My IP address is 18.207.163.25
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IP Address

What is IP address?

IP address stands for Internet Protocol Address. It is a number that identifies every single hardware such as computer, cell phone, printer and other device that connected to the internet for communication. There is IPv4, the Internet Protocol Version 4, and there is IPv6, Internet Protocol Version 6.

What is IPv4?

IPv4 was developed as a research project by the Defense Advance3d Research Projects Agency(DARPA), it was the first publicly used version of the Internet Protocol. There are four decimal numbers separated by dots, each range from 0 to 255 in an IPv4 address. For example (127.0.0.1). It consists 32 bits, because there are 4 decimal numbers, and each decimal number has 8 bits. This gives us 2^32 or approximately 4.3 billion addresses. As the technical evolves, more and more machines are connecting to the internet, the 4.3 billion addresses will not be enough. The solution for this is the invention of IPV6.

What is IPv6?

IPv6 was the latest revision of the Internet Protocol, developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). The intension of IPv6 is to deal with the address exhausion issue with the IPv4. The majority of the internet traffic as of 2013 still uses the IPv4, but eventually the goal is to replaces all IPv4 with IPv6. An IPv6 consists 128 bits, because it has 8 hexadecimal numbers separated by colons, and each hxadecimal number is 16 bits range from 0000 to ffff, for example(ffff:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0001). This gives us 2^128 addresses, approximately 3.4 * 10^38 addresses, which is 7.9 * 10^28 times as many as IPv4. With this enormous amount of IPv6 addresses, it will sure never run out for generations.

What can we find out from an IP address?

From an IP address, we can find out the geographical location such as the country and the state of the device that is connected to the internect. Besides the geographical location, whether if we can find more information such as the name, telephone number of the owner of the device, it all depends on the Internet Service Provider (ISP). The ISP will be able to tell us all the information including the name, telephone number, even a person's ID card number of an IP address serviced through their network. The law enforcement officals will able to ask IPS to provide all information assiciated with an IP address if needed.

What is ISP?

ISP stands for Internet Service Provider. It is an company that provides internet access to their customers. Usually a customer will pay a certain amount of money to the ISP, and the ISP will install a router at the customer's place where the customer wants the internet access. The customer can then connect the devices to the router, and the router the connects devices to the internet. All the devices connected to the internet through the same router will have the same IP address.