How to Find My IP Address And Understand What It Is

There is a lot of confusion going around about the term IP address. My goal is to help shed some light on this subject.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. IP stands for internet protocol. Just like your house has a physical address that the whole world can see, each internet connected computer in the world has a virtual address that the world can see as well.

2. When you get up in the morning and a Mr. Cop pulls you over, before he even gets out of his car he runs the number on your license plate to see if your car has the correct protocol in place to be able to access the city streets and byways. Your IP address is like a license plate number that allows your computer to access the internet virtual streets and byways. You've heard the internet call the super highway. Can you imagine how confused a cop would be if none of our cars had license plates?

3. So every time you access the internet on your computer your IP address goes out into the public domain and has to be recognized by other computer before being allowed access to the information you are searching for. Every time you send an email to someone, your IP address is sent with that email. Without IP addresses there would be mass confusion and cyber communication would halt.

4. If you need to find your IP address all you have to do is get on your computer and go to any of the following websites:
   www.whatismyip.com
   www.myipaddress.com
   www.ipchicken.com
   www.whatismyipaddress.com

Resources

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[meridians]

on 11/1/2009 Thanks for the helpful information!