This topic

Wi fi security / Hotspot

leeb100 — Fri, 26 Aug 2022 18:35:24 GMT

For security reasons BT state that they can distinguish between users that are using my hotspot from members in my own household by IP address. I have seven different phones / computers connected to the internet in my household and each one shows a different IP address.

Re: Wi fi security / Hotspot

leeb100 — Fri, 26 Aug 2022 18:36:54 GMT

How would they distinguish who is from outside the household ?

Re: Wi fi security / Hotspot

licquorice — Fri, 26 Aug 2022 18:47:43 GMT

Users from outside your household will use a totally separate network and IP range. Your internal network is completely secure from anybody accessing your hub from the BT WiFi hotspot network

Re: Wi fi security / Hotspot

gg30340 — Fri, 26 Aug 2022 18:54:24 GMT

Along with what has been stated above, anybody using the BTWifi service has to log on with either their BTID or with a code they received when the paid for a BTWifi pass using their credit card.

Also see this link regarding BTWifi.

BT Wi-fi: Common questions about sharing your connection with other people | BT Help

If you are still not happy with the service you can Opt out from it.

How do I opt out of BT Wi-fi? | BT Help

Re: Wi fi security / Hotspot

leeb100 — Fri, 26 Aug 2022 18:54:59 GMT

Thank you for the quick response. I thought they were using my box via the hotspot scheme and that it would show as coming from my router. I’m not at all knowledgeable about this subject. As I have several devices connected to the internet via Wi-Fi in my household, and several of these devices change their IP address at each connection, are the devices allocated an IP address from the router ? Does the router have a certain number of IP addresses they can allocate to the devices ?

Re: Wi fi security / Hotspot

imjolly — Fri, 26 Aug 2022 18:59:48 GMT

BTWIFI has by a totally different IP address to your hub

Re: Wi fi security / Hotspot

leeb100 — Fri, 26 Aug 2022 19:02:37 GMT

Thank you. All seven of my devices are Connected via Wi-Fi and each is showing a different IP address on the Internet.

Re: Wi fi security / Hotspot

Anonymous — Fri, 26 Aug 2022 19:02:56 GMT

@leeb100wrote:
are the devices allocated an IP address from the router ?

Yes

@leeb100wrote:
Does the router have a certain number of IP addresses they can allocate to the devices ?

Yes, around 190 by default.

Re: Wi fi security / Hotspot

licquorice — Fri, 26 Aug 2022 19:07:10 GMT

Don't worry about it, your network uses an entirely separate IP range.

All your devices will have separate addresses in the 192.168.1.nnn range. You will not be able to see any devices connected to BT WiFi

Re: Wi fi security / Hotspot

leeb100 — Fri, 26 Aug 2022 19:13:44 GMT

Yes. So my connections are 192.168.1.nnn So how does the network operate if there are just 999 numbers available ? I’m probably missing something

Re: Wi fi security / Hotspot

licquorice — Fri, 26 Aug 2022 19:25:12 GMT

Don't worry about it.

The hub has an address range of 192.168.1.1 - 192.168.1.255

192.168.1.1 - 192.168.1.63 are available by default for you to allocate static addresses to devices.

192.168.1.64 - 192.168.1.253 are allocated by the hub via DHCP to devices on your network

192.168.1.254 is the address of the hub itself

192.168.1.255 is a broadcast address that all devices on your network would receive

Re: Wi fi security / Hotspot

leeb100 — Fri, 26 Aug 2022 20:01:24 GMT

I’m more curious. I thought BT would have a few hundred thousand IP addresses. I thought every customer had a different IP address. How does that work with just a range of a couple of hundred.

Re: Wi fi security / Hotspot

jac_95 — Fri, 26 Aug 2022 20:10:26 GMT

As below the CIDR block is for internal addressing and not the CIDR that is used for the public subnet.

NetRange:       192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255
CIDR:           192.168.0.0/16
NetName:        PRIVATE-ADDRESS-CBLK-RFC1918-IANA-RESERVED
NetHandle:      NET-192-168-0-0-1
Parent:         NET192 (NET-192-0-0-0-0)
NetType:        IANA Special Use
OriginAS:
Organization:   Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA)
RegDate:        1994-03-15
Updated:        2013-08-30
Comment:        These addresses are in use by many millions of independently operated networks, which might be as small as a single computer connected to a home gateway, and are automatically configured in hundreds of millions of devices.  They are only intended for use within a private context  and traffic that needs to cross the Internet will need to use a different, unique address.
Comment:
Comment:        These addresses can be used by anyone without any need to coordinate with IANA or an Internet registry.  The traffic from these addresses does not come from ICANN or IANA.  We are not the source of activity you may see on logs or in e-mail records.  Please refer to http://www.iana.org/abuse/answers
Comment:
Comment:        These addresses were assigned by the IETF, the organization that develops Internet protocols, in the Best Current Practice document, RFC 1918 which can be found at:
Comment:        http://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc1918
Ref:            https://rdap.arin.net/registry/ip/192.168.0.0

BTWifi operates over a different Virtual Network to your own BT Broadband Residential connection. Even though the same customer hardware is used (router) the different networks are separated and isolated and routed differently.

Re: Wi fi security / Hotspot

Anonymous — Fri, 26 Aug 2022 20:08:38 GMT

@leeb100wrote:
I’m more curious. I thought BT would have a few hundred thousand IP addresses.

Millions.

@leeb100wrote:
I thought every customer had a different IP address.

They do.

@leeb100wrote:
How does that work with just a range of a couple of hundred.

The "couple of hundred" are private addresses visible only within your (or anyone else's) network.

Think of your router as your front door. What happens on your side of it is private & not visible outside. Whereas the street & wider world outside is public & potentially visible to everyone.

Re: Wi fi security / Hotspot

leeb100 — Fri, 26 Aug 2022 20:16:57 GMT

I appreciate your answers. A lot of these go right over my head if I’m honest. The part I still don’t get is - if the last three digits are unique to each BT customer - how can each number be unique ? With only 3 digits

Re: Wi fi security / Hotspot

licquorice — Fri, 26 Aug 2022 20:19:02 GMT

As others have said, you need to diffentiate between public (internet routable) and private IP addresses.

You have a single public IP address that is unique in the world, but because the number of IPv4 addresses are limited, your home network addresses are what is known as private addresses and are not routable on the internet.

Every BT customer (and many millions of customers across the world) all have the same private IP addresses.

To be able to communicate across the internet, your private IP address is converted to your public IP address by a device known as NAT, network address translation that your home hub does.

Re: Wi fi security / Hotspot

imjolly — Fri, 26 Aug 2022 20:24:35 GMT

The !ast 3 digits are given to device connecting to your hub not a customer no 2 device on your hub can have the same address 192.168.1.xxx

This address has nothing to do with your public IP address

Re: Wi fi security / Hotspot

leeb100 — Fri, 26 Aug 2022 20:33:48 GMT

I thought that was my public IP address. When I go to what is my IP address it shows that number

Re: Wi fi security / Hotspot

licquorice — Fri, 26 Aug 2022 20:37:56 GMT

https://www.whatismyip.com/

Will show you your public IP address.

Your device private IP address will be 192.168.1.nnn

Re: Wi fi security / Hotspot

leeb100 — Fri, 26 Aug 2022 20:43:51 GMT

Yes. That’s right. So if that’s the case are there only nnn. Possible 999 private ip addresses.