Changing IP address confuses steam?

[Macaw!]

Every time I change my IP address, steam panics and tries to reauthenticate, fails, then I have to close it and reopen it. Why is it so useless?

[Tito Shivan]

It's not because it's useless. it's for security. That way you cannot take the Steam cookies elsewhere and get into the account without logging. Changes in your IP shouldn't be that frequent as to trigger this behaviour frequently enough.

[Macaw!]

Then it should reissue the cookies, like every other thing does (I assume). I don't have that problem with any log-in websites, like Ebay, etc.

I changed it on purpose, there are reasons.

[Judgmental Amaterasu]

Macaw! の投稿を引用：

Then it should reissue the cookies, like every other thing does (I assume). I don't have that problem with any log-in websites, like Ebay, etc.

I changed it on purpose, there are reasons.

You know what they say about assuming

[nullable]

So it sounds like you have specific use cases, and your work around is to relaunch Steam and login.

Your issue may be an oversight on Valve's part. Or it may be an intentional design feature as people abusing locations and VPNs is probably more of a concern on Steam than eBay or many other websites.

[Macaw!]

Snakub Plissken の投稿を引用：

So it sounds like you have specific use cases, and your work around is to relaunch Steam and login.

Your issue may be an oversight on Valve's part. Or it may be an intentional design feature as people abusing locations and VPNs is probably more of a concern on Steam than eBay or many other websites.

I doubt it, you can spend a lot of someone else's money on Ebay if you fiddle about with IPs. no less likely than steam.

[Macaw!]

Damp Wizard Sleeve の投稿を引用：

Macaw! の投稿を引用：

Then it should reissue the cookies, like every other thing does (I assume). I don't have that problem with any log-in websites, like Ebay, etc.

I changed it on purpose, there are reasons.

You know what they say about assuming

Whatever it's doing, it's doing it badly, since other programs/websites don't have the problem.

[nullable]

Macaw! の投稿を引用：

I doubt it, you can spend a lot of someone else's money on Ebay if you fiddle about with IPs. no less likely than steam.

You seem to think IP's are magical and will get you magical access to any accounts. I think you're mistaken there.

[Macaw!]

Snakub Plissken の投稿を引用：

Macaw! の投稿を引用：

I doubt it, you can spend a lot of someone else's money on Ebay if you fiddle about with IPs. no less likely than steam.

You seem to think IP's are magical and will get you magical access to any accounts. I think you're mistaken there.

If they don't, then why is steam getting upset when I change IP?

They are a part of security by the way. For example Ebay emailed me to warn me I've logged in at another IP address. Worryingly, it knew very precisely where I was, despite it being my father's desktop computer and not something like a phone with geo location. My desktop (and he said his too) usually gets the location wrong on websites like weather forecasts trying to guess where you want weather for. We both get a location at the other end of the country, where the ISP is based.

[rawWwRrr]

I know of a few websites that take IP assignments seriously. Some don't. Great for them.

[Brian9824]

Macaw! の投稿を引用：

Snakub Plissken の投稿を引用：

You seem to think IP's are magical and will get you magical access to any accounts. I think you're mistaken there.

If they don't, then why is steam getting upset when I change IP?

They are a part of security by the way. For example Ebay emailed me to warn me I've logged in at another IP address. Worryingly, it knew very precisely where I was, despite it being my father's desktop computer and not something like a phone with geo location.

Yes because IP's SHOULDN'T be changing much and it can be a warning sign someone is already in your account. No amount of "fiddling with IP's" will ever let you spend other people's money or access their account.

Being used for security doesn't mean that it gives people magic access to your account. That is like saying if you change your phone number enough times you can access their bank account.....

[Macaw!]

brian9824 の投稿を引用：

Macaw! の投稿を引用：

If they don't, then why is steam getting upset when I change IP?

They are a part of security by the way. For example Ebay emailed me to warn me I've logged in at another IP address. Worryingly, it knew very precisely where I was, despite it being my father's desktop computer and not something like a phone with geo location.

Yes because IP's SHOULDN'T be changing much and it can be a warning sign someone is already in your account. No amount of "fiddling with IP's" will ever let you spend other people's money or access their account.

Being used for security doesn't mean that it gives people magic access to your account. That is like saying if you change your phone number enough times you can access their bank account.....

It's one thing you'd have to do to get into a bank account. Say you lived in another country and wanted to access my bank, you'd need to have an IP in my country to start with.

And why shouldn't IPs change? Some people have a dynamic IP address. Some people download torrents (or just want to access a Youtube video that's limited to some countries) and use a VPN.

