ISP asking for my public IP? - Vancouver area

[smcw]

I am in the Vancouver BC area and just recently got signed up with Lightspeed Cable (lightspeed.ca). It's another Shaw TPIA that is a Cipherkey reseller.

 

Anyway, after my service got connected I got an email from them asking me to send them my public IP address. This seemed very strange to me, afterall I don't have a static IP plan and I would have thought the ISP could look up the address if they really wanted it.

 

Even if I do send it to them why would they need it?

[Applefreak]

3 minutes ago, smcw said:

I am in the Vancouver BC area and just recently got signed up with Lightspeed Cable (lightspeed.ca). It's another Shaw TPIA that is a Cipherkey reseller.

 

Anyway, after my service got connected I got an email from them asking me to send them my public IP address. This seemed very strange to me, afterall I don't have a static IP plan and I would have thought the ISP could look up the address if they really wanted it.

 

Even if I do send it to them why would they need it?

Seems odd, are you sure it's not spam / scam etc. ? Did you even give them your email address to contact you with, usually they send you regular mail not e-mail unless that is a provider specific thing.

[Skiiwee29]

no, do not send them it via email. Call them if you think it may be a valid request, but they should be able to know what your public IP is since they assign it to you.

[BlackManINC]

5 minutes ago, Skiiwee29 said:

no, do not send them it via email. Call them if you think it may be a valid request, but they should be able to know what your public IP is since they assign it to you.

@smcw What he said. Your public IP address is assigned to you by the ISP to start with. Nobody else but you and the IPS should know it. 

[Gokul_P]

23 minutes ago, smcw said:

I am in the Vancouver BC area and just recently got signed up with Lightspeed Cable (lightspeed.ca). It's another Shaw TPIA that is a Cipherkey reseller.

 

Anyway, after my service got connected I got an email from them asking me to send them my public IP address. This seemed very strange to me, afterall I don't have a static IP plan and I would have thought the ISP could look up the address if they really wanted it.

 

Even if I do send it to them why would they need it?

What. Your Ip is assigned by your ISP. Don't share it via Mail. 

[BlackManINC]

 The service provider is really asking for the public I.P address. What in tarnation?

 

 

 

 

[wseaton]

Tell them its 8.8.8 8.

 

See what happens

[BlackManINC]

If lightspeed.ca is a legitimate company, then whoever told you to give them your public IP address is not truly lightspeed, but pretenders, has to be. 

[smcw]

Thanks for the responses. I will give them a call, it's a very strange request from any ISP and definitely not something I've ever heard of.

 

Attached is the part of the welcome email where they ask for it.

[Jarsky]

Theres no reason for them to ask that from you. They can get your line identifier and then they can search your IP address in their system. This is pretty basic, since they'll receive letters from the big production companies for Piracy Cease and Desist, which has the date/time, name of the offending file, and the offending IP address, from which they have to forward the complaint to the customer. So they most definately can search this. 

[wanderingfool2]

That's a super odd email if it was them.  I would give them a call to confirm instead of emailing though.

 

 

With that said, if I had to venture a guess on why an ISP is asking what your IP address is, is to confirm that your internet is setup correctly.  Sure they could see that an IP has been assigned to your modem and everything might be looking fine from their end...but all it takes is the customer that sets up their modem/router combo and is using something like their neighbours wifi...only to get the complaint later that the "internet" is broken (despite everything on their end saying it works fine).  Or in the scenario where someone is switching providers, and the old provider still is there working until the end of the month.  You will get people mighty angry with you if the internet is working but only because they were connecting to the old router.  By asking for an IP address they are verifying that you have successfully setup your internet (and switched at least one device over to use it)

 

With that said, give them a call