Forum Discussion
Is anyone else having problems with a changing IP address?
I’ve had the Home Internet service for 3 months now and I’m generally happy with it, but one thing is rather annoying. The external IP address that gets assigned to my gateway keeps changing. This has two side effects. Web sites for CCs, banks, etc remember the IP address that you last used to connect and if it changes, they will require additional verification. The other problem is with streaming TV services. The local broadcasts that I’m allowed to watch will depend on where they think that I’m located. My estimated location usually depends on my IP address and in the last month this has changed 4 times! My IP address location has changed from Kansas to Oklahoma, to Texas and today it thinks I’m on Ohio!
- ryanmcd737Newbie Caller
People above not understanding the problem are not reading it carefully. This is NOT about having a static IP. Its that the IP is changing as frequently as every few SECONDS. The wreaks havoc with many sign ins as if your IP changes mid-transaction it invalidates the transaction and you CANNOT LOG INTO THINGS YOU NEED TO. I can solve it with a VPN, but that’s a pain. Many services block IP switching mid transaction as a security measure and in other cases programs loose their connection to a server mid application causing errors. It is entirely unacceptable service from an ISP.
- siweckreNewbie Caller
I keep losing Hulu. I have to call them and enter a new code from my computer. Also, all my financials want to be verified again. My wife is not happy with this, since I have to do this. If it continues, tmobile will lose a customer
- ridNewbie Caller
This is causing me not to be able to log into my banks that use Netteller becasue the IP is changing mid login. Netteller thinks its a redirect hack. Really annoying. I have to call tmobile to have the reset everything every time, then it works for a week, then stops. Going to have to change provider.
- djb14336Bandwidth Buddy
Joe in Detroit wrote:
There's an easy way to fix this. Unplug the gateway, then tap the reset port on the back with a push pin or paper clip. Slide the power switch off then on for good measure. When the top 3 lights are out and the front light is reddish, plug the power back in. When all the lights are green, the gateway should be reoriented to your local area.
All it generally takes to change IP is a reboot. Still on the LTE box, which takes a little while to fully come back online. If by chance it isn't down long enough to trigger an IP swap, doing a full power down usually does the trick as that cycle takes a bit longer.
The point is that we are on a system that behaves kinda like a cheap/free VPN service (shared/dynamic IP's with short lease times) and sometimes we will get shot off into left field trying to get us online.
It appears the off-the-wall locations usually happen when congestion has ramped up where we were previously tunneled through. For me here in Sputh Carolina, it tends mostly to swap between Charlotte and Atlanta... occasionally I might get shunted to Miami or somewhere out west though.
When those further out locations crop up, bandwidth REALLY tanks from the congestion. Usually take that as a sign to just go do something else for about an hour, then power cycle the modem and hope things clear up.
- Sherlock_HolmesTransmission Trainee
I don’t understand this thread. Unless you pay your ISP for a static IP you won’t have a static IP. I don’t know of sites that validate you by IP address either, we use logins, password, two factor auth for that.
I use my phone to access my bank, I can do that at home or in an office, in each case the IP will differ because the WiFi networks differ.
Maybe I missed something...
- big_composerNewbie Caller
My fix is in the last paragraph, but here is some context if you’re interested...
A short lease of my IP address just started happening to me, and I came across this forum. My external IP address is changing once or twice per minute! As you can imagine, this is really inconvenient because many sites check for this and boot the user when their IP address changes mid-session causing the user to login again.
I’m on a Mac, so at first I thought it had to do with the new-ish “limit IP tracking” feature -- turning that off didn’t do anything for me.
I then called T-Mobile and was not able to get beyond the first step of support (he was super nice, just not very helpful -- he spoke to an engineer up the ladder and came back to tell me that there was a difference between static and dynamic IP addresses...d’oh). The issue is not that it’s a dynamic IP address -- it’s the lease time of the dynamic external IP address that the Gateway is throwing out to the world. I was able to see my external IP address change very quickly through a simple PHP script.
(if you’re interested:)
echo ' MyIP:'. $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
My fix was to sign up for an external VPN (I chose protonVPN, but there are many others out there). This has fixed my issue, and I hope it’s helpful to someone else who comes across this discussion.
- ryanmcd737Newbie Caller
I will add I have had tmobile home internet for over a year and this problem is NEW in the last couple of months.
- uebelharjrNewbie Caller
I am having a different, but IP issue non the less. My new T-Mobile modem shows one IPV4 IP address, Gateway IP and DNS IP. However, Whatsmyip shows a completely different IP. Any ideas on how to ask them to fix it? I am looking at switching from DSL, where it always shows the same for both DSL Modem WAN Public side and WhatsmyIP. Typically, only changes with a reboot.
- 2faroffroadNewbie Caller
I’m having the same issues as of recently. I cant keep a IP address for more than a few seconds.
Also, Each of these IP checking sites always shows a different IP4 address even when loaded one after the other.
whatismyipaddress.com
whatismyip.com
whatsmyip.org
This is a new issue and causing login issues for me with several site backends.
- drd799Roaming Rookie
I’m experiencing the same very-rapid (once per second or so) changing IP address problem. Unable to log in to a variety of websites (cloud backup provider, webmail at my domain hosting service, drivers license renewal on my state government website, ...). I could log in to these earlier this year so the problem appears to have started recently for me.
I actually made a screen-capture video demonstrating my rapidly changing public IP address, anyone can check it out here:
Demonstration of Rapidly Changing Public IP address
As others have mentioned, T-Mobile Home Internet call-in support hasn’t been of much help, but I did speak to a supervisor who understands why this is a problem. I have a support ticket in to their engineering group (no opportunity to speak with them) and he said he will point them to this demo video and keep me updated with status of the ticket. I’ll post any useful info I receive here.
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