drinkingbird
Part of the Furniture
NOTE this does not apply to VPN users. Many sites and apps block VPN IPs, and there isn't much you can do other than changing to different regional servers and hoping you find one that works.
There are a few reasons you may want to force your router to get a new WAN IP address from your ISP:
1. IP (or sometimes the entire subnet) has been blacklisted due to abuse by a previous user. This will cause one or several sites to either not load at all, or only partially load. Can also prevent you from sending emails, logging into apps on your phone, etc. Sometimes you can't register as a new user on a site, or post a comment, etc. Can be blocked from torrents so you get few to no peers or can't connect to trackers. Various other examples exist too.
2. IP has a routing issue in the ISP network or elsewhere on the internet. This typically will result in high latency or sluggish performance. You can test by pinging google.com. Generally everyone should be within 10-20 msec of a google server (some may be higher, especially Wireless internet and satellite). On wired internet (and even wireless in many cases) if you're above 50, and especially 100 and up, this could be the issue. On satellite over 100 is normal. Routing issues can also result in sites not loading at all if the routing problem is not just a sub-optimal route, but one that is totally dying somewhere.
-Another good test is to traceroute to a site you are having issues with. Most hops will have some indication of the location, often they use airport codes or the first few letters of a city. Like "BOS" for boston or "IAD" for Washington DC, etc. If you are on the east coast and your trace goes far away then comes back (or dies), that is a sub-optimal routing situation.
3. Location shown incorrectly - especially a problem if you're watching streaming sports where certain regions are blacked out, but can also impact other general activities. This happens when an ISP re-purposes a range they used somewhere else for use in your area but the GEO IP database isn't updated. This is less of an issue if you have location services enabled on your device and have your location correctly programmed into it, but some sites still rely on GeoIP even when you have location services on (and most sites fail back to it if you have location blocked).
-Note this is only for when your location is a totally different state, or in the case of a large state, a very far away part of it. If your location comes up as a nearby city, that is totally normal, GeoIP isn't super specific. In some cases, your ISP may just register all their IPs as being in the capital of your state or something like that and you can't do anything about that. But that shouldn't cause too many issues, it is only when it is a totally different region that it starts to impact things.
For all methods, make note of your current WAN IP (from the router or from whatsmyip.net) to compare and know when it has changed.
The method that will work for you depends on your ISP. Some very easily will give you a new IP, others are very "sticky".
Method 1 - Easiest
In Asus routers, you click the globe on the main page and turn your WAN to "off", wait a few seconds, then toggle it back on and see if you get a new IP. Other brands of routers should have a release WAN IP/DHCP somewhere, but not all of them do. Many ISP routers even have this but it can be hard to find. On these routers after releasing the WAN IP, you usually have to power cycle the router, unplug/plug the WAN, or wait a little while and it will get a new one.
This method typically works with Verizon FIOS to get a new IP as they give out new ones very easily. Sometimes you can even just unplug/plug the WAN or reboot the router to get a new IP.
Method 2
Same as method one, but before toggling WAN back on or powering router back up, reboot your modem (does not apply to Fiber internet, rebooting the ONT usually has no impact on your IP, this is for cable/wireless modem only). For fiber, method 1 above should work, possibly having to unplug the WAN cable, but if not go to method 4 below.
Method 3
Power off router. Power off cable modem. Wait about 30 seconds, power modem back on, once synched, power on router. The longer you leave the modem off, the better chance you have, so if you can let it go 5 minutes, an hour, or even overnight, your odds are increased. But if you don't want to wait that long and this isn't working, use method 4.
Method 4 - pretty much guaranteed to work
Most routers (even ISP ones) have a MAC clone feature. If you have a modem, power it off (if fiber, unplug the WAN port, either ethernet or coax). Clone any LAN MAC address to the WAN. Once it finishes applying/saving, plug the cable back in or power the modem back on. This should almost certainly get you a new IP. There is no harm in cloning a MAC, and you can choose any LAN device. In fact if the next IP is also problematic, you can repeat the same steps with a different LAN MAC. If you want, you can remove this and go back to your router's default WAN MAC later (you'll get a new IP again) but the amount of time you have to wait varies with ISP. Some can be as long as a month, some only need an hour or two. But there is 0 harm in doing this long term.
Method 5 - should not be necessary but just in case.
If all else fails, call your ISP tech support and tell them the IP they've assigned you is problematic and you need them to manually clear out your lease. Depending on the tech you get, this may take some escalations to get to someone who knows what you're talking about. If you keep getting IPs in the same subnet (only the last number changes) and the problem will not go away, you may have to escalate to tier 2 or 3 support to look into the routing issue or try to get it off a blacklist. They may be able to move you to a different subnet manually too.
Once you get a new IP, compare it to the one you had, and also test to see if the problem has gone away.
If your old IP was A.A.A.A and new is A.A.A.B it may not be enough to resolve the problem, but check and see. You can keep trying the method that worked to see if you get one from a different subnet like A.A.B.B.
If your new IP is A.A.B.B or A.B.B.B or best of all, B.B.B.B you have a better chance of the problem being solved. The more numbers that are different, the better. But again, test and see if the problem is resolved, if it is, doesn't matter if only one digit changed.
