IP Confusion

[Vizulize]

I am a little confused by the following.

If I check on the Router management console, the IP addresses of devices connected either by Ethernet or WiFi then the IP addresses look normal - xxx.xxx.x.xx

However if I check the IP addresses on a Microsoft Account Recent History then the IP addresses of the devices that connect by Ethernet correspond to the IP addresses on the Router, xxx.xxx.x.xxx But the IP addresses of the devices that connect by WiFi look completely different and follow this type of format XxXX:XXxX:xXXX:xXXX:xXxx:XXx:xXXX:xXxx

Question : Why, in Recent History, do Ethernet connected devices appear with a normal IP format whereas WiFi connected devices appear with a different IP format?

Viz

 

[lochlomonder]

Are you sure you're not getting confused between IPv4 and IPv6 addresses?

 

[Vizulize]

Are you sure you're not getting confused between IPv4 and IPv6 addresses?

Thanks for your reply. I am certainly getting confused...!

I wanted to keep the wording of my original Post simple without confusing the issue, but you are of course correct. The IP address as reported by the Router is IPv4 (decimal) and the IP address as reported by MS Account Recent History is IPv6 (hexadecimal).

My assumption was that MS-ARH would obtain the IP address info from the Router and I had assumed that the info would correspond irrespective of the connection method. If that is not the case then from where is MS-ARH obtaining the info.

Therefore to reword my original Post - Why the difference? And can the same device have both a IPv4 and an IPv6 address?

Viz

 

[Couriant]

Maybe you have TCP/IP Version 4 turned off for the wireless connection.

And yes you can have both versions on.

 

[Vizulize]

Maybe you have TCP/IP Version 4 turned off for the wireless connection. And yes you can have both versions on.

James, thank you for your reply.

I have checked the Router settings and according to my understanding of those settings IPv4 is not OFF for the WiFi connection. And yes, I accept that both v4 and v6 can be ON, which they are on this Router.

Question : Can both v4 and v6 be active for the same device at the same time? And if "yes" then why does the Router report the v4 address but MS Account Recent Activity report the v6 address? How is it possible for MS to obtain a different IP address than the one being reported by the Router?

Viz

 

[Couriant]

Sorry, I meant IPv4 is turned off on your CPE (computer), not the router.

But yes both and be active at the same time, I guess it depends on what application/device is able to look at or is configured to use.

The IPv6 address may look different but the information is still the same, just like Hello and Hola. Different language but for the same meaning, if that make sense, so it's possible it's converting it.

Providing the google search is right (I haven't done conversions in a long time) this is what it would look like:

192.168.1.100 <--> 0:0:0:0:0:ffff:c0a8:164
192.168.1.180 <--> 0:0:0:0:0:ffff:c0a8:1b4

EDIT:
So I checked into what you have said (the account activity) and I do have this:



If the IP in the second one is what you are referring to, then that's more than likely from the ISP that is reporting the IP address. Why it switched between the two may be dependent on how it connects at the time, or if it's simply a different service that doesn't support IPv6 yet.

 

[Vizulize]

James, that is a great explanation...

I think I now understand exactly what is happening.

I will take another look at this and try converting the Hex to Dec and see what the result is.

Thanks again.

Viz

 

[Couriant]

I tried that and didn't get the result I was looking for lol The last time I did anything IPv6 related was about 10 years ago. Perhaps our resident network guru zxguy would be able to help with this..

 

[zx10guy]

Stumbled across this thread. I have to say upfront my IPv6 expertise is very limited. There are whole classes dedicated to IPv6.

With that said, the IPv6 address you see is not a direct hex translation from IPv4. You can have a different IPv6 versus IPv4 on the same box running at the same time where translation of one into the other will not match (ie hex to decimal or vice versa conversion). The IPv6 stack runs separate from the IPv4 stack.

As to why you're seeing your wireless clients reporting in with IPv6 addresses, I don't know. Typically, you can turn off IPv6 on all your devices. And if your ISP is using IPv6 for your public address, your router is performing IPv6 to IPv4 translation.

One thing you want to look up is to see if the IPv6 address falls within the a range of IPs that indicate there is no comms to a DHCP server. IPv6 has addresses that are the same as the 169 address for IPv4.

 

[TerryNet]

Question : Can both v4 and v6 be active for the same device at the same time? And if "yes" then why does the Router report the v4 address but MS Account Recent Activity report the v6 address?

Yes.

To determine the remainder find out from the router designer and/or coder why the V4 address was chosen and find out from the Microsoft designer and/or coder why the V6 address was chosen. With that information in hand maybe you or somebody here can at least guess why the choices were different.

 

[Vizulize]

Apologies for the delay in responding and thank you for the information and suggestions.

I have written to my Service Provider (who also supplied the Router) and am waiting for a intelligent reply..... still waiting..... still waiting....

Viz