I sometimes get the following message when I log onto another UK forum.

"The IP Range for your account has changed. The actual Login took place from 82.31.x.x, the previous from 82.18.x.x. If you didn't log on from another location, then may be an aggressor has used your account without authorisation!"
Is this a genuine warning or a come on to buy an A/V or firewall program?
I haven't logged on from another pc..should I be worried and is the IP range change significant?
I have good a/v and f/w protection.

prolly a spam ad trying to scare you into buying some protection.....not 100% sure but thats what it looks like
log IN or just go to?

can i have the address and ill check? pm me if you want, just see if any ads appear

I have just found this on the forum "login security" by Cracker tracker

"Here you can have a look at your recorded IP addresses and the Login-time since you last 10 Login. You can see if your account was used by someone else. If there are unknown Login-times or IP adresses in the Login History - it is possible that someone has grabbed your password. In this case you should change the password for your account and check your e-mail account too."

Mon Feb 05, 2007 1:39 pm 82.31.xx.xx
2 Mon Feb 05, 2007 1:31 pm 82.31.
3 Mon Feb 05, 2007 11:36 am 82.31.
4 Sun Feb 04, 2007 6:06 am 82.18.
5 Fri Feb 02, 2007 12:41 pm 82.18.
6 Thu Feb 01, 2007 9:25 am 82.18.
7 Sun Jan 28, 2007 6:54 am 82.31.
8 Fri Jan 26, 2007 11:24 am 82.31.
9 Wed Jan 24, 2007 9:43 am 82.18.
10 Wed Jan 24, 2007 9:35 am 82.18.

Of course I can't remember the times/dates I went on the site!!
I have deleted the last 4 digits which seem to change from day to day.
I basically haven't a clue what the IP address means!!!

This is the forum url:http://www.endlers-r-us.co.uk/ but you have to register to get the login security on the navigation header.

Hi,

the reason why your IP address changes is that you connect to teh internet via a 'pool' of Internet addresses. You get one given to you by your ISP whenever you connect, and it will be 'yours' for that session. Next time you log on you might get a different IP address, or kepe the same one.

You can configure most Forum sofwtare to check the IP address that a user is coming in from and present a warning to the user if the IP address is significantly different - typically if the IP addresses have the first 3 numbers the same. So, if your IP address is represented by aaa.bbb.ccc.xxx if xxx changes form time to time it won't get hissy. But if the ccc part changes you might get a message.