HELP WITH HighWire Press:
Help with IP Addresses
DownAbout IP Addresses
DownHow to Fill Out the IP Address section of the Subscription Activation Form
(including an example using 'wildcards' and 'ranges')

About IP Addresses Back

An IP address is the numeric address of a computer connected to the Internet. The IP address is sometimes also known as the Internet address. On most networks, each computer has its own IP address. An IP address is not the same as a domain name or an email address. To see the IP address of the computer you are using right now, look at the bottom of the contact us page.

To activate your subscriptions, you will need to give us those IP addresses which both uniquely identify the eligible machines on your network and allow access only to authorized users of your subscription. All IP addresses contain 4 numeric segments, separated by periods. A segment is either a number, an asterisk (wildcard), or a range specified by a dash (-). See example below.

Please make sure you've correctly identified ALL needed IP addresses. Those using addresses not registered will not have access.

Some institutions use proxy servers to network their environment. This means that all the IP addresses of the computers people are using appear to our server as a single IP address. If your institution uses a proxy server, please ensure that the proxy server is used only by your institution. If it is, please enter it as part of your subscription. If the proxy server is used by people not covered by your online subscription, please contact us to work out a solution.

How to Fill Out the IP Address Section of the Subscription Activation Form Back

Place each IP address, or partial IP address, in the box provided, following these rules:

  • The only characters allowed are numbers, dashes (-), asterisks (*)
  • No segments of an IP address can be blank.
  • The allowed values for the first segment are 1-223.
  • The allowed values for segments 2, 3, 4 are 0-254.
  • The first segment cannot contain a range (-).
  • The first and second segments cannot contain a wildcard (*).
  • The third and fourth segments cannot both contain a range (-).

EXAMPLE using both the wildcard character (*) and the range character (-):

"Educational University" is a big, complex University. For this institution to sign up, 3 different IP addresses are required. The main IP address and two department subnets which are not part of the "main IP address" but are on the same campus:

MainAll addresses beginning with 10.175.4
PhysicsAll addresses between 192.168.55.* and 192.168.60.*
Marine BiologyAll addresses between 192.168.62.77 and 192.168.62.145

This is how they would fill in their form:

(Note that these IP addresses are examples only, and will not work.)