[Brian9824]

Macaw! の投稿を引用：

brian9824 の投稿を引用：

Yes because IP's SHOULDN'T be changing much and it can be a warning sign someone is already in your account. No amount of "fiddling with IP's" will ever let you spend other people's money or access their account.

Being used for security doesn't mean that it gives people magic access to your account. That is like saying if you change your phone number enough times you can access their bank account.....

It's one thing you'd have to do to get into a bank account. Say you lived in another country and wanted to access my bank, you'd need to have an IP in my country to start with.

And why shouldn't IPs change? Some people have a dynamic IP address. Some people download torrents (or just want to access a Youtube video that's limited to some countries) and use a VPN.

You need to get a better bank then because your bank is an idiot. IP addresses do not matter to banks and would be easy to spoof. The banking industry is international, and its not unusual at all to access your accounts while traveling.

I've never heard of any legitimate bank restricting access based on IP, so perhaps you want to cite your sources to that claim?

As for the IP's changing, whether a small portion of people do doesn't matter. For the vast majority of people their IP's will not be changing. Using the argument that people are changing their IP to break the law and access restricted content isn't a very good argument.....

[nullable]

Macaw! の投稿を引用：

Snakub Plissken の投稿を引用：

You seem to think IP's are magical and will get you magical access to any accounts. I think you're mistaken there.

If they don't, then why is steam getting upset when I change IP?

They are a part of security by the way. For example Ebay emailed me to warn me I've logged in at another IP address. Worryingly, it knew very precisely where I was, despite it being my father's desktop computer and not something like a phone with geo location. My desktop (and he said his too) usually gets the location wrong on websites like weather forecasts trying to guess where you want weather for. We both get a location at the other end of the country, where the ISP is based.

Well you're confusing the issue. A user logging into their account in the U.S. and then minutes later logging in Russia would raise concerns as traveling 10,000 miles per minute isn't really a thing. But you still need the account credentials to log in. And even then it just raises a warning. It doesn't prevent access to someone with valid credentials. Steam has further has concerns due to region hopping, people trying to get games for cheaper than they can locally on their own accounts.

It sounded like what you're suggesting is the IP address alone can be used to bypass authorization, which is mistaken.

[Macaw!]

brian9824 の投稿を引用：

Macaw! の投稿を引用：

It's one thing you'd have to do to get into a bank account. Say you lived in another country and wanted to access my bank, you'd need to have an IP in my country to start with.

And why shouldn't IPs change? Some people have a dynamic IP address. Some people download torrents (or just want to access a Youtube video that's limited to some countries) and use a VPN.

You need to get a better bank then because your bank is an idiot. IP addresses do not matter to banks and would be easy to spoof. The banking industry is international, and its not unusual at all to access your accounts while traveling.

I've never heard of any legitimate bank restricting access based on IP, so perhaps you want to cite your sources to that claim?

As for the IP's changing, whether a small portion of people do doesn't matter. For the vast majority of people their IP's will not be changing. Using the argument that people are changing their IP to break the law and access restricted content isn't a very good argument.....

Wow, you take stuff way too seriously. I was suggesting a bank might use that as ONE of the methods to make sure something funny isn't going on, rather like steam does. Most banks do require you to tell them you're going on holiday abroad by the way, or international transactions, nevermind internet banking, are blocked.

[Macaw!]

Snakub Plissken の投稿を引用：

Macaw! の投稿を引用：

If they don't, then why is steam getting upset when I change IP?

They are a part of security by the way. For example Ebay emailed me to warn me I've logged in at another IP address. Worryingly, it knew very precisely where I was, despite it being my father's desktop computer and not something like a phone with geo location. My desktop (and he said his too) usually gets the location wrong on websites like weather forecasts trying to guess where you want weather for. We both get a location at the other end of the country, where the ISP is based.

Well you're confusing the issue. A user logging into their account in the U.S. and then minutes later logging in Russia would raise concerns as traveling 10,000 miles per minute isn't really a thing. But you still need the account credentials to log in. And even then it just raises a warning. It doesn't prevent access to someone with valid credentials. Steam has further has concerns due to region hopping, people trying to get games for cheaper than they can locally on their own accounts.

It sounded like what you're suggesting is the IP address alone can be used to bypass authorization, which is mistaken.

Why would it raise concerns because I start using a Russian IP? It's less concerning than it happening at seperate times, because chances are if a Russian nicked my account, they wouldn't happen to use it at the same time as me. So therefore those two IPs must be mine.

Region hopping? The only crime there is ripping me off by selling it to me for a higher price than people get it in another country.

I never mentioned IP being an only method.