i see that i have lease on my address. which is why sometimes ip release doesn't work and why it does work sometimes. but thanx to the people here i see it doesnt matter what my address is cause i'll still get malware probes.
Exactly. My ISP recycles IPs so they can charge more for a constant one, and my router log is always choke full of scans. If you are on the net, you will have gomers with pent up energy from not having a girlfriend running programs looking for security holes. To see it in action, shut down everything but your cable modem. See the lights still flashing? That's outside hardware talking to your modem.
Your ISP not necessary gave you a static IP, unless you asked for. They call it dyanamic IP address, but their DHCP servers work differently . I called my ISP one time and talked to an engineer and he told me that even if they use a DHSP , the custumers get the same IP address even if they release it and renew it. I guess when you iniatially installed your ISP software, somehow your modem MAC address got registered with your ISP DHCP servers and there is no way to change a mAC address. One solution is to install a router and then you can alter the IP address, but you will need to do it every time when want a different IP address. Hope it helps.
at the hardware level, but it can be changed in software: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAC_address#Changing_MAC_addresses some good general background on a few of the topics in this thread: http://www.ipprimer.com/section.cfm http://www.openbsd.org/faq/pf/index.html