What do ip addresses do

The Android robot is reproduced or modified from work created and shared by Google and used according to terms described in the Creative Commons 3. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. April 23, What is an IP address? What is the purpose of an IP address?

Rather, online users should be aware of what information their IP address reveals. What information does my IP address reveal? What can an IP address tell you? To some degree, your physical location and also the name of your ISP. Can IP addresses reveal your identity? No, not outrightly. However, others can piece together bits of your identity, using your IP address and by following your online activity. How others can find your IP address — and why they want to.

But, why would other people want to know your IP address and what would they do with it? Is it dangerous for people to know your IP address? Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads.

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IP address stands for internet protocol address; it is an identifying number that is associated with a specific computer or computer network. When connected to the internet, the IP address allows the computers to send and receive information. An IP address allows computers to send and receive data over the internet.

Most IP addresses are purely numerical, but as internet usage grows, letters have been added to some addresses. There are four different types of IP addresses: public, private, static, and dynamic. While the public and private are indicative of the location of the network—private being used inside a network while the public is used outside of a network—static and dynamic indicate permanency.

A static IP address is one that was manually created, as opposed to having been assigned. Dynamic IP addresses are the most common type of internet protocol addresses. Dynamic IP addresses are only active for a certain amount of time, after which they expire.

Periodically, they re-assign them and put the older IP addresses back into the pool to be used for other customers. The rationale for this approach is to generate cost savings for the ISP. There are security benefits, too, because a changing IP address makes it harder for criminals to hack into your network interface. In contrast to dynamic IP addresses, static addresses remain consistent.

Once the network assigns an IP address, it remains the same. Most individuals and businesses do not need a static IP address, but for businesses that plan to host their own server, it is crucial to have one. This is because a static IP address ensures that websites and email addresses tied to it will have a consistent IP address — vital if you want other devices to be able to find them consistently on the web.

This leads to the next point — which is the two types of website IP addresses. These are shared and dedicated. Websites that rely on shared hosting plans from web hosting providers will typically be one of many websites hosted on the same server. This tends to be the case for individual websites or SME websites, where traffic volumes are manageable, and the sites themselves are limited in terms of the number of pages, etc.

Websites hosted in this way will have shared IP addresses. Some web hosting plans have the option to purchase a dedicated IP address or addresses. This makes it easier to share and transfer files with multiple people within an organization and allow anonymous FTP sharing options.

A dedicated IP address also allows you to access your website using the IP address alone rather than the domain name — useful if you want to build and test it before registering your domain. Google will show you the answer at the top of the page. Other websites will show you the same information: they can see your public IP address because, by visiting the site, your router has made a request and therefore revealed the information. Generally, you will only receive an approximation of location using this technique — where the provider is, but not the actual device location.

If you are doing this, remember to log out of your VPN too. Obtaining the actual physical location address for the public IP address usually requires a search warrant to be submitted to the ISP.

If you need to check the IP addresses of other devices on your network, go into the router. How you access the router depends on the brand and the software it uses. Generally, you should be able to type the router's gateway IP address into a web browser on the same network to access it. From there, you will need to navigate to something like "attached devices," which should display a list of all the devices currently or recently attached to the network — including their IP addresses.

Cybercriminals can use various techniques to obtain your IP address. Two of the most common are social engineering and online stalking. Attackers can use social engineering to deceive you into revealing your IP address.

For example, they can find you through Skype or a similar instant messaging application, which uses IP addresses to communicate. If you chat with strangers using these apps, it is important to note that they can see your IP address. Attackers can use a Skype Resolver tool, where they can find your IP address from your username.

Criminals can track down your IP address by merely stalking your online activity. Any number of online activities can reveal your IP address, from playing video games to commenting on websites and forums. Once they have your IP address, attackers can go to an IP address tracking website, such as whatismyipaddress.

They can then cross-reference other open-source data if they want to validate whether the IP address is associated with you specifically. They can then use LinkedIn, Facebook, or other social networks that show where you live, and then see if that matches the area given.

If a Facebook stalker uses a phishing attack against people with your name to install spying malware , the IP address associated with your system would likely confirm your identity to the stalker.

If cybercriminals know your IP address, they can launch attacks against you or even impersonate you. It is important to be aware of the risks and how to mitigate them.

Risks include:. Hackers are known to use hacked IP addresses to download illegal content and anything else they do not want to be traced back to them. This could mean that you — through no fault of your own — could attract the attention of law enforcement. In a Class B address, the first two octets are the network portion, while the rest is for subnets and hosts, etc. All of these addresses are allocated by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority. This nonprofit U.

In turn, these regional registries allocate addresses to ISP, companies, schools, and similar institutions within their zone. That means your IP address probably comes from your company network or ISP, which received that address from a regional internet registry, which was allocated a block of addresses from IANA. Routers matter. That box full of ports collecting dust in your living room is translating data to connect you to the internet, as well as keeping you safe via firewall.

In its simplest form, routing is what we call the process of forwarding IP packets from network to network. You probably know a router as the device you set up to obtain internet access. To do that, your router is actually joining networks and routing traffic between them like a switchboard. To join networks, a router uses network cards, each one physically connected to a network and communicating with one another across the IP system to ensure data is moved to and from the correct endpoints.