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The IP addresses are of two users that are logged in at the same website at the same time. Does this mean the users are on different routers but at the same location or on the same intranet?

thinkpad22
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IP addresses are 32-bit binary numbers. That's how your computer sees them. But we humans have a hard time remembering all those ones and zeros, so we came up with the dotted decimal notation. The "dots" between the digits are there only to make the numbers more readable -- they have no significance to the computer.

So you answer your question, you can't tell just from the IP address. And to your website, it makes no difference. You would have to know the subnet masks of the networks the computers were on in order to tell.

Ron Maupin
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Ron Trunk
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  • Hi and thank you so much for your time and help. If the first three sets of numbers of the IP address are the same, doesn't that mean the connections are from the same network or LAN? – thinkpad22 Jun 11 '20 at 14:58
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    No, that can only hint that there probably are within the same geographic area, but 2 contiguous IP addresses can be used at totally different places. – JFL Jun 11 '20 at 15:04
  • The "sets" mean nothing to the computer. – Ron Trunk Jun 11 '20 at 15:06
  • Thank you! I read that if the first three sets of the IP address are the network ID, then it means the computer is connected to a class C network, which can serve only about 250 connections. So in this case, it is possible that the two IP addresses are on the same class C network, right? And that class C network could be a LAN or intranet like at a PC cafe or home network? Sorry for my lack of knowledge. I appreciate your patience. – thinkpad22 Jun 11 '20 at 15:30
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    Yes, it is possible. But it is also possible that it is not a class C network and they are not on the same LAN. You just can't tell from the address alone. – Ron Trunk Jun 11 '20 at 15:43
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    Classes have been dead for decades. What you mean by "class C" is /24. As you aren't part of that network, you have zero information about the size of the network. And thanks to tunneling and bridging technologies, what may appear to be hosts within the same network may not be. (the vpn client on my laptop gets me an address on the office lan, but I'm obviously not there. the firewall is bridging me into the office lan.) – Ricky Jun 11 '20 at 21:10
  • @thinkpad22, "it is possible that the two IP addresses are on the same class C network, right?" No, not if you are using your example addressing where the first bit of the address is 0, which makes it an old, deprecated Class A address. You apparently did not read and understand the answer I linked in my comment to your question. The very last section of the second part of the answer explains about network classes. – Ron Maupin Jun 12 '20 at 01:33