Ping a mobile which is not in home zone - confused

1

Sorry, but I’m totally lost about my network knowledge
I ping my wifes mobile device in order to detect presence at home (GPS sometimes is unreliable)
Her workplace is a defined HA Zone as well.
HA Companion app is running in background of that device.
She left the house - ping is off, ok
She enters her workplace thus the companies network - ping is on and that confuses me

I know, that certain ip addresses can be the same in many local networks
How do I know now, that the answering ip address is explicit that device?

can somebody explain that?

2

We’ll ignore the fact ping isnt a reliable means of detection unless you set her phone to use a static IP address. That said, to figure out what’s going on… How did you setup your ping?

3

Hi, her ip adress is static.
The ping:

- platform: ping
  host: 192.168.178.xx
  name: her_handy
  count: 2
  scan_interval: 120

the companion app reports her companies network as active