IP# question
 

I am running a contest in a forum and had 2 people sign up with the same ip#.

I know you can't have 2 people with the same IP but it was a couple days between their posts and is there anyway possible 2 people could have used the same number not from the same computer and they say their not even from the same state.
I don't want to come right out and say they are cheating but if it is not possible at all like I think then I want to know. If anyone knows more about this them me please let me know.... Thanks

AOL users often have same ip number and the same goes for a couple other large ISP's and dial up accounts.

yep, why not

or they are on the same home / work network .... but different computers ... it's very possible

If it's two people posting from a library, or small office, or home network... or any number of things, it's possible.

Multiple people on a LAN with some kind of NAT firewall will usually share an IP address.. Also, users with popular or small internet service providers with dynamic IP addresses could sometimes overlap

What it is I did is whoever brings the most new people to my forum. They just reply to that persons thread to say they recruited them. So under one guys name 2 of his friends signed up with different names saying they were different people with the exact same IP.205.188.116.138

I know sometimes they are close or whatever from AOL but 2 guys supposed from different states that aren't supposed to know each other having the same number exactly. I can't imagine the likelyhood of 2 people happening to dial up the same IP and just happen to post in my forum and for the same guy. I just can't see how.

If a guy got two of his friends to sign up they may have done it from his house....

dude: "Hey I'm in this contest to get people to sign up."
friend: "Okay lets do it now"
dude: "great use my pc and do it"

something to think about

I asked that orginally and what he said is the 2 guys don't know each other at all he just knows both of them. They are from different states one in Montana and one I think in Illinois.

So it is no way the same computer or network. It would have to just be they both logged in at AOL on seperate days and happened to get the same IP#. Then both posted in the same thread on those days. That seems not possible with all the AOL numbers out there but I wanted other opinions. It is really possible or just no damn way it could have happened that way.

that doesnt look like an aol ip

I ran an IP trace and all 205.188 ip's are registered to AOL

Payt, it's absolutely possible that it's a coincidence if they both use AOL. As a web proxy of sorts, AOL can interact with your site using that IP address for many users simultaneously. I just searched some of my log files for the day, and had over a hundred hits to several different sites from that exact same IP address.

It's a dynamic AOL IP, so it's entirely possible. I run a medium sized forum and I checked and I've got 77 members who have posted using that very same IP.

Thanks guys that helps alot. The guy wanted to drop out of the contest but he has helped so much building the forum I figured I could find some explanation. I will keep that in mind next month since it is a monthly competition to recruit new members.
Of course it makes it hard to figure out if any is cheating now since I was going to just watch ip numbers... oh well thanks again