translation) in between.

Add-on, or just a proxy on one of the computer (free is possible, but paid is more reliable), that is a possibility as long as you find a way to secure your own dedicated IP address from anywhere in the world (assuming they don't have geographical IP address restrictions). The problem with a lot of the ones out there is that other people may share the IP address, or you will have so little ownership of it that once the link goes down you are screwed.

Where does IPv6 come into this? It probably doesn't... yet.

Maybe a DNS service can help you?


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## Wand3r3r (Sep 17, 2010)

*Re: Two Separate IP Addresses For Same House?*

shewillnotdie I know this is confusing with multiple people giving you advice that conflicts or provides information that without the experience to understand is also confusing.

Please review my post #8. It is the correct and doable solution. It addresses not having to talk to your company and it gets you where you want to go with two different wan ips but in the same house.

First step is talk to your ISP about getting two public ips. You will most likely have to upgrade to a business package to do this but again it addresses all the criteria you have established.

If your SO [significant other] also has a router she can bring it with her. All you would need is some patch cables and a 4 port switch which is around $15-25.


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## PinoyIT (Feb 28, 2011)

*Re: Two Separate IP Addresses For Same House?*

Call the ISP and tell them what you want to do and let them do the work for you.

Getting different public IP addresses isn't as simple as putting two computers on separate subnets. Or in that case complicated. You don't need all those routers. NAT settings has to be configured so that a specific block of addresses is translated to one public IP and another block of addresses is translated to another public IP. They could both be on the same subnet and still have different public IPs depending on how NAT is set.


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## shewillnotdie (Mar 2, 2009)

*Re: Two Separate IP Addresses For Same House?*



Wand3r3r said:


> shewillnotdie I know this is confusing with multiple people giving you advice that conflicts or provides information that without the experience to understand is also confusing.
> 
> Please review my post #8. It is the correct and doable solution. It addresses not having to talk to your company and it gets you where you want to go with two different wan ips but in the same house.
> 
> ...


This makes sense. If I'm understanding everything correctly (leaving out actually setting this up) I would need another router, a 4 port switch box, and some ethernet cables for hardware, and need to call my ISP and see if they can upgrade me to an account with two public IP addresses right? Both of the IP addresses they will provide me will be able to be run through just my one modem to the routers or will I need to get another modem from them when I get the second ip address?



Wand3r3r said:


> The goal here is to get each computer a different public ip, without bringing in an additional service and its associated costs, so the company they work for doesn't see the two of them on the same ip.


That is most definitely the exact goal I'm trying to accomplish.


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## Phou (May 26, 2011)

*Re: Two Separate IP Addresses For Same House?*

There are many ways to accomplish this, but the easiest route is to follow Wand3r3r advice.

Here is a diagram, I hope it helps


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## Wand3r3r (Sep 17, 2010)

*Re: Two Separate IP Addresses For Same House?*

Great diagram Phou

Yes shewillnotdie to calling your isp and yes to you only need one modem.

Not to complicate things but we could even get the two computers to talk [down the road] by putting addtional nics in each and using a crossover so even that is doable under the circumstances.

But lets achieve the main goal first


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## shewillnotdie (Mar 2, 2009)

*Re: Two Separate IP Addresses For Same House?*

Excellent diagram. Seems the most cost efficient way to do this and it's the one that makes most sense to me. I think I might actually be able to hook that up myself. I know cost on switch boxes and wireless routers. 15-20 4 port box on ebay and 20-30 for the wireless router so I'll contact my ISP and hopefully it won't be much more than the 40$ a month we currently pay. 

Thank you for all the help guys. I'm sure I'll need help setting this up as well.


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## Troy_Jollimore (Dec 31, 2007)

*Re: Two Separate IP Addresses For Same House?*

You're getting the hint that Wanderer is the guy you should be listening to, at least.  The others aren't wrong, but the 'conventional' experience is similar to your own. One public IP address, one 'modem'/router, to x amount of computers in the home/business, each with it's own local address. I don't recall it being answered, but no, it's almost impossible to hide your 'public' IP address from the destination. Even if you could, who would it send the packets back to?