There are a few reasons you may want to force your router to get a new WAN IP address from your ISP:
1. IP (or sometimes the entire subnet) has been blacklisted due to abuse by a previous user. This will cause one or several sites to either not load at all, or only partially load. Can also prevent you from sending emails, logging into apps on your phone, etc. Sometimes you can't register as a new user on a site, or post a comment, etc. Can be blocked from torrents so you get few to no peers or can't connect to trackers. Various other examples exist too.
2. IP has a routing issue in the ISP network or elsewhere on the internet. This typically will result in high latency or sluggish performance. You can test by pinging google.com. Generally everyone should be within 10-20 msec of a google server (some may be higher, especially Wireless internet and satellite). On wired internet (and even wireless in many cases) if you're above 50, and especially 100 and up, this could be the issue. On satellite over 100 is normal. Routing issues can also result in sites not loading at all if the routing problem is not just a sub-optimal route, but one that is totally dying somewhere.
-Another good test is to traceroute to a site you are having issues with. Most hops will have some indication of the location, often they use airport codes or the first few letters of a city. Like "BOS" for boston or "IAD" for Washington DC, etc. If you are on the east coast and your trace goes far away then comes back (or dies), that is a sub-optimal routing situation.
3. Location shown incorrectly - especially a problem if you're watching streaming sports where certain regions are blacked out, but can also impact other general activities. This happens when an ISP re-purposes a range they used somewhere else for use in your area but the GEO IP database isn't updated. This is less of an issue if you have location services enabled on your device and have your location correctly programmed into it, but some sites still rely on GeoIP even when you have location services on (and most sites fail back to it if you have location blocked).
-Note this is only for when your location is a totally different state, or in the case of a large state, a very far away part of it. If your location comes up as a nearby city, that is totally normal, GeoIP isn't super specific. In some cases, your ISP may just register all their IPs as being in the capital of your state or something like that and you can't do anything about that. But that shouldn't cause too many issues, it is only when it is a totally different region that it starts to impact things.
For all methods, make note of your current WAN IP (from the router or from whatsmyip.net) to compare and know when it has changed.
The method that will work for you depends on your ISP. Some very easily will give you a new IP, others are very "sticky".
Method 1 - Easiest
In Asus routers, you click the globe on the main page and turn your WAN to "off", wait a few seconds, then toggle it back on and see if you get a new IP. Other brands of routers should have a release WAN IP/DHCP somewhere, but not all of them do. Many ISP routers even have this but it can be hard to find. On these routers after releasing the WAN IP, you usually have to power cycle the router, unplug/plug the WAN, or wait a little while and it will get a new one.
This method typically works with Verizon FIOS to get a new IP as they give out new ones very easily. Sometimes you can even just unplug/plug the WAN or reboot the router to get a new IP.
Method 2
Same as method one, but before toggling WAN back on or powering router back up, reboot your modem (does not apply to Fiber internet, rebooting the ONT usually has no impact on your IP, this is for cable/wireless modem only). For fiber, method 1 above should work, possibly having to unplug the WAN cable, but if not go to method 4 below.
Method 3
Power off router. Power off cable modem. Wait about 30 seconds, power modem back on, once synched, power on router. The longer you leave the modem off, the better chance you have, so if you can let it go 5 minutes, an hour, or even overnight, your odds are increased. But if you don't want to wait that long and this isn't working, use method 4.
Method 4 - pretty much guaranteed to work
Most routers (even ISP ones) have a MAC clone feature. If you have a modem, power it off (if fiber, unplug the WAN port, either ethernet or coax). Clone any LAN MAC address to the WAN. Once it finishes applying/saving, plug the cable back in or power the modem back on. This should almost certainly get you a new IP. There is no harm in cloning a MAC, and you can choose any LAN device. In fact if the next IP is also problematic, you can repeat the same steps with a different LAN MAC. If you want, you can remove this and go back to your router's default WAN MAC later (you'll get a new IP again) but the amount of time you have to wait varies with ISP. Some can be as long as a month, some only need an hour or two. But there is 0 harm in doing this long term.
Method 5 - should not be necessary but just in case.
If all else fails, call your ISP tech support and tell them the IP they've assigned you is problematic and you need them to manually clear out your lease. Depending on the tech you get, this may take some escalations to get to someone who knows what you're talking about. If you keep getting IPs in the same subnet (only the last number changes) and the problem will not go away, you may have to escalate to tier 2 or 3 support to look into the routing issue or try to get it off a blacklist. They may be able to move you to a different subnet manually too.
Once you get a new IP, compare it to the one you had, and also test to see if the problem has gone away.
If your old IP was A.A.A.A and new is A.A.A.B it may not be enough to resolve the problem, but check and see. You can keep trying the method that worked to see if you get one from a different subnet like A.A.B.B.
If your new IP is A.A.B.B or A.B.B.B or best of all, B.B.B.B you have a better chance of the problem being solved. The more numbers that are different, the better. But again, test and see if the problem is resolved, if it is, doesn't matter if only one digit changed.
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