What is An IP Address?

What is an IP address? -- An IP address is a string of four numbers separated by periods (such as 444.333.22.11) used to represent a computer on the Internet. When a PC accesses the Internet through an ISP, it sometimes receives a temporary IP address. In other words, an IP address is a computer's equivalent to a postal code or address in the physical world! It essentially tells you where the heck in the world computer is, so it programs, routers and/or the Internet knows where to send or take information from.

IP The Internet Protocol (IP) is a method or protocol by which data is sent from one computer to another on a network. Each computer on the Internet has at least one address that uniquely identifies it from all other computers on the network. When you send or receive data (for example, an e-mail note or a Web page), the message gets divided into little chunks called packets. Each of these packets contains both the sender's Internet address and the receiver's address. Any packet is sent first to a gateway computer that understands a small part of the Internet. The gateway computer reads the destination address and forwards the packet to an adjacent gateway that in turn reads the destination address and so forth across the Internet until one gateway recognizes the packet as belonging to a computer within its immediate neighborhood or domain. That gateway then forwards the packet directly to the computer whose address is specified. Because the data is divided into a number of packets, each packet can, if necessary, be sent by a different route across the Internet. A packet is treated as an independent unit of data so packets can arrive at their destination in a different order than they were sent in. Another protocol, the Transmission Control Protocol, (TCP) then reassembles the packets in the right order.