Wan ip

[Spearball]

I know this might sound dumb to some people but i really don't know the answer myself. It's really bugging me... :confused:

Why is it that even though i have a dynamic ip from my isp, when i setup a router, everytime i check my ip at www.whatismyip.com it doesn't change. Whether i drop my connection and then put it back on its still that same ip. It only changed like once every few months. On the other hand, if i connect a computer directly into my modem the ip changes a lot more often.

Thanks

[Variable]

How often your IP changes is decided by the lease time set by your ISP. Since you don't specify the set up I would assume you go pc-router-modem or pc-modem. In either case, the lan side has no effect on the WAN side modem connection. If the modems Internet port or WAN side is the public IP, connecting or disconnecting LAN devices should not affect the WAN at all.
It is probably the traffic from the router to the next hop ISP router (WAN side gateway) is constant. This holds up the lease expiration because of some logic the ISP router uses. Your PC doesn't send the same type of traffic and the lease time follows their normal guidelines. If your router was acting as the modem I would say it is keep alive, but since this is probably not the case, it is probably constant router to router traffic doing the same thing.

[mjc]

The only thing...don't count on it.

The minute you set up a server or other item that works best with a static IP, it will change. But for right now, don't worry about it. It is just 'one of those things'...there are probably other several reasons it could be happening, but I think Variable's is the 'simplest'.