.htaccess, does it really work at all?

ok.
i know that .htaccess can be used to ban visitors to a website using their IP numbers.
i'm also aware that each individual surfing around on the www actually has two IP numbers.
one you get by doing IPCONFIG on ms-dos(TCP) and the other is assigned to you by your ISP each time you log on to the net(IP).
so...
my question is,
i tried blocking myself using my TCP number and it worked fine, but not when i used my IP number.
i even tried blocking the whole range of my IP number and it still didn't work.
and IP numbers which i had included in my .htaccess file
still slipped through and were not blocked.
i'm assuming now that .htaccess doesn't really work
with IP numbers.
is it possible to find the TCP numbers of visitors through
their IP numbers?
i really wanna make it work...

Hi

Your Public IP, is what you need to block. The IP assigned by your ISP. Your internal IP/subnet has nothing to do with it. Your ISP Might also be running a proxy server, therefor your www traffic might be routing through a different IP or set of IPs. Best way to check is write a script which displays the users IP. Go to the web page, and find out what IP is being displayed. Then try blocking that in your .htaccess

All users on the "web" have 1 main IP address. Or might be using a proxy server(s).

oh gawd,
i think i sounded very stoopid in my 1st post...
oh, so it's actually public & internal IPs...
pardon me

but erm, sorry if i sound really confused from here on.
public IPs are kinda dynamic nowadays rite,
so that's why i tried blocking the whole range
of my public IP, but it still didn't work.
however when i used my internal IP it worked just fine.
do you mean i would have to list out each and every public IP in the same range right up to the octets?

Is the web server running locally?

Also not all set-up's have internal and external IP ranges. Some companies use an internal subnet like 192.168.*.* and then use a proxy server to get web access.

Did you try using a script to get your real IP?

i'm such a klutz at these sorta things.
so pardon me again
but what script are you talking about,
what does it look like and where should i place it?
are you talking bout inserting a javascript into
my webpage?
or are you talking bout IP grabber here?
or an .asp file?
coz i'm afraid my host does not have asp support.
that's why i tried using .htaccess.