it is not or should not be a big deal for them to force an ip change. A few minutes on the support queue and you can feel better.

I personally would not worry about it. Others opinions may differ.

What exactly is your concern?

When using the internet, your IP address is known to every server you talk to because without it they cannot respond to your requests.

Most internet customers do not have a static IP address, so it may change every now and then, especially if you turn off your router for a lengthy amount of time.

No hiding from them, just don't be naughty and use a good security program to keep doors closed to the boogyman!

Would avast be considered a security program?

I was thinking what the DU hacker might be able to do with ISP info.

Mahalo Sunlei!

Most people have dynamic IPs so I'll change relatively frequently and when they do they'd effectively become worthless. If you had a static IP and someone was malicious they could denial of service attack you, but that would only stop you from getting online and most residential routers have rather strict rule sets so they probably couldn't even do that.

And welcome to DU. Aloha!

For a security program I've always used Norton because it's easy for me to use. I have a lot of computers around here. I buy the code for a year of Norton, usually I can find a 'sale' on Amazon and not pay Nortons retail yearly subscription price. I have read that Avast is good, I don't have any experience with advast.

Mahalo!! I would like to move to Hawaii someday and be free from Texas

A VPN creates an encrypted tunnel between your IP address (your computer actually if the VPN client software is on your computer) and the location of the VPN server. For example, I use a VPN that has over 35 cities and countries with multiple exit nodes (and different IP addresses) in each of those cities and countries. What the outside world sees when using a VPN is the VPN exit node IP address and the outside world should not in any way see your IP address if the VPN server and the VPN client on your computer are configured properly. What makes this even more useful is that the exit node can be used by multiple users (many 10s or possibly 100s of users) at any one time. If you use a VPN provider that does no logging (it is a matter of trust regarding the specific VPN as some do log) then there would be no audit trail back to your IP address.

If you want an relatively easy to understand explanation of VPNs and how they work then this is the best video on the subject of VPNs that I've seen even though it is a few years old. It is quite long but the first 10 minutes provide a basic description of how VPNs work. If you watch the video the VPN server that he mentions should be thought as the cities where you connect to with your VPN service and the client either being a program on your computer or on your router if it has VPN capabilities. If you are a newby to VPNs I'd not recommend the router method because all your house traffic would go through the VPN and changing to a different VPN server requires mucking with your router itself and also some services like Netflix may balk because of the VPN and not work. Having the client software on your PC, tablet or cell phone allow for you to change to a different VPN server location relatively easily.

As an example, I live in Tigard, OR. The VPN service I use has a server in Seattle. When I start my VPN program the path between my computer and the Seattle server is encrypted. Many of the exit nodes on the Seattle server have IP addresses with assigned geolocation addresses of being in the Dallas, TX area. So when someone checks my IP address they would see a Dallas area address. You can check the IP address that the rest of the world can see with tools like this:

https://www.whatismyip.com/

I decided to spring for a VPN... a virtual private network, where my traffic is routed though an anonymizing server somewhere on the planet. I got a real sweet XMas deal... $22 for a year from CyberGhost which I could not turn down. It's usually $65. They offer a free service... 2 hours free at a time with decent speeds. The free service doesn't do bittorrent. The only problem I had was leaving my mail client on... and when it checked for mail the mail service, seeing the login from New Mexico or Atlanta... thought my account had been hacked and they locked my account.