gmail says another IP using account
 

when I log into my gmail account, I see this warning:

This account is currently being used in 1 other location at this IP (64.81.169.34)

While I do use gmail on my other Mac, I close out of Gmail when I'm done, but I suspect the IP they cite is to me.

Any thoughts on why this is happening?

thank you,

a

A bit of googling reveals this: 64.81.169.34 (dsl081-169-034.sea1.dsl.speakeasy.net). If you're using Speakeasy.net, it probably is you.

right..I checked it on google and using Network Utility, but what I don't get is why I'm being told that this IP is using it when I'm the only one using my account (I think)
and when my not-in-use computer doesn't have GMAIL opened.

Makes me think something's broken or that somebody else is using my gmail, masquerading as one of my IP's

a

You don't just masquerade an IP. Google detects the IP.

Have you looked at the Gmail access log to see exactly when that IP is accessing the account? And in what way? (IMAP / web / ...)
Have you determined what IPs you access Gmail from?
Are you absolutely sure that you've signed out from Gmail when you're done?
Did you have Gmail open in another browser?

Do you ever access GMail through a virtual system, maybe on Windows under Parallels Desktop?

People don't think about how an Internet transaction works. If a web site didn't detect your IP Address, how would it respond to your input? There's no "connection" open between you like a land line phone on a local call. An Internet device receives a request for service (or a command), grabs the IP address that made it, and responds there. Your masquerading router does some diddling with that (by remembering who made the connection from inside and where to outside so when something comes back from whereto, it sends it to whoasked.), but basically that's how every transaction transpires.

I'll review my setups. I know for a fact that only one computer is logged in to my gmail and only through one browser, this one: Safari.

Maybe I should log in, then off, on each one, separately to clear the decks...

a

That's an easy one to check.
Is 64.81.169.34 you (and the system that you are currently using)?
If you have another computer running, also connected to the internet, the IP address will be different (or - you will know exactly which computer has that IP address as listed)

A further possibility is that you have some other program or menu bar app that checks your gmail.

Both computers show only numbers beginning with 192.xx, etc. I've poked around everywhere on these machines and see no 64.xx, as above...if that number is me, shouldn't I be able to see it somewhere?

a

Acme; go to whatismyip.com for a page that tells you what the IP address is outside your router.

Alternatively run this AppleScript (assuming your Ethernet connection is en0 -- if not fix):

set {ipExternal, ipInternal} to paragraphs of (do shell script "/usr/bin/curl -s http://checkip.dyndns.org/ | /usr/bin/grep -Eo '([[:digit:]]{1,3}\\.?){3}[[:digit:]]{1,3}'; ipconfig getifaddr en0")

display dialog "Your external address is " & ipExternal & return & return & "Your internal address is " & ipInternal giving up after 5 buttons {"OK"} default button 1

well, that is easy enough...thank you...

Don't keep us in suspense, Acme -- is your current address 64.81.169.34?

yes, it is...sorry!

;-)

...which doesn't make sense, because it said This account is currently being used in 1 other location at this IP (64.81.169.34)

"other" implying a location other than this one I'm on now and on which I saw that warning.

a

See this 2008 blog post by Google about this then new feature:
http://gmailblog.blogspot.ca/2008/07...-help-you.html

And try clicking on the "Details" link at the bottom as mentioned in that blog post.

I suspect that your current gmail session is not using the IP address that you mentioned above.
By "other location", they just mean a different IP address.

I'm pretty sure I've seen the "other location" message listing the IP that I'm currently accessing Gmail from. I use the webmail interface as well as the offlineimap program to backup my messages.

only thing I can think of that could have produced that weird warning is that a couple of times, I may have simply closed up the page without selecting "Sign out" or whatever the menu item at the top right is.

but why it reads this very same computer as an "other" location baffles me.

maybe it means another session?

Yeah, Gmail doesn't differentiate between "sessions" and "locations".

And quite often (depending on your Internet Provider), "locations" (IP addresses) changes with each new "sessions".

OK, well I am noticing I get this problem even after religiously signing off, so must be some google quirk...

It could be real, not a google quirk.

Your ISP gives you one IP address. All of the devices on your network share that IP address. You have a router between you and the rest of the world that makes this work. The router remembers your devices and translates the requests between 192.168.x.x and the IP address your ISP gives you. This is called NAT, network address translation.

There are a lot of reasons why it's done this way, some better than others. :-) The effect is that your home network is hidden from the rest of the Internet. Google cannot identify an individual machine on your network, it can only identify your router.

To prove this, type in http://whatismyip.org/ on any device on your network. You will get the same IP address back. That's the address the rest of the world receives from your router.

So the message from Google may be telling you that some other device on you network is checking email. It could be a computer, a phone, a tablet, whatever.

Excellent point and easy to test -- shut off all devices that use that router then turn one back on and see what gmail says.

Also, you should be able to click the "details" link at the bottom of Gmail to see the other IP activity and a button to "Sign out all other sessions".

Try clicking that button and then what does Gmail say?