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Ip Addresses in a Nut Shell.
Written by Daniel Longieliere
Provided by Logic Unlimited

If you have been on the internet for any amount of time, surely you have seen, or heard the phrase "IP Address" used here and there. But what is it?

In short, an IP Address is a unique address used to identify a computer on the internet.

The long answer is this:
When you log on to the internet, either by dial up, dsl, or cable modem, you are assigned an IP address. This is a unique address for your computer. Think of it this way, the internet can be compared to the postal system, but much faster. :)

Let's say you want to view logicul.com, first, you must know logicul.com's address. Instead of a physical address, like Destin, or Atlanta, its an IP Address. (97.74.27.1). There is a whole other article I will write in the future about how your computer comes to know that logicul.com = 97.74.27.1, but for now we will skip that part, and just accept that it does.

Now, you open your favorite web browser, and punch in logicul.com. Your computer shoots off this "letter" (a web request) and the web server receives it. In order to reply, it needs to know where you live, so you have your own unique address as well. Web servers, and your computer are not that very different, they both are just computers on the internet, the big difference is that our webserver's address stays the same, while yours may change from time to time.

So when your computer shoots off the request, it also includes it's address in the request, so the web server knows where to send back the information. In this way, your computer, and our web server have completed a communication, and thus is the concept that most the internet is built on. That is the short and sweet of IP Addresses, we will get more technical, and more advanced in the future as we explain sockets, dns, routing, firewalls, and a whole host of other technologies that go into making this website show up on your monitor.

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