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I am wondering when my IP address lease expires and renews it self. I have been I.P. Banned from a gaming server and want to go on it again. I have a dynamic IP and it still doesn't change when I reset it, I have tried nearly everything but it still doesn't work.

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    That would probably depend on your ISP...
    – Bob
    Apr 21, 2012 at 9:47
  • Maybe talk to the people who run the gaming server; and/or your ISP, as @bob said.
    – slhck
    Apr 21, 2012 at 9:58
  • Have you rebooted your router/adsl modem?
    – BJ292
    Apr 21, 2012 at 10:31

2 Answers 2

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You need to talk to the administrators of the gaming server. You have been banned by your IP. But it is you that is banned, not your IP. If you change your IP, you will still be banned. You'll just be evading the ban, in violation of Federal law.

An IP ban is a technical means to communicate to a user that they are banned. While it has the function of preventing anyone using your IP from using the server, that is due to technical limitations -- if they could ban just you by any IP address you used, they would. That measure simply doesn't exist, so they use an IP ban to tell you that you are banned -- that you no longer have permission to access their computer.

Whoever ... intentionally accesses a computer without authorization or exceeds authorized access, and thereby obtains ... information from any protected computer ... shall be punished as provided in subsection (c) of this section." -- 18 USC 1030(a)(2)(C)

The IP ban clearly indicates the revocation of any authorization to access the computer you might have had. A "protected computer" includes any computer "which is used in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce or communication". So accessing the game server would be obtaining information from a protected computer.

Try apologizing. Explain that you understand what you did wrong and that you won't do it again. Odds are, they'll lift the ban. But using a technical trick to evade an access control measure is illegal in the United States.

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  • This is an old question and answer I know but there is some materially false information here. It is not a violation of federal law to join a publicly available game server regardless of ban. You even quote (A)(2)(C) which states information from any computer. You don't obtain any information when accessing a game server. Also Please don't quote law when you have zero understanding of it. Feb 5, 2018 at 14:34
  • (2)the term “protected computer” means a computer— (A)exclusively for the use of a financial institution or the United States Government(B)which is used in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce or communication A game server doesn't fall under that. I'm going to restate this. Don't talk about the law when you don't even understand the plain English that's written out in it. Evading a ban is not, and never has been, and never will be against the law. Feb 5, 2018 at 14:36
  • @BirdLawExpert You can't understand laws by reading their plain English because, in the United States, court rulings are precedential. The term "used in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce" is a combination of terms of art that doesn't have its plain English meaning. It is understood to be a jurisdictional hook that would, without serious question, include a game server. Such servers are operated by commercial ventures for commercial purposes and accessible across State lines. Feb 5, 2018 at 19:37
  • @BirdLawExpert Heck, Internet access itself is Interstate commerce. Merely by connecting a computer to the Internet, it affects Interstate commerce. If your defense relies on something not affecting Interstate commerce, you're definitely going to lose because almost everything affects Interstate commerce. See Wickard v. Filburn or Gonzales v. Raich. Feb 5, 2018 at 19:41
  • you're right, I totally didn't spend 7 years in federal law enforcement before becoming a web developer. I don't know what I'm talking about. I have never charged anyone with a computer crime before. Your home computer is not effecting actual interstate commerce. Neither is a random forum. And going to www.whatever.com if you're banned is not a violation of the law. It is referring to accessing the server itself. It would be a crime to manipulate the DB to remove his ban. Not go to a website. Feb 14, 2018 at 15:46
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You router should tell you when its DHCP lease is up. For example, this is what my DD-WRT based router tells me right now:

enter image description here

But even when your lease is up, and you re-request an IP address, you might still receive the same IP again. There is no guarantee that you'll get a new IP address.

In fact, to my understanding, IP devices that take part in DHCP will always try to request/assign the same IP addresses to the same MAC addresses unless configured otherwise.

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  • My Netgear router invariably denies all ip lease renewal requests and assigns a different ip. Its DHCP behavior has zero configurability.
    – kreemoweet
    Apr 21, 2012 at 15:39

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