What is my IP address? Find out here
“What is my IP?” Your IP address is: 38.242.202.103
- Location of your IP address: Dusseldorf, Germany
- Your Internet Service Provider (ISP): Contabo GmbH
What is an IP address?
Since you’re on this page and you’re asking “What’s my IP?” – You are at least moderately interested in how the web works and what an IP address really is.
In fact, IP addresses are one of the core building blocks of the internet as we know it.
Okay, that might sound a bit big, but it really is. IP addresses make the web spin.
Technically, an IP address is a numeric representation of any device connected to the internet.
In other words, every computer on the web can be identified by this unique address.
IP addresses are useful in several ways:
- They identify individual users who are surfing the Internet – like you are right now. Also here is your IP
38.242.202.103. - They also identify web servers that host your favorite websites – such as this very website. Our IP is
52.6.22.199.
Why do we need IP addresses?
“I thought websites were identified by their domain names!” – you say.
Yes, to a certain extent they are. For example, the domain name of this website is KCCSB.com. While the domain name (or URL) in its normal form is perfectly understandable to humans, other computers on the Internet are not.
In other words, to find the exact website you want to view KCCSB.com, the domain name must first be translated into a raw IP address (52.6.22.199). Only then can it be found among millions of other websites.
Matching domain names to IP addresses is the job of special machines called as such DNS Server.
👉 By the way. When you are looking for a new domain name, the first thing to consider is where you want to buy the domain. There are some good budget-friendly registrars out there.
Okay, so that covers why we need IP addresses for websites, but Why do regular users also need IPs?
Consider it your own home address. Even if you don’t run a business (i.e. website), you still need a unique address so people know where to find you… and so Amazon knows where to send your packages.
Their presence on the web works in a pretty similar way. That is, in order for you to see a website, that website needs to know where to “send” its content. And yes, you guessed it, content is sent to your IP address.
What is my IP really? “Private” IPs demystified
The IP address and other details of your connection that you see at the top of this page may or may not make a lot of sense to you.
Here’s the thing, in some cases your ISP (Internet Service Provider) will mask yours indeed IP and show only the public address of the network openly.
For example, if you see your ISP name (or company name) at the top of this page and not yours, then this masking process is indeed taking place.
In such a scenario, your actual – real – The IP address sits neatly hidden in the ISP’s own network settings.
Why are ISPs doing this? There are a few reasons:
- One reason is that private IP addresses add another layer of security to your presence on the web. Quite simply, your computer is somewhat hidden, so it’s not that easy to attack it directly with malware. Of course, just sitting on a private IP is far from the ultimate security measure, but we’ll talk about that in a moment.
- Another reason, and the main reason, is that the current version of the IP protocol only has so many unique IP addresses that it can issue. Frankly, there are more users on the web than IP addresses available. To get around this problem somewhat, ISPs only need to have one publicly accessible IP address and then can nest all of their customers’ addresses like you do, using private IPs. From your perspective, a private IP address doesn’t work any differently than a public one.
Staying on the subject of not having enough IP addresses for everyone, there are some new developments to solve this once and for all. Introduction, IPv6:
IPv4 vs IPv6: What’s the difference?
The currently used version of the IP protocol is called IPv4. If you check what my ip is, your ip address (38.242.202.103) is represented using the IPv4 structure.
This structure is simple. A correct IPv4 address consists of four numbers from 0 to 255, with each number separated by a period.
The problem with this, as we said above, is that only a very limited number of these addresses are available – 4.3 billion to be exact. That may sound like a lotbut it doesn’t actually even come close to what’s needed.
Enter IPv6!
IPv6 is an updated version of the IP protocol. The biggest improvement from the perspective of mere mortals is that the number of possible combinations and thus unique addresses is practically unlimited (3.4×1038).
The structure of an IPv6 address is as follows:
- there are eight blocks of numbers, each separated by colons,
- Each number is a hexadecimal number, not a decimal number.
Here is an example of an IPv6 address: 2001:db8:3333:4444:5555:6666:7777:8888.
As you can clearly see here, IPv6 is much more complex than v4. This complexity makes it more future-proof.
Despite all this, we are still a long way from having IPv6 as the main IP protocol in use. The main flaw is that it’s not backwards compatible with IPv4, which means you can’t access IPv6 content on IPv4 devices (read: all devices these days).
Why you should hide your IP address
Okay, now that you have your answer to the “What is my IP?” question and all the technical stuff out of the way, let’s cover a topic that you may or may not be aware of.
That is, to hide your IP address while surfing the Internet.
Privacy on the web is important, we all agree on that. We just don’t want other people to know what websites we browse, what conversations we have, or what shows we watch online. I mean it’s not like we’re doing anything bad, but we still have the right to remain private.
Imagine you are sitting on the couch in your living room and are watching a program on TV. You don’t want other random people to sit in the room with you and look over your shoulder and take notes on what you’re doing.
But let’s make it even clearer. Suppose it’s not your living room but your bank and you’re about to withdraw some money for whatever purpose. You don’t want everyone to know when you went to the bank, or that you even did.
Here’s the kicker, by default the web itself isn’t very private. Every action is easily traceable and can be traced back to you. Granted, your passwords aren’t that easy to get, but all of your activity and footprint on the internet is very public.
The first thing you can do to make it a little harder for people to eavesdrop is hide your IP address. Or rather, obscure Your IP address and make it appear as if it is different from the real one. This is where VPN services come in.
Simply put, a VPN (virtual private network) routes your internet connection through anonymous servers around the world. This can make your IP look like it’s from a different country or even continent. It also makes it very difficult to trace activity back to you.
In short, when you access the internet through a VPN, neither your ISP nor other intermediaries know exactly what you are doing. Perfect!
There are some excellent cheap VPN services that you can get for as little as $2.50 per month. Look at her.
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