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Support - EBSCO Help

IP Address Authentication - Frequently Asked Questions

What is my Internet Protocol (IP) Address?

There are web sites that will tell you what IP address your computer is broadcasting. Please contact your IT department to find out your complete IP address range.

  • (This URL represents a web site that will tell you what IP address you are broadcasting from.)

  • (This URL links to the EBSCO authentication troubleshooting web page.) Detected IP Address indicates what IP address you are broadcasting from and whether it is registered as a means of authentication under an account.

Internal IPs cannot be registered as a means of authentication because they are for internal use only. Known internal ranges include:

  • 192.168-X.X
  • 172.16.X.X
  • 10.X.X.X


What is the format of an IP address?

An IP address has three or four octets (parts). It cannot have a number above 255 in any of its octets. All the octets need to have numbers between 0 and 255. For example, 209.20.5 or

The former will include the entire IP range from

The latter ( is an address within a IP range.


How do I make changes to my IP addresses (IPs) in EBSCOadmin?

IP addresses are "Internet Protocol" addresses, or numeric addresses assigned to servers and users connected to the Internet. Any changes or additions to your IP addresses are made in EBSCOadmin.

To change IP addresses:

  1. Log in to EBSCOadmin at

  2. Click the Authentication Tab.

  3. Click the IP Address Sub-Tab.

  4. Click the linked IP Address that you want to change.

  5. Enter the new IP address in the IP Address field.

  6. Click Submit. Changes made directly to Authentication in EBSCOadmin are immediate.

Note: If you are a consortium administrator, first choose the site that you want to add the IP address for, then type in the IP address or IP address range in the box below the appropriate group.


Why do I get the message: "The IP Address '' is already assigned?"

This message occurs when the IP address or IP address range you're trying to input has previously been input in EBSCOadmin.

The message may occur if the IP address/range is already configured in the same account you're logged into, or in a separate account.

If you need assistance, please contact Technical Support.


If I share my IP address with other libraries, how can I IP authenticate into my own account?

In order to use the same IP address to authenticate into a number of different sites, each site will need its own URL to specify which account the user belongs to. Because the IP address must be connected to all accounts that will be using it to access, the IP must be moved to those sites' parent account. The URL's must be different to specify what library that patron belongs to.


Does EBSCOhost support shared IP addresses?

EBSCOhost now supports shared IP addresses within a library consortium. A consortia may want to authenticate patrons using a pool of shared IP addresses, then provide access for the member sites by customer ID. 

For example, Site A and Site B are members (accessing sites) of a consortium (parent) account. Site A and Site B share IP addresses. The IPs would be registered in EBSCOadmin under the consortium (parent) account and the accessing sites would use URLs in the following format to IP authenticate into EBSCOhost:,uid&custid=custidSiteA

***where custidSiteA is the actual customer ID of the site (ex. s1234567)

Each site would receive a unique URL with its own customer ID specified. The URL can be customized to be database specific, and can prompt remote users for a library card number. Many other remote authentication options are also supported. The URL can also identify the group for access to consortia databases. Shared IP address authentication does not limit the member site to only the consortium databases if the site has subscriptions to other databases.


  • There is no limit to how many sites can share IPs, or to the number of IPs being shared.

  • This authentication cannot be used with dynamic IPs (where an ISP will randomly assign an IP address based on an independent dial-up connection to the Internet ).


How should I handle an IP address conflict?

If you have an IP address conflict when accessing EBSCOhost, it is likely that your IP address is assigned to another account. The address could be listed with the main site of a school district, or it could be listed in the wrong account. The account it is assigned to may not have subscriptions or could contain incorrect databases for the links you are accessing.

For assistance, please Contact Technical Support.