Find IP Address | My IP Location

What is my IP ?

The term IP address stands for Internet Protocol address. An Internet Protocol address is a unique numerical name that every electronic device connected to a computer network has.

You can think of an IP address as being similar to your home address. It is specific to that particular device and serves as a way to identify and locate these devices. There are currently two types of IP addresses used: IPv4 and IPv6.

What is IPv4?

IPv4 is the original design of the internet protocol address. Even though it is still in use today, it isn’t very common because it uses 32 bits and only allows a total of 4 billion addresses. Since 4 billion addresses weren’t enough for the exponential growth of the internet, a phenomenon called “IPv4 exhaustion” took place. “IPv4 address exhaustion” is a severe decrease of unallocated IPv4 addresses available. That’s why the newer version, IPv6, was introduced to accommodate the massive growth.

What is IPv6?

IPv6 is the up-to-date version of the internet protocol. As opposed to the 32-bit addresses used by IPv4, IPv6 uses 128-bit addresses. IPv6 is designed so that the internet world does not run out of IP addresses anytime in the near future as it has the capability of infinitely more addresses than IPv4. IPv6 also helps as IP spoofing prevention. IP address spoofing is a cyber-attack where hackers impersonate a user, device, or client on the internet. It’s used to mask the source of attack traffic.

What you should know about your IP address ?

Generally speaking, your IP address is public and can be used by others to find out where you (or your device) is located.

However, you shouldn’t worry that strangers might be able to discover personal information about you simply by knowing your IP address. While the address might say that your computer is located in a particular city or state, it can’t reveal your name, address, phone number, or other identifying information.

How to Find your IP address in Windows ?

For Wi-Fi connection

• Select Start > Settings > Network & internet > Wi-Fi and then select the Wi-Fi network you’re connected to.
• Under Properties, look for your IP address listed next to IPv4 address.

For Ethernet connection

• Select Start > Settings > Network & internet > Ethernet.
• Under Properties, look for your IP address listed next to IPv4 address.

What is your IP address location?

Your IP address location is the portion of your IP address that allows for identification of the geographic location of your computer. If you are using a proxy server or a router, then the location of the server or router is identified. In most instances, the specific street address of your location is not revealed, but instead, the city, state or general area is shown. However, there are exceptions and for those who are talented with computers and the internet, it is possible to discover your exact location. This particular ability is known as geolocation and is very popular in the marketing world.

Apart from the usual IP addresses, there are also virtual ones. A virtual IP address (VIP or VIPA) is an IP that isn’t related to a particular physical location. These public VIPs can be shared by numerous devices connected to the internet and are common in home or office networks.