User of the web site: our IP is 192.168…
Me: that's your local network address, we'll need to know the external address our web site sees.
Them: our IT department assure me that's the right address, can you help?
Me: I can't help them since they don't know the basics of Internet networking, but maybe I can help you…
@RogerBW ipchicken.com 🐔
@iain Yeah, we already link them to another such site, but our problem users are mostly using cloudy-hosted caches and proxies (they're a problem because MicrosoftGoogleAmazon has no complaints department and will do nothing to prevent a 200/second scraper from simply moving to a new address), and they will report a different address from there from the one our servers see for them.
@RogerBW that must be so annoying 😠
@iain It doesn't help that I know full well all the security they want could be achieved _without_ breaking SSL and sending all their private data via America just by keeping their browsers and OSes up to date, with no cloudy subscriptions at all. Big rich companies full of people who are very clever in their field, which is not tech, are often suckers for a sharp salesman who says "this service will mean you don't ever have to think about it".
@RogerBW I have dealt with those snake oil salesmen... Corporate IT is full of them.