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Basically, i need to know how long (on average) and ip address is used per user, this can be US-only stats or World-Wide stats, if you have a source please state it. If its your own data please let us know how you've come to this determination. If its off the top of yoru head (which is fine) please feel free to elaborate on it.

Because some routers stay on for days, weeks and months, this really throws speculative accuracy off as many people i am assuming are holding onto the same IP address for really long amounts of time. In the earlier days most people would have a new IP address when they reboot (dialup etc), but i fear this is no longer the majority.

this information is crucial to me in programming an interface that needs the average amount of time an IP address is used (on average) to determin a few things. Any form of information will help, also, im not interested in an alternative way of doing what im trying to accomplish, which is why i didn't want to get into that detail, but rather, just this time average for anyone who has any idea of it.

also, i tried google. i really could not find the stats, i suspect i don't know how to construct the query for this. also, this information is for non-mobile internet (by this i mean excluding cell phone, ipad, blackberry, iphone etc internet access). also, i am not tracking the person, just the ip address and how long it is in use by any given user until it changes or is unleased. thanks.

Found Suitable Answer:

Here is a suitable answer for anyone interested, if you find this answer useful please feel free to upvote. thanks.

https://web.archive.org/web/20101016070159/http://blog.comscore.com/2008/09/the_myth_of_static_ip_1.html

This report is written very well and has more than just average information, if you find other suitable reports or sources, please post to comments (since discussion/answering was closed), comments are accepted!

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    There is a big difference between an IP being changed and being unleased. Leases are often rather short, like an hour or two, then the user needs a new lease. Very often they get the same IP in the new lease, so a new lease doesn't mean an IP change.
    – Guffa
    Sep 8, 2010 at 5:44
  • 4
    I can't resist the compulsion to ask you why or how anyone could ever possibly benefit from knowing the mean duration of IP address leases on the internet. Wouldn't you also like to know the median and the standard deviation? Why not guess?
    – Eric Mickelsen
    Sep 8, 2010 at 5:46
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    You'll find it hard to find these statistics, because there is no practical use for this information. Sep 8, 2010 at 5:56
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    there is practical use actually, when trying to determin unique visitor counts, when to reset, also when blocking users based on ip, to determine how long this block is meaningful to keep, etc... and many more.
    – Erx_VB.NExT.Coder
    Sep 8, 2010 at 5:59
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    @Erx: The fact that you're not willing to share the context makes this question less useful than it otherwise would be. If you're going to ask for something which doesn't sound meaningful but where your particular context makes it meaningful, you should describe that context.
    – Jon Skeet
    Sep 8, 2010 at 7:42

4 Answers 4

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It will likely depend on your audience - and in particular, how many of your users are users of mobile internet. I've found that my IP address on 3G networks changes very often, even though my home IP address doesn't.

You should also take into account users who will access your site (I'm assuming you're creating a web site; you've given us no context) from multiple locations, e.g. home and work.

Ultimately, the best source of information is reality - if you already have some version of the site running, you should measure it yourself.

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  • this is why im looking for an average number, since the data can vary so much. also, not interested in mobile, as my interface is windows based.so windows users - it doesn't matter where they connect from etc, just rather just that connection itself (ip) and how long (on average) it stays online.
    – Erx_VB.NExT.Coder
    Sep 8, 2010 at 5:36
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    @Erx_VB.NExT.Coder: You seem to be assuming that mobile internet = mobile phone. I'm typing this comment on a 3G network, on my Windows netbook. Also, you still haven't defined your target audience - and that could make a huge difference to the results. It would also help if you'd say what you're hoping to achieve with this. We may have other ideas that could help. Finally, you should define what you mean by IP address here... most users will be behind a NAT. Do you mean the IP address that the outside world sees, or the computer's internal IP address?
    – Jon Skeet
    Sep 8, 2010 at 5:59
  • hi, IP address that the outside world sees. my target audience are windows users who contume/use this ip address, regardless of their location. of course, im not interested in mobile phone/cell phone users but even if this were in the data then it is better than nothing and i could try to account for it using other means, right now i really have nothing. thanks.
    – Erx_VB.NExT.Coder
    Sep 8, 2010 at 6:03
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    @Erx: I don't believe your target audience is every Windows user on the planet, or even in the US. Is every kind of person equally likely to use your application?
    – Jon Skeet
    Sep 8, 2010 at 6:16
  • yes, every type of person is equally likely to use my application, and even if they weren't, i know how to account for this and factor it into my data analysis if i needed to.
    – Erx_VB.NExT.Coder
    Sep 8, 2010 at 7:56
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My estimation: once a month

I live in BC, Canada.

