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This is probably a pretty basic question with a fairly simple answer, but I was just wondering if anyone could clarify why there is a different IP address for my Ethernet connection and my Wireless LAN connection, rather than just one IP address for the actual machine?

Lauripops
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1 Answers1

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It's because they are different connections. Each interface, hard wired or wired, will have its own IP address. The IP itself is assigned by your router. If you are concerned with what pool your IP is assigned from, you need to go into your setup utility and see what is allocated for wireless, and what is wired. This same thing would happen if you had 2 ethernet cards in your machine. Each one would have it's own IP.

In other words, the IP is a unique identifier as per device, not each machine. You will have as many IPs as you have devices.

Andy
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durbnpoisn
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    No, IP address is not necessarily assigned by your router; It may be configured manually. There may also be multiple IP addresses per interface. – vhu Jun 19 '14 at 07:44
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    @vhu is correct. You can set your IP manually if you'd like. However, your router still has to be aware of that, and whatever IP you choose must be within a specified range. – durbnpoisn Jun 19 '14 at 12:47