‘Internet Protocol’ addressing or ‘IP’ addressing gives each device on the Internet an address and location. The address can be represented in IPv4 format or IPv6 format. The more prevalent of the addressing scheme is IPv4 addressing. IPv4 addressing is marked by noting the addresses in the following octet:
192.168.1.9
The above IPv4 addressing is represented in 32 bit format and it provides 4,294,967,296 addresses. Since we are almost running out of addresses due to the huge number of connected devices in use, the IPv6 addressing is said to replace the IPv4 addressing soon.
If you would like to know the public IP address of your device, you can click on
This shows the public IPv4 address along with the location from where you are logged in and your Internet Service provider.
If you would like to know the private IPv4 address of your connected computer, do go to the ‘cmd’ window on your Windows machine, and type ‘ipconfig’. This gives the Windows IP configuration. Here, you can find your private IPv4 address information as well.
Public and private addresses:
Private IP addresses are used for communication within the same network.
Public IP addresses are used for communication outside the network. It is assigned by the ISP. They can be used to access the Internet. All sites and servers on the Internet use the public IP address.
If you are a privacy warrior and would not like to expose your IP address, you can hide your IP address by the following ways:
- By employing a VPN
A VPN or a ‘Virtual Private Network’ hides your true IP address and allows you to tiptoe the digital world by using another IP address from the VPN service.
- By using the ‘Tor’ browser
The ‘Tor’ router is an anonymized way to browse the Internet(more on this when we do the alphabet ‘T’)
- Using a ‘Proxy Server’
By using a proxy server, your online requests are re-routed through it thereby masking your true IP address.
- Using a public Wi-Fi
By using the public Wi-Fi in coffee shops you mask your own IP address and you use the public Wi-Fi and its IP address. However, it is not a good idea to do online transactions involving financial details from public Wi-Fi spots.
This is the post for alphabet ‘I’ for #BlogchatterA2Z 2021 by @Blogchatter
Thanks for explaining this in terms we can understand.
Deepika Sharma
Thank you, this was simple enough for me!