# Physically moved desktop from one room to another. Now I'm asked to "authorize my new device." Why?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/physically-moved-desktop-from-one-room-to-another-now-im-asked-to-authorize-my-new-device-why/755004>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 17, 2016, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/physically-moved-desktop-from-one-room-to-another-now-im-asked-to-authorize-my-new-device-why/755004 "2016-05-17T15:35:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2016, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/physically-moved-desktop-from-one-room-to-another-now-im-asked-to-authorize-my-new-device-why/755004/21 "2016-05-20T02:55:56Z")

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> [@gotpasswords](#):
>
> Probably more largeness than weirdness. With about 450,000 computers and 16,000 servers in the enterprise, would you want to keep up with assigning permanent IPs to everyone? Also, I come in on a VPN that only allows a connection to be held for 24 hours, so it would be fairly unlikely to keep the same IP day after day.

Standard DHCP lease time on a LAN is a week in my experience. VPNs will often be shorter, 1 day seems about right.

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**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2016, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/physically-moved-desktop-from-one-room-to-another-now-im-asked-to-authorize-my-new-device-why/755004/22 "2016-05-20T14:19:29Z")

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> [@JohnT](#):
>
> Possibly. It was a 10 minute operation and, as I said, I have no authority over the IT here. But, really, all I did was disconnect a box, move it into the next office, reconnect it, and start it up again. No intermediate steps, unless bathroom breaks matter. 😉

In your other post, you said “requiring me to redo a number of security steps that I had just done before”

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**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2016, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/physically-moved-desktop-from-one-room-to-another-now-im-asked-to-authorize-my-new-device-why/755004/23 "2016-05-20T14:20:50Z")

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> [@gotpasswords](#):
>
> Probably more largeness than weirdness. With about 450,000 computers and 16,000 servers in the enterprise, would you want to keep up with assigning permanent IPs to everyone?

Well, that’s the point of DHCP servers.

> [@](#):
>
> Also, I come in on a VPN that only allows a connection to be held for 24 hours, so it would be fairly unlikely to keep the same IP day after day.

you didn’t mention VPN before, so that’s why your IP address changes that often. That makes sense.

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