I have a gaming website (in my profile). I told my friend, and pretty soon it opened up to the whole school as a gaming website that works in the school. I get quite a bit of traffic from the school alone. Today, not thinking about it, we have the day free in class and I logged on Google (not AdSense, just Google WebMaster tools). Then, I see the guy next to me go on my website and I just realized I might have f*cked myself over. Will this be a problem?? Should I report it, or wait for any problems w/ AdSense and then prove my case? Do they check only AdSense logins, or any part of google? edit: Yes, the school student body is the same IP.
Yes, you could have a problem if the guy next to you clicked your ads. Since an average CTR is about 5% the chances of him clicking your ads are 1 in 20, so you're probably okay. Even if he clicked once, they'll probably think it was an honest mistake and let it by. If however everyone in the school is visiting your site you've got serious issues. An important point for everyone to note: Avoid doing anything that attracts attention to your AdSense containing sites. Best to keep them a secret from your friends, family, colleagues and schoolmates.
I don't think I got any clicks today, but I have seen people click them before. (made me happy then, now it sucks). Maybe have gotten 20-35 clicks total in a month? So obviously, this is something serious regarding my adsense account. Now: Should I contact them asap, or wait if they see anything suspicious?
Most of what you are hearing here is pure speculation. I ran a consulting business for years and through that we sold thousands of computers to schools. We had a custom image that was loaded on each PC that set the homepage to and site of our design. That site had adsense ads and I was clicked tens of thousands of times by people in the same computer lab, same office, etc... In my experience Google does not attack accounts for same IP clicks. My guess is that it has something to do with ad view history and cookies... I bet it is a lot more complex than simple IP tracking. Nothing Google does is ever that simple.
just block the school IP from viewing your adsense ads and contact google just to be on the safe side
That can backfire, I let my mum look over my site without telling her about the ads and she clicked one.
That's a great idea. If you are worried block the IP, then you can sleep peacefully and your account will still be in good faith
G! checks everything! Anything you do (with their services) they know. They know what you were searching even if it was 7 years ago! Remember: Never log into ANY G! account from other computers. G! will think that you are clicking the ads. So... As Rixus said: I also think that this is the best way to do. Tell us their reply