An IP address is the identifying number for any piece of networking hardware. Short for Internet Protocol Address, it allows devices to communicate with one another over the internet.
Besides the hardware devices such as laptop, phone, modem, etc. even some websites and games too have IP addresses. For example, there is a very popular game, going by the name “alternatif joker123“. This game is accessible only on an IP address, rather than any website name.
There are many such games and other functionalities as well which can be accessed on IP addresses only.
What is it used for?
Games is one area where we saw the use of IP addresses. But besides this, what is an IP address used for?
Overall, an IP address provides an entity to something, be it game or hardware device. Just like each home has a home address which identifies and distinguishes them, similarly each device has an IP address which distinguishes them from one another.
When you send data over the internet, you must know where to send. And that “where” is answered with the help of an IP address. Even when websites are given names, the inherent underlying structure is the IP address. So, whenever you access something over the internet, the computer or the device uses DNS servers to look up the IP address of the name you want to access. Once identified, the IP address is accessed and you can see the page you earlier requested.
How to find your IP address?
Now when you know each device has an IP address, how would you find that out? There are 2 types of IP addresses you might want to look up. One is the public IP address which is provided to you by your internet service providers. And other is the private IP address that is given by your router.
For public IP address, you can simply Google about what is your IP address. For example, type in “What is my IP”, and you will find out the result there itself.
While finding public IP was a cake walk, finding out private IP address is a little tricky. If you are using Windows, open command prompt and use ipconfig command to find your IP address. For mac, the command is ifconfig. If you are using phones or tablets, you can check your IP address in the settings, under WiFi menu.
From here, you can easily check your IP address.
