Have two XP computers with a Linksys BEFSX41 router. Each PC has it's own IP, but when posting on a forum where I and wife hangout, I have noticed that our IP's show up as the same. Is this normal?

Also, should this slow our speeds way down when we both are online? We have cable modem but most times when online together, it's feels like we are using dial-up.

Thanks for any help!

That's the main reason most people buy a router for -- sharing the same IP (not having to pay for more). It's perfectly normal.


If you're on a very slow connection (the very cheap "entry" plans), then yes. Otherwise it shouldn't affect your speeds much. Except when you're both on the same site, as the web servers usually limit the max number of connections per IP (and you're both making a lot of requests to the same server).

Are you both downloading heavily? The BEFS series of routers are fairly old, and might not be able to handle high numbers of connections, like those found in P2P programs like BitTorrent.

The same IP is because the forum checks your external IP - the one that is given to your router from your ISP. The internal address isn't all that useful, otherwise most IPs logged would look something like 192.168.x.x.

I can only second that. I used to use a BEFSR41, good for day-to-day surfing and mail etc. but it craps its pants around 200 connections. What happens then is that the router seems to reboot itself.