Being aware of your IP address is critical for various web-based tasks such as gaming, working remotely, etc. The IP address doled out to your local network permits you to surf the. This article will help you get details about your IP address, along with other associated information such as location, ISP (Internet Service Provider), and other required information for performing various actions using the same data.
What is an IP Address?
The term “IP” in IP address is an acronym for Internet Protocol. It is a unique number allotted to all the devices that can access the internet such as printers, routers, laptops, mobile, and even modern refrigerators. The IP address distinguishes and permits these devices to speak with one another. Every device that communicates gets a dedicated IP address.
You can relate the IP address of your device with the address of your home. For someone to contact or deliver something to your house, your exact address would be required. The same thing applies to IP addresses, which allow your device to be identified on the web.
The first and the most important thing for devices to surf the web is having a public IP address. With the help of an IP address, two different devices that act as the sender and the receiver are able to share information with one another.
An IP address can either be static or dynamic. Static IPs are used for email servers and web servers. These IPs are allotted by the ISP from a pool of available IP addresses. Static IP addresses may not be accessible in all the regions and may cost comparatively more. Whereas dynamic IP addresses are normally assigned on a first-come-first-serve basis. These types of IP addresses are majorly served to private clients.
Public vs Private IP Addresses
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Public IP address
Internet service providers or ISPs assigns public IP address to every network router so that it may be accessed directly over the internet. When you access the internet using your router’s public IP, your personal device has a private IP address that is concealed.
Connecting to the internet using a public IP address is similar to sending mail to a P.O. box instead of sending it directly to the home address. It’s a little safe, but it’s a lot more prominent. Public IP addresses can be tracked back to the ISP (Click here to find your isp), revealing your approximate geographic location. Advertisers, governments, and hackers can more easily track what you are doing online if they know where you’ve been connecting from.
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Private IP address
The address that your network router provides to your device is known as a private IP address. Every device on the same internal network is given a unique private IP address (also known as a private network address) that allows them to communicate with one another.
Private IP addresses enable devices on the same network to interact without needing to access the internet. Private IPs assist to strengthen security within a specified network, such as your home or workplace, by making it more complex for an outside server or user to establish a connection. That’s why an individual can print papers from your home printer using a wireless connection, but your neighbour won’t be able to transmit their files to your printer by accident.
Difference between Private and Public IP addresses
Unlike public IP addresses, private IP addresses are utilized by private organizations for identifying and sharing data between PCs and devices such as printers that aren’t straightforwardly associated with the web.
Every system or machine under one organization has a special private IP address so it can communicate with other devices, yet nothing outside of the nearby organization can see them or build up an association. Whereas, the public IP addresses are provided by Internet Service Providers and they’re being circulated among different users.
IPv4 vs IPv6 Addresses
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IPv4
IP version 4 is presently dominating the market when it comes to usage. But with the ever-increasing usage of computer devices and regularly new systems joining the internet, the address pool available with IPv4 is running out of availability. Similar to cities, where the total number of addresses is limited and as the population increases, authorities have to build an entirely new pool of addresses.
Every IP version 4 address is made up of four octets using numbers 0-255, and they’re separated from each other through decimal numbers. An example of an IPv4 address is 74.3.623.765. These 32-bit numbers are divided into two parts: the network prefix and the host number.
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IPv6
The continuous growth of the internet users, IoT devices, etc. was surpassing the limits of the IP addresses. These things collectively result in heightening the utilization of another IP convention, known as IPv6 or IP version 6, that is intended to fulfill the current and expected future of the internet globally.
While IP version 4 (IPv4) is currently dominating globally and is spread over intranets and private networks, IPv6 expands upon the usefulness and construction of IPv4 in the following ways:
- It offers an enhanced packet header to users for allowing more efficiency in routing.
- Advanced support on mobile devices or other electronic devices using the internet.
- IPsec was developed especially for IPv6 that enhances the security.
- Comes with enhanced quality-of-service (QoS) support.
IPv6 uses 128 bits instead of 32 bits and includes a scope field that specifies the type of usage that is appropriate for the location. Broadcast addresses are no longer used in IPv6; instead, multicast addresses are used. In addition, IPv6 defines a kind of address known as anycast.
What IP Addresses Can Reveal About Location?
The IP addresses can display few crucial and detailed information regarding the location of users:
- City
- Country
- State/Province
- ZIP/Postal code
Whenever an individual visits a website, the IP address can conceivably assemble significantly more data associated with the user. By using the IP address with other data gathered from metadata, cookies, advertisers, and various other resources, organizations can fabricate a detailed profile about the user.
They can track down the location, the sites an individual is visiting, their interests, keeping track of downloads, the conversation, and based on this much information, they target the audience with personalized advertisements— or even sell all the valuable information to various organizations.
Conclusion
IP address or Internet Protocol Address is a unique number allotted to all the technology-based devices that access the internet. Being aware of your IP address is important for various web-based tasks such as gaming, working remotely, etc. An IP address can either be static or dynamic.
Also, users can either choose a Private IP address or Public IP address. The only difference between them is that private IP addresses are fixed for every device and cannot be accessed from the Internet. One thing to keep in mind is that an IP address can reveal a lot of information regarding a user’s location your internet service provider pivots all the IP addresses and gets. Further, this information along with other data collected from different ways can be combinedly used for knowing about users in detail in order to target them for marketing in the future. However, this mainly doesn’t cause a threat to privacy as every country has cyber laws for taking legal actions against the wrong usage of your data.