What is a shared IP address?

Some members are unable to participate in surveys, due to a shared IP address. An IP address is allocated to every computer that has access to the Internet. This address is issued by your internet provider.

To have a shared IP address does not mean that someone has access to your computer. A single IP address is usually shared only within a local home network or a company network for all connected computers. However depending on the type of your internet connection it is entirely possible for you to share the same IP address with users whom you do not know. This is purely coincidental and most likely not in your control.

Here is an explanation of how this works:

Dynamic IP addresses are temporary and are assigned each time a computer connects to the Internet. They are, in effect, borrowed from a pool of IP addresses that can be shared among many computers. Since a limited number of static IP addresses are available, many ISPs assign individual IP addresses to multiple subscribers at the same time. This lowers costs and allows them to service far more subscribers than they otherwise could.

Another frequent explanation for a shared IP address is the use of a web-proxy for browsing the internet. In particular some mobile browsers like BlackBerry or Opera may access the internet through central proxy servers hosted by these companies. This is usually done in order to reduce web-traffic. When using such proxy servers we can only recognize the IP address of the proxy and hence all users that use the same proxy appear to share the same IP address. In some cases, where the use of such web-proxies is not required by your internet provider, it may be possible for you to disable using the web-proxy in your phone’s settings.

The Implications this has for myiyo

As we have already stated elsewhere, the information you supply when completing surveys is totally anonymous and forwarded to our clients in data format. However, to verify that the interviews were completed by separate individuals, most online questionnaires track the IP address of the respondents. We cannot forward your email address to our clients to verify your interview as you would no longer be anonymous and we would be in breach of contract.

In order to avoid users completing the questionnaire more than once, which would also have a negative impact on the final results of the survey, the server will only accept the IP address once and reject successive attempts. Hence, users sharing the same IP address will be unable to attempt that particular survey.

Providers do not always supply users with a UNIQUE IP address and this in effect is an unforeseen problem that we are currently encountering mainly with users in South Africa and Poland. It is also a problem that we cannot rectify from here.

We are currently looking at other means of verification, but unfortunately, this may take some time. There is no simple solution.

We apologize to the many users who have encountered this problem and the frustration that it has caused, but as previously stated there is little that we can do on our end apart from searching for other means of verification that would be acceptable to our clients.