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What's My IP

Your IP Address is: 3.16.15.149 

Location: Columbus, Ohio United States

This information isn’t hard to get, if you want this data hidden you may want to use a VPN. See our best VPN list.

Internet Protocol Address

An Internet Protocol Address (IP) is a unique number that is assigned to every device that is connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol. The Internet Protocol allows for communication to happen. Note that the IP address has two significant functions; first to either host or network interface ID, or second location addressing. (more in-depth understanding here)

How does IP addressing work?

An IP address is a  unique number that is assigned to a device or a domain or anything that connects to the Internet. Each individual IP address is its own unique sequence of numbers for example ‘231.73.163.29’. Using DNS (Domain Name System) resolvers they make an IP address into a readable domain name that can be remembered and easily understood by humans. Otherwise, we would have to remember all the numbers of a specific IP address to get where we want to go.

IP packets contain the IP address of the domain or device sending out the packet and it also contains the IP address of the receiver, similar to how the mailing system works.

What is a Dynamic IP Address?

A Dynamic IP address is basically an IP address that changes often. Dynamic IP addresses are often home networks since it’s more cost-effective for ISP’s (aka Internet Service Providers).

Another type of IP address is a static IP address which as you can tell by the name it stays the same. If you’re using a Dynamic IP address every so often (this can be within days, weeks, and even months) an IP address is picked from a pool of IP addresses and assigned to your network.

What is a Static IP Address?

A Static IP address is an IP address is one that is manually configured for a device. It’s called a static IP address because the unique numbers never change. This is the opposite of a Dynamic IP address whose unique numbers change at any time.

What is IPv4?

IPv4 (Internet Protocol version 4) is the fourth version of the internet protocol. It has been in place for over 35+ years and it was first released by the U.S Department of Defense on ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) in the year 1983.

IPv4 is still routing most of today’s traffic but a 32-bit address has space limits which puts a limit on the number of unique hosts to 232. The exact number would be 2.3 billion (4,294,967,296). We have reached this limit and now our next best choice is IPv6.

IPv4 Address What's my IP

What is IPv5?

We always hear about IPv4 and IPv6, but where and what is IPv5?

Well according to Wikipedia, IPv5 (Internet Protocol Version 5) was used by the Internet Stream Protocol. It was designed for connection-oriented communication between IP networks with the main purpose of supporting video and voice. This was an experimental streaming protocol meaning it was never designed to be used by the public.

What is IPv6?

IPv6 is the newest version of the Internet Protocol soon to replace IPv4.

The older version, IPv4 uses a 32-bit addressing scheme in order to support around 4.3 billion devices. It was thought that this would be enough for the world, but the growth of the internet and new devices the Internet needs more addresses!

The IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) knew that this would become an issue. So in 1998, they created IPv6 which uses a 128-bit addressing scheme to support around 2 to the power of 128 or 340 undecillion. IPv4 address method uses four sets of one – three-digit numbers, while IPv6 uses eight groups of four hexadecimal digits that are separated by colons.

IPv6 Possible IP Addresses

How To Protect Your IP Address

Every time you go online, just going on social media or playing games, you are now identifiable to the world just by your IP address.

Digital devices work the same way as your physical address works–your devices require an IP address in order for you to access the internet and send information between devices. Although it seems harmless you could be attacked if someone bad knows your IP address.

What can someone do with my IP address?

There are multiple reasons why people would want your IP address, it can definitely range from mild to extreme. Now to list what some people may use your IP address to do:

  • Use your IP address to download illegal content: People can use your IP address to download illegal content such as movies, music, and videos. You could get a notice from your ISP, it can get really serious if someone downloads something really bad — national security could be coming for you.
  • Directly attack your network (DDoS attack): It’s possible for someone to directly attack your network. The most known attack of this type is called a DDoS attack (aka disturbed denial of service). This particular attack is done by using infected computers to create a lot of traffic to flood your network rendering it useless. 
  • Use your IP location for large attacks: An IP address can also be used to find out your general location, like your city or region. It’s difficult to find someone’s exact address from an IP. Someone could be looking for IP addresses of a certain region to receive a larger reward from an attack or find a vulnerable location that is easier to attack.
  • Some people may use it as blackmail against you: Once someone gets a hold of your IP address they could use it to blackmail you. 

How can I protect my IP address?

Protecting your IP address is important for your online safety. Here are some of the best ways to hide your IP address:

  • Using a VPN Service – A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a tool used to route and encrypt your traffic through a secure server. It also hides real your IP address, and your search history from ISP and trackers. The best VPN’s are currently ExpressVPN, NordVPN, Surfshark, and Perfect Privacy.
  • Using the Tor Browser – Tor is used all over the world for searching and buying products, the people who use it often are in countries that restrict Internet access. It’s similar to Chrome, and Firefox as that it’s free software but it also hides your IP making your connection anonymous. 
  • Being Cautious Online – Be careful online especially, go on websites that you know are reliable and safe, if you go on a sketchy website make sure to leave immediately before anything happens. Also, make sure you’re not talking to anyone sketchy either.
  • Update your firewall & router rules – Your firewall protects against unauthorized access, make sure you change your admin password on your router, most hackers know the default passwords to break in. This password can be found online fairly easily. Make sure your firewall doesn’t allow ping requests from the Internet as this would make it harder for hackers to visit you.
  • Keep your antivirus active – Always make sure your antivirus software is up to date. If you don’t have an antivirus I would recommend either Bitdefender or Malwarebytes as they are reputable and defend your device from threats. Not only do they protect your computer but they can block harmful URLs and phishing emails.