what is it and how can it be changed.
We are going to explain to you what is a public IP and how can you change it. These are the license plates that are assigned to each user when browsing the Internet, so if a page or service blocks it, it can cause you to stop being able to access it. Hence, some users may want to change it, either for that reason or for having a more anonymous browsing.
The good news is that when the conditions are right, changing your public IP address is extremely easy. But there are cases where you may not be able to do it, so we will also mention some alternatives with which to have a similar effect. But before that, Let’s start by explaining to you in an understandable way what is that of a public IP and how can you know which is yours.
What is the Public IP and how to know it
A Public IP is the address assigned to you by your ISP, companies that provide Internet access such as Telefónica, Vodafone, etc., and is used to identify you on the Internet when you connect. Although there are also fixed ones, it is common for these IPs to be dynamic and change without you noticing from time to time.
Nobody can surf the net without an IP, and no web page can be online if it does not have an associated IP. In fact, when you type an address like ‘www.google.es’, what the browser does is translate that text to an IP address to be able to connect to the Google page and access its content.
Therefore, these public IP addresses are like the license plate that is assigned to you when you connect. It is a way of identifying yourself as a user in the vastness of the network, since no IP can be repeated.
Being the identifier with which you go to the network it never hurts know what your public IP is. To obtain it, there are different methods depending on your operating system, but the easiest way is to resort to a page specialized in showing it to you. There are hundreds of them, and it is a quick method that does not depend on your operating system.
For example, just by entering pages like See my IP or WhatMyIP.com you can see automatically and without having to click anywhere what your public IP is. In them you can also check if you browse through a proxy that hides your real IP.
How to change your public IP
When it comes to being connected to the Internet, there may be three cases in relation to your public IP. The first is that you have a dynamic or fixed IP, which means that the address may or may not vary. If it’s dynamic, forcing change is easy. The fixed ones are unlikely that you have them, because they are usually paid. You can also be in a CG-NAT, a system with which some operators assign the same IP to several users.
If you want to change your dynamic public IP I have good news, and it is very easy to do it. First close all the windows of your browser, or all the browsers you use. Then, turn off the router you have at home and turn it on again after a few minutes. If the router is internal to any computer, restart it. When you reconnect to the Internet, check if your public IP has changed.
If the restart does not work, you have a fixed IP, or you browse in a CGNAT, then you will have to resort to other resources. The first is to use a VPN. You will have to do this locally by configuring it on your PC or on your mobile, although there are browsers that also integrate it. With this you will not change your public IP, but you will be using an external server to mask it and, in the eyes of other pages and services, it will be as if you had a different IP.
The second method is to use a proxy, which acts as an intermediary between the connections of a client and a destination server. Your public IP will remain the same, but by having an intermediary, the pages and services you visit will believe that you use another IP because they will not be seeing yours, but the proxy through which you are connecting to them.