Like he said, talk to your ISP as to the relative costs of each, but the way I see it you have three choices:

1) Just get your or another ISP to run a seperate connection to your place. Another modem to computer setup, but it's that cut and dry;

2) Have you or your GF use a proxy service to connect to the company. That way, the proxy's IP address is the one they'll see. The problems I see with that is the company, if they're THAT anal, won't like that you're using a proxy...and that if other agents use the same proxy they might very well see the same 'multiple agents per single address' that you're trying to avoid;

3) Like Wanderer says, upgrade to a business account (shouldn't need a static IP if your company hasn't required one of you so far) with two IP addresses assigned to it. Traffic to both addresses would come to your single 'modem' and then be passed to your router. The router would be set up to forward traffic from one public IP to one computer, and the other to the other.

Now, depending on your ISP, it might be cheaper to run another ~$40/month personal connection to your location rather than springing for a single ~$90/month business connection. Heck, if you wanted to connect to your GF's computer you can get a router that will handle dual connections, direct the traffic as stated in option #3, and internally allow you both to see the other. Also, if you're asking the question, you probably don't have the mad networking skillz needed to set this up properly, so again, option #1 might just be the way to go...


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## shewillnotdie (Mar 2, 2009)

*Re: Two Separate IP Addresses For Same House?*



Troy_Jollimore said:


> You're getting the hint that Wanderer is the guy you should be listening to, at least.  The others aren't wrong, but the 'conventional' experience is similar to your own. One public IP address, one 'modem'/router, to x amount of computers in the home/business, each with it's own local address. I don't recall it being answered, but no, it's almost impossible to hide your 'public' IP address from the destination. Even if you could, who would it send the packets back to?
> 
> Like he said, talk to your ISP as to the relative costs of each, but the way I see it you have three choices:
> 
> ...


So let me get this straight. With option one I can bypass buying a switch box, bypass buying another router, and just purchase another 40$ month plant from my ISP with a separate modem? Would the second modem have to be connected to a separate co aux in the house or what?...


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## Jay_JWLH (Apr 30, 2008)

*Re: Two Separate IP Addresses For Same House?*

You might consider using wireless Internet. As long as you aren't using much data, that might turn out to be an affordable option to take. The one thing I am entirely uncertain about however is if you get to retain your IP address, which you can question your wireless provider about first. Is a static IP for wireless Internet possible? Then when you are done with your work, just switch back over to the wired connection to do everything else, especially if you want to enjoy YouTube. As for that whole networking between computers thing, that is more of a VLAN thing, which is typically a more business grade and complicated thing to do. Just switchin' cables would be easiest. But I must admit, the idea of VLAN's sounded fun.

The whole multiple IP address per broadband connection thing entirely depends on your ISP. I've never really heard of it myself, but we are in the digital age where more things are more possible, and some businesses need that kind of thing. You will certainly have to give your ISP a call and discuss it with them to see what is truly possible before going further. If they don't do it for you, then you might ask another ISP if they will. You may even have to discuss your needs in terms of hardware, because I doubt a personal use modem would handle business grade functionality. If anyone has gone through this route before, then it would be great to hear about it.

I do have a good idea though. If you have somebody else who runs their own broadband line with bandwidth and data to spare, then you could use them as a personal proxy or VPN. You could just remote desktop control a computer over at their place, keeping in mind that there will be some latency and performance issues that might hold back anything graphical. But if you just run a VPN to them, you are essecially feeding from their IP address, and typically your connection between you and them is encrypted. The second computer at your place would have to be the client, while at the other house it could opperate through their router or their always-on computer. Just a matter of installing and configuring the right software. Try GBridge. It has installed a virtual network adapter on both my computers, in case I need to run a remote desktop connection through the VPN. The only consequence of using this is latency.


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## Troy_Jollimore (Dec 31, 2007)

*Re: Two Separate IP Addresses For Same House?*

Jay actually has a point with his last comment. If you set up a computer at another residence and RDP'ed into it, that would achieve the same thing. Great, if you can get it for free... 

These days, the modem tends to have the router integrated with it, unless you insist on the extra security (then you'd have to buy another router, but they're cheap). They'd either make another cable run to your house (might be touchy getting them to do this with residential) with another modem, or they'd hang the second modem off your existing coax. Getting that signal to your GF's computer would be up to you, but again, modems tend to have wireless routers built into them these days.

If you haven't asked your ISP yet, do it. Ultimately, they're in control of what options you have.


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## shewillnotdie (Mar 2, 2009)

*Re: Two Separate IP Addresses For Same House?*

That's one hell of a clever idea with the remote assistance but I know 0 people period, let alone people that would let me leach their net like that. I pretty much got all the information I need to know to set this up. Now I just need to execute the proper steps and get the equipment. Thanks for all the help guys. I'm going to mark this as resolved as I know what I need to do next.


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