I'm hoping we can clarify this topic a little bit. Technically, a "hop" in a TCP/IP link is as is described in the first portion--a packet moves from router to router, working its way from the source to the destination. During this process, the source and destination IPs are retained from one hop to the next. This is how packet switching works, and thus the internet as a whole. The last sentence though seems to be talking about something entirely different. This seems to be the colloquial idea of "hopping" from one IP endpoint to another using a proxy, thus masking the true source IP (except for when the proxy silently attaches the true source IP to the tail end of the packet header anyway). This latter process attempts to change the source IP which is seen by remote devices, and is sometimes used to evade IP blocking. --DavidB4 (TALK) 03:15, 3 December 2020 (EST)