I'm basing this estimate on the fact that I've been working on a project for past month and a bit where I've needed to connect to my local server by explicitly typing my own IP address. It only changed once on me over this period of time.

I shut down my computer every night, so it has to reconnect in the morning.

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  • thanks mate, i appreciate that. just to confirm this is info based on your connection and yourself alone? or your guestimation on others as well?
    – Erx_VB.NExT.Coder
    Sep 8, 2010 at 5:49
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    I'm glad you stated it was an estimate, and provided your assumptions. Let me think, that's a sample space of, ... one, yes, that's it, one. Now I'm pretty certain there's a few billion computers on the planet so I'm not entirely certain of the statistical value here :-)
    – paxdiablo
    Sep 8, 2010 at 6:37
  • @OP: Yes, just me :) @pax: Hey! He said anything will help. At least I was clear about my sources. If another thousand people report similar findings, then maybe it will become part of something of statistical value. Gotta start somewhere, no?
    – mpen
    Sep 8, 2010 at 7:22
  • @Mark, wasn't trying to have a go at you. Just injecting a little humour :-)
    – paxdiablo
    Sep 8, 2010 at 7:32
  • @paxdiablo, i said thank you to him because i am a polite respectful person who ackowledges what is still hte best answer in the room. you can rest assured that i know the value of 1 unit of data from a sample of essentially high millions. you shouldn't assume people would value something in a retarded way, we are all programmers here, not idiots. perhaps you should read the comment i left on my question regarding emotional/psychological help.
    – Erx_VB.NExT.Coder
    Sep 8, 2010 at 7:42
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Keep in mind that people connect in so many different ways these days, that it is really hard to come up with exact numbers.

At home I have a static IP, at work I connect through a corporate firewall, which gives me a limited set of IP addresses, when I commute, I use dial-up where addresses are assigned from a large pool and my smart phone can use either dial-up or wifi. In short, as a single user, I have multiple IP addresses with very different life time and I reckon I am not the only one.

You will stand a munch better chance at tracking this via user login than IP.

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  • yes, this is why im looking for an average number, since the data can vary so much. also, not interested in mobile, as my interface is windows based. also, not interested in alternatives, just after a number, which is certainly derivable from some form of online statistics, which i cannot find.
    – Erx_VB.NExT.Coder
    Sep 8, 2010 at 5:44
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    @Erx_VB.NExT.Coder - but because the data can vary so much, an average is both virtually impossible to find, and completely meaningless. Sep 8, 2010 at 5:49
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    But "an average number" is practically meaningless precisely because the data can vary so much. Example: my church has DSL with a static IP; their IP never changes, ever; at home I have DSL and my IP changes every 24 hours. EDIT: Marc is faster than me, but we both said the same thing: the mean (average) is not a robust statistic. Sep 8, 2010 at 5:54
  • i cannot believe you think it is entirely meaningless, i disagree with you there. as it is very meaningful, my audience are windows users, and wide i know, doesn't make it meaningless, as if it is not skewed, then i can estimate more based on a bell curve, but it probably is and ill take that into account seperately.
    – Erx_VB.NExT.Coder
    Sep 8, 2010 at 5:57
  • @Erx_VB.NExT.Coder: Without knowing your target audience, the average across all Windows users is pretty meaningless. It could be completely different to the figure your users will actually see.
    – Jon Skeet
    Sep 8, 2010 at 6:02
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I'm no expert, but it depends on the type of connection they have. If they are using dial-up, they would have a different IP every time they reconnect to the internet. This could one or more times per day, all depending on the person. If they have mobile broadband, then it would change even more often. If they have a router which has a continuous connection, then there IP could remain the same for months on end. If they are connecting to the internet from a mobile device, there IP may change as much as 20 times per day.

In short, there is no way to tell. It all depends on your audience, and most people have different connection methods. They could change IP every 10 minutes, or every 10 months.

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  • yes, this is why im looking for an average number, since the data can vary so much. also, not interested in mobile, as my interface is windows based.
    – Erx_VB.NExT.Coder
    Sep 8, 2010 at 5:39
  • well, I would estimate as an average of all different connection methods: one-three days.
    – Alexander Rafferty
    Sep 8, 2010 at 5:41
  • Sorry to ask, but how do you rule out mobile users on account of your interface being Windows based? What about laptops? Sep 8, 2010 at 5:43
  • @Erx_VB.NExT.Coder: Some Windows users have mobile broadband. For example, my home internet connection is through a 3G modem, just like you'd have on a smartphone. Sep 8, 2010 at 5:44
  • I think he means mobile devices (phone, iPod, iPhone, ect...) not mobile broadband (which I once had).
    – Alexander Rafferty
    Sep 8, 2010 at 5:51

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