Overview
What is an IP address?
Within a network infrastructure of any kind and size, an IP address has the same function that a mailing address has for the delivery of physical postal packages. Every time a device connects to a network, it is assigned a specific IP address so that websites, services and other devices on that network know where to send the data packets, just like how a postal package delivery needs your home address to reach you. There are classes of IP addresses (called LAN IP addresses or private IP addresses) which are only used within local area networks (LAN) and allow devices to communicate with each other only within the boundaries of those networks. As an analogy, we can think of a LAN IP address as the physical location of a room inside a house. There are other classes of IP addresses (called WAN IP addresses or public IP addresses) which are assigned by Internet Service Providers (ISP) to those devices, such as your home router, which connect to the Internet and need to exchange data with services and servers exposed on the Internet. We can think of a WAN IP address as the mailing address of a house.
What are the IP Restrictions?
IP Restrictions consist in a network policy applied on our firewalls, according to a list of whitelisted IP addresses provided by you. Following that policy, our systems will only allow connections coming from the whitelisted IP addresses while blocking all the others. The practical effect is that user access to all our trading platforms (including Desktop applications, Mobile apps and the Trading functions of the Client Portal) will be only allowed from the whitelisted IP addresses.
What are the requirements to activate the IP Restrictions for my account?
To activate IP Restrictions, the following requirements must be met:
- The IP address(es) you enter as whitelisted should not belong to the LAN class but to the WAN class. Your WAN IP address is the address assigned to the interface of your router facing the Internet. In general, you can easily retrieve it by opening the website: http://whatismyipaddress.com on your browser.
- The IP Restrictions are designed for broadband subscribers with a Static IP Address assignment. Availability of such a service depends on your subscription or your provider's offering, and may be a paid add-on. If the Static IP Address option is not part of your Internet access contract, you are usually assigned a Dynamic IP Address by your Internet Service Provider. This address may change when your router restarts or under other conditions. We do not recommend activating the IP Restrictions with a Dynamic IP Address. If you are not sure whether your IP address is static, please check with your Internet Service Provider. Should this not be the case, you risk being locked out of trading for 24 hours as the change takes effect overnight.
Additional Information