When someone asks you what your IP address is, do you freeze like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming truck? PCTechBytes is here to help explain the different types of addresses and how you can find out what your IP really is.
What is My IP Address?
So you need to know what your IP address is. In this age of broadband and networking it's really a common question. But is your IP address really what you think it is? And is it the same as it was the last time you checked--probably not. To know what your IP address really is, you first need to undrestand what is going on behind the scenes. The common home or office has at least one PC, a broadband modem and a router of some sort. This means you have one real IP address coming into the modem and at least one fake IP address behind the router. This means you have a public IP address and a private IP address. The public IP address is given to you by your ISP and the private IP is issued by your router.
The Different Types of Network Addresses
An IP address is a 32 bit number that represents your computer on the network. A public IP address might be something like 62.100.23.2 while a private, non-routable IP address will resemble something like 102.168.1.1 or 10.0.0.1.
A Subnet Mask is a number associated with your IP address and host address. It is used to further divide the number of networks that can be used with an address. Most users on a private Class C network will be used to seeing the subnet mask 255.255.255.0.
A MAC Address is the physical address of your network adapter. This address is unique to the adapter and cannot be used anywhere else. A MAC address is hexidecimal and might look similar to 00-56-05-C0-00-07.
DNS (Domain Name System) is a naming system your ISP uses to help the network translate the name of a website to its actual IP address. For instance, while the name of our site might be pctechbytes.com, we could have an IP address like 66.21.34.07. Unless you use a different DNS server like OpenDNS, this isn't something a typical user will configure.
Default Gateway is the IP address of a router that serves as the access point to another network like the Internet.
A DHCP Server is a server on the network that supplies private IP addresses. A router can be a DHCP server, as it has a single, public IP address and supplies and keeps track of the computers behind it with a private IP address.
So what is your Ip address?
To find your actual IP address you can either login to your router and check its public IP address or you can use a website like WhatsMyIPAddress.com. To find out your private, internal IP address, you can go to Start>Run and type cmd and hit OK. Next, type ipconfig /all and hit enter. You will see all of the addresses we mentioned above, including your IP address--which may be similar to 192.168.1.2 or 10.0.0.2. Home networkes will typically use the 192.168.x.x while large businesses will use the 10.0.0.x class.
For more questions about networking and IP addresses, be sure to visit the free computer message boards at PCTechBytes today!
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