Every device which can connect to the public internet has a unique assigned Internet Protocol (IP) address, often this is tracked by websites that you visit and often even published in forums and on blog posts for purposes of transparency and to prevent trolling or spamming. The IP address is essential in fighting online crime or other misbehaviour, although it is possible to change your IP address should you wish. An IP address consists of four numbers separated by periods, this is often referred to as a dotted-quad, and looks something like this: 123.45.67.8.
Normally numbers are assigned to internet service providers within region based blocks, allowing some programs such as statistics tracking to identify your location. If you have ever used Google Analytics you will see that it is possible to analyse the geographical locations of your traffic, I know for example that the majority of my traffic is from America whilst the UK is second and nobody has ever visited me from Uganda.
Find Your IP Address
There are several ways to find your IP address within a matter of seconds, the easiest is to simply visit a dedicated website who will tell you your IP, ISP (Internet Service Provider) and details of your connection. One such website is whatismyipaddress.com who will even perform a free analysis to help you determine whether you appear on any 'blacklists' of anti-spam databases.
Apparently my IP address is blacklisted on 5 of the near 100 databases analysed, something which I find incredible since I have only had this IP for 3 weeks and haven't spammed anybody in that period! Perhaps an IP change is in order soon! Another such site is find-ip-address.org which on their blacklist check gave me a risk value of '0', the lowest possible (good to know).
I guess that I have told you all that you need to know now! There are other ways to find your IP, but why would you need them if you have just been given the easiest and quickest method? If you need to find the IP address of your router, which are often generic dependent on brand, then you should google the make and model of your router to find this out.
Author : ryankett
