bit coin address changing?

[tonto]

I'm confused, when I first installed the bitcoin client, it generated my address (the one I have listed in my signature), but I noticed recently that's different... yet when I "cash out" my coins in the pool, they're still sent to that "old" address and seem to make their way into my wallet.... can someone tell me what's going on here?
 
Should I be updating my pools and shit with the "new" address, or is my "old" address forever tied to that wallet?

[Steve]

The old address is still good.  Your wallet holds the keys for many addresses.  The client likes to create new addresses for you such that it's less likely for bad actors to piece together your transaction history.

[Dude65535]

There is another reason for using different addresses for each transaction. It helps keep track of where the bitcoins came from. If you give each person you deal with a different address then you can tell who sent you money by looking at which address it went to.

[tonto]

gotcha, thank you!

[Jaime Frontero]

if you click on the 'Address Book", and then on 'Receiving Addresses', you'll see the addys that Bitcoin has generated.

highlight your first address, then click 'Edit'.  give that one address a name - like 'Original'.  you will now see that in your client in the window which shows the BTC you've received.

if you ever send a different address to somebody, for them to use to send you BTC, edit that address first and give it a name (like 'Fred').  that way, you'll know who sent you the dough.

slick, huh?