Hello all
I’m not a customer, unfortunately, I’m a teacher.
I’m willing to monitor certain IP addresses that are not needed from the informatics lab, and that allow students to cheat, for example Chat GPT. This cannot be done at a higher level by content filtering for various reasons.
That specific service is under a Reverse Proxy managed by Cloudflare: via nslookup I identify Chat GPT as 104.18.2.161 .
I would like to understand if this is IP address is reserved or it is used for multiple services, and if it’s static or dynamic.
In other words, does a connection to that address from a lab computer guarantee that there was a connection with Chat GPT?
The IP address you mentioned (104.18.2.161) is likely used by multiple services, as Cloudflare typically shares IP addresses across multiple websites. The IP address may also change over time, as it’s not guaranteed to be static. So, connecting to that IP address does not guarantee a connection specifically with Chat GPT.
Thank you for your answer.
This is a pity. I thought that at least enormous services like this one would have a reserved IP address. Is there a way to get the list of currently used IP addresses?
Thank you very much.
Thank you,
that’s the list of the available IPs, I did not ask correctly: the list of the used IPs and their mappings, in this case Chat GPT with the corresponding IP, or at least which range of IPs are used for which specific service.
Thank you.
You can always get the current “mapping” by doing a DNS lookup.
chat.openai.com. 300 IN CNAME chat.openai.com.cdn.cloudflare.net.
chat.openai.com.cdn.cloudflare.net. 300 IN A 104.18.2.161
chat.openai.com.cdn.cloudflare.net. 300 IN A 104.18.3.161
chat.openai.com.cdn.cloudflare.net. 300 IN AAAA 2606:4700::6812:2a1
chat.openai.com.cdn.cloudflare.net. 300 IN AAAA 2606:4700::6812:3a1
However, as epic.network already said, these IP addresses are used by many Cloudflare customers, so blocking them will restrict access to other websites too. See The unintended consequences of blocking IP addresses for more information.
You might have more luck with DNS filtering, however, that is easily bypassed using a proxy/VPN. If the students are determined enough to use ChatGPT, they will find a way.
Yes thank you.
A DIG is indeed exactly what I did, to find the IP address. BTW the IP address is still the same after few days.
Nevertheless, if other services might have the same IP and there’s no way to get lists or make a reverse lookup, I must find a different solution. It is statistically unlikely that a student has a connection to that exact IP address without using Chat GPT, though.
Thank you.
I’d suggest implementing DNS filtering to block chat.openai.com. This won’t impact other sites that use the same IP addresses, and it will work even if the IP addresses for chat.openai.com change.
