What Is An IP Address & Why Is It Used?

IP Address is a very common term in the field of Internet. You might be already heard about this a lot of times in the news. So, what is an IP Address and how come it relevant to the latest news? As the name indicates the IP Address is an address that is mandatory if you want to run the internet on your computers, smartphones etc. You may not be aware of the fact that your smartphones are able to browse the internet because of the IP Address that they automatically take from the Internet Service Provider (ISP). Just like our home has a physical address, the computers & other devices that run internet also possess an address. This helps others to identify that particular device. This is what is known as an IP Address.

How Does It Work?

Whenever you send a post to your friend how does it reaches him? At first, it might be taken from the postbox by the local postman and carried to your nearest post office. Then it will be transferred from your local post office to the main post office and then to the receiver’s nearby post office. From there it will be delivered to your friend. Once your friend replies to you with an acknowledgment letter it will reach you at your concerned address as well. All these things happen depending on the address written on the postal cover. Similarly, if you want to get some information from any website both the website and your computer must possess an IP Address. That is the importance of the IP Address in the current communication system.

Two different types of IP Address Systems are now available for use. First one is the IPV4 and the second one is the IPV6. For a normal user, there is no need to go deeper into the details of both these systems. The only thing that you need to understand is that the majority of the systems are using the IPV4 IP Address system only. It is the oldest among the two and has been used Worldwide for a very long time. Unfortunately, it is expected to get completely utilized very soon. That is why the new IPV6 system comes to exist.

Security Purpose: -

Now let us check the relevance of the IP Address system in the currents news. As said earlier, every computer possesses an IP Address and it helps us to identify that particular computer. Nowadays many security issues are seen to be affecting the Internet users all around the World. The culprit behinds these incidents are getting identified with the help of the IP Address of the systems used by them. Even though there are options to mislead the investigators with the wrong IP Addresses, still they manage to capture the culprits with the help of the advanced tools they possess. So, IP Addresses are not only helping us to browse the Internet websites on our devices but also helps for security purposes as well.

Setting up the IP Address on your computers and smartphones is an easy task. I have written separate posts on this. If you are a computer user, you can check it here on “How to Setup an IP Address on Your Computer?”. Smartphone users can check it on “How to Setup an IP Address on Your Smartphone?”.