Posted by coach_billyg on 4/30/2013 4:16:00 PM (view original):
just FYI hughes, the multiple people in an apartment issue is less of a technical issue than you think. think about it like this - you send a packet, and it HAS to be able to get back to you. ALL the information needed to make that possible, HAS to be in the packet you send. besides, you dont have the same IP as anyone else in the apartment, that isnt allowed. rather, your IP would be something like 192.168.0.2, while my IP (if i lived above you) might be 192.168.0.3. these are private, not externally routable IP addresses. so, you cant send a packet to WIS saying "hey this is from 192.168.0.1", because nobody knows what the hell that means (except on your LAN). so, your router will look and go, ok, i'm 1.2.3.4, ill send this packet to WIS from 1.2.3.4 port 5000, while coach_billyg's packet is sent from 1.2.3.4 port 5001. there are more sophisticated ways these things can be handled but thats the simplest way i know to explain it. generally, traffic is not going to be coming back to different ports for the same user, so its not difficult in the event of multiple IPs, to check the return port, and go hmm, there must be 2 guys there, CBG and hughes.
I am fairly sure (make that 100% sure, I just checked), that web browsers open up many connections at the same time to get pictures, etc.
tcp 0 0 192.168.0.10:36883 74.125.227.204:80 ESTABLISHED 12721/firefox
tcp 0 0 192.168.0.10:36886 74.125.227.204:80 ESTABLISHED 12721/firefox
tcp 0 0 192.168.0.10:36900 74.125.227.204:80 ESTABLISHED 12721/firefox
tcp 0 0 192.168.0.10:45367 74.125.227.197:80 ESTABLISHED 12721/firefox
tcp 0 0 192.168.0.10:46617 74.125.227.203:80 ESTABLISHED 12721/firefox
tcp 0 0 192.168.0.10:36903 74.125.227.204:80 ESTABLISHED 12721/firefox
tcp 0 0 192.168.0.10:56468 74.125.227.201:80 ESTABLISHED 12721/firefox
tcp 0 0 192.168.0.10:36892 74.125.227.204:80 ESTABLISHED 12721/firefox
tcp 0 0 192.168.0.10:36894 74.125.227.204:80 ESTABLISHED 12721/firefox
tcp 0 0 192.168.0.10:53447 74.125.227.207:80 ESTABLISHED 12721/firefox
tcp 0 0 192.168.0.10:36891 74.125.227.204:80 ESTABLISHED 12721/firefox
tcp 0 0 192.168.0.10:36889 74.125.227.204:80 ESTABLISHED 12721/firefox
tcp 0 0 192.168.0.10:36893 74.125.227.204:80 ESTABLISHED 12721/firefox
tcp 0 0 192.168.0.10:36905 74.125.227.204:80 ESTABLISHED 12721/firefox
tcp 0 0 192.168.0.10:53449 74.125.227.207:80 ESTABLISHED 12721/firefox
tcp 0 0 192.168.0.10:36899 74.125.227.204:80 ESTABLISHED 12721/firefox
tcp 0 0 192.168.0.10:53446 74.125.227.207:80 ESTABLISHED 12721/firefox
tcp 0 0 192.168.0.10:45366 74.125.227.197:80 ESTABLISHED 12721/firefox
tcp 0 0 192.168.0.10:36888 74.125.227.204:80 ESTABLISHED 12721/firefox
tcp 0 0 192.168.0.10:36885 74.125.227.204:80 ESTABLISHED 12721/firefox
tcp 0 0 192.168.0.10:36896 74.125.227.204:80 ESTABLISHED 12721/firefox
tcp 0 0 192.168.0.10:36897 74.125.227.204:80 ESTABLISHED 12721/firefox
tcp 0 0 192.168.0.10:36901 74.125.227.204:80 ESTABLISHED 12721/firefox
That is what happened when I made a connection to Google News ... I had multiple connections (23) at the same time. Each of those connections ALSO were from a different port of my external router to Google News at the same time. If another computer (PC2) also made a connection to Google News at a similar time, then there would have been 40 connections to them from my external router at the same time. Google can only tell that my router is sending 40 connections, they can not tell what machines they are coming from inside. (Unless the machines are using different browsers, etc.)