For those who know more than I (of which you are legion)... My vague understanding is that too many sites on one IP are bad (at least in terms of link benefit) but if you get another IP from same host just how different do they need to be to make a difference? Am I better off actually working with a different host so the IP will be entirely different or is it OK to use same host with just slightly different IP? I feel like I'm writing gibberish so I hope someone understand!
I understand what you mean . For what I do myself, I use completely different IPs (different as far back as the first number), but generally just being on a different C-class (any of the first three numbers being different) should be sufficient. So if site A is on 123.123.123.123, put site B on 123.123.124.0, not 123.123.123.124.
The best situation is when you linking between IP's from different countries or continents (Google thinks that this sites are independent and therefore links are good)
Hmm ... are you sure? I think that if you have a .ro site, for example, you need to have links from romanian sites to rank better on google.ro