My router and cable modem do not show up in tracert, the first (and curiously second!) hop is the ntl UBR.
Code:
Tracing route to www.bbc.net.uk [212.58.224.114]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 14 ms 10 ms 21 ms ntl-ubr [10.150.71.254]
2 9 ms 9 ms 10 ms ntl-ubr [10.150.71.254]
3 10 ms 9 ms 10 ms oxfd-t2cam1-b-ge95.inet.ntl.com [213.106.246.141
]
4 11 ms 9 ms 9 ms oxfd-t2core-b-ge-wan61.inet.ntl.com [213.106.245
.165]
5 14 ms 13 ms 14 ms bre-bb-b-so-700-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.187.13]
6 15 ms 15 ms 15 ms bre-bb-a-ae0-0.inet.ntl.com [213.105.172.86]
7 16 ms 17 ms 15 ms redb-ic-1-so-010-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.188.106]
8 16 ms 15 ms 14 ms 212.58.238.189
9 17 ms 17 ms 16 ms 212.58.238.133
10 13 ms 13 ms 13 ms www14.thdo.bbc.co.uk [212.58.224.114]
NTL provides one external IP address to your router, look at
http://www.all-nettools.com/pr.htm
for example
if you want to play online you need to learn how to forward specific ports (or enable UPNP) so your router knows which PC on your LAN to divert traffic to.
NB all web sites (and game sites?) know your IP address (some get confused by the ntl cache), it's where they send the page to. You only need to know your IP address if you want to give it to someone to link directly to, if so I recommend getting a friendly name such as
yourhomepc.homeip.net
from
http://www.dyndns.org/services/dyndns/