What is IP address?


What's my IP address?

When you sit on your computer connecting to the internet have you ever imagined how does your computer communicate with the other sites on the net and how does the data  that you have requested for gets directed towards you, from all the million of user who are trying to access the same site?

 The data is directed to your computer with the help of IP Address.

What is IP address?

 IP stands for Internet Protocol. Your IP Address specifies the logical location of your Computer on the Internet. For more technical details about IP Address and the addressing scheme visit this site.

What if the internet addresses were just numbers and not the easy-to-remember today (202.185.130.251 as opposed to hotmail.com)? Beyond the veil of site names, the internet actually works on the site numbering system. These numbers, called Internet Protocol (IP) addresses are cryptic 32-bit numbers that are the Internet's equivalent of a telephone number in real life. Every computer connected to the internet, including yours when you are online, has an IP address.

       The IP routing system, which is the heart of the Internet, is responsible for transferring data between computers given the IP addresses of the sender and receiver. The add-on Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) layer insures accuracy in data transmission. This combination called TCP/IP, works fine except for one problem-IP addresses are hard to remember.

Not many sites on the Internet ask you directly for your IP address. It is useful to know it to debug problems while accessing a site or to establish a direct connection with another computer on the Internet or over a network.

A simple utility that proves very useful to find out your IP address is WINIPCFG

to be continued in the next featured article...

The copyright of the article What is IP address? in Windows 98 is owned by Ankan Brahmachari. Permission to republish What is IP address? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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