Hello TOMMEEEK.

Thank you for your inquiry. We are pleased to inform you that there is a reasonable explanation for the appearance of these "ghost" aliases. This has to do with your ISP and we want to assure you that this is a natural occurence quite common amongst a sizable majority of our members.

A static IP address is a number (in the form of a dotted quad) that is assigned to a computer by an Internet service provider (ISP) to be its permanent address on the Internet. Computers use IP addresses to locate and talk to each other on the Internet, much the same way people use phone numbers to locate and talk to one another on the telephone.

It would be simple if every computer that connects to the Internet could have its own static IP number, but when the Internet was first conceived, the architects didn't foresee the need for an unlimited number of IP addresses. Consequently, there are not enough IP numbers to go around. To get around that problem, many Internet service providers limit the number of static IP addresses they allocate, and economize on the remaining number of IP addresses they possess by temporarily assigning an IP address to a requesting Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) computer from a pool of IP addresses. The temporary IP address is called a dynamic IP address.

Many popular internet service providers make use of Dynamic IP addresses (including AOL, Shaw Communications, Telus and Bell), so please continue requesting clarification from AGORACOM should you find multiple users logging on to our site from the same IP, or if you would like us to provide clarification on this matter.

Thanks again for your inquiry and for your contributions within the AGORACOM Community. If you have any further questions on this matter, please send us a note to contactagora@agoracom.com.

Regards,
AGORACOM