
What is an IP address?
Just like a street address determines the recipient of a letter, an IP address (short for Internet Protocol address) is used to identify computers on the Internet. When your computer sends a request, such as a Google query, it tags the request with its IP address in order for the response to be sent back to your computer -- just like a return address on a letter.
In order to find your ip all you need to do is go to www.google.com and type ip address,the result will be like this
What does an IP address look like?
IP addresses are sequences of numbers that are usually displayed in readable notations, such as 172.16.254.1 (for IPv4) and 2001:db8:0:1234:0:567:8:1 (for IPv6). Your IP address is usually assigned geographically, meaning that there is often a correlation between an IP address and a real-world location.
Is my IP address always the same?
There are several network configurations that may cause Google to receive an IP address that differs from the one assigned to your computer. For example, if you have a home network or a corporate network, devices are usually assigned "internal" IP addresses by a Network Address Translator (NAT) located within your router or modem. The NAT hides the internal IP addresses from websites, making the entire home network appear to outside computers to have a single, "external" IP address. In this case, we will show you the external IP address assigned to your home. Other network configurations, such as proxies, can also cause the IP address received by Google to differ from the actual IP address of your computer.
What is my IP address and how is it used?
When you type the query what is my ip
, Google will respond by showing you the IP address of the computer from which the query was received. In the simplest case, this IP address uniquely identifies your computer among all computers on the Internet. Your IP address may be used by Google to make an educated guess at your general location.
For anyone who is not already familiar with hiding their IP address but is interested always wants to know is hiding your IP address legal? The answer is a definite yes; there are no laws or regulations stating that you cannot hide your IP address. You are entitled to privacy even online and you’re entitled to use proxies or VPN’s to hide your IP address and create anonymity for all your online activities.
There are many reasons people need to hide their IP address including deterring hackers from accessing or gaining information about your IP address to mask their own IP with yours, to stop hackers from sending viruses or malware to your computer, deter hackers from gaining access to your computer and your personal information.
Hiding your IP address can also make shopping online more secure as some shopping websites may not be secure and if a hacker gains access to the website they may gain access to any recorded IP’s on the website.
Many people also ask is it legal to hide your IP while downloading and the answer is yes, however the same download rules apply whether you hide your IP address or not concerning the content you download. It’s only legal to download content you have permission to download. It is not legal to download copyright or protected material unless you have direct expressed permission from the copyright holder or the owner of the content.
In a nutshell, not only is it legal to use proxies or VPN’s to hide your IP address it is also recommended to protect your computer and your personal information.