All You Need To Know About An IP Address and VPNs

 

The world is becoming a digital village. Smartphones and internet connections have become part of everyday life. As a result, terms like 'IP Address’ and ‘VPN’ are becoming more common place. But what do these words actually mean? And what do they really do? Those are questions to be answered here.

What is an IP Address?

You must have wondered “what's my ip” For any compatible device, whether a laptop, computer, router, server, or phone to be able to connect to the internet, it must have an IP address. IP addresses are virtually attracted to devices at all times.

IP itself stands for Internet Protocol, and IP address is a sequence of digits signed to any device that can connect to the internet. In pretty much the same way as a normal home or office address works, IP addresses pinpoint the exact location of any connected device anywhere in the world. It serves as a means through which devices, servers, and routers communicate with each other.

IP addresses are assigned to small areas by network providers and are dynamic because any device in that vicinity will automatically connect to that address. A device’s IP address would change depending on its location. A static address is different in that a server or router can be assigned a permanent address. This is often used by businesses to give a definite internet identity. 

For much of the time the internet has been in existence, IP addresses were of the general form ‘xx.xxx.xxx.xx’. That is four groups of digits are separated by dots.

 This is what is called the IPv4 format. Well before the internet itself was created, this format was considered sufficient because it created about 4.3 billion possible combinations of unique addresses. However, in the early 2010s, it became obvious that it was actually possible for the IPv4 domain to run out of addresses since at the time the USA alone accounted for nearly a third of available slots. Before there was any real danger of addresses running out, a new domain was needed.

The IPv6 domain was created to supplement the IPv4 domain. IPv6 addresses add letters to the digits and use colons instead of dots. They usually look like this; AB00:CD00:0000:0EFG:xxxx:0000:xxxH:xxxI

The IPv6 domain has over 34 billion possible combinations, that is 34 followed by 37 zeros. Most devices still use IPv6 addresses, however, since communication between devices in different domains is impossible and IPv6 integration is slow.

What is a VPN?

VPNs or Virtual Private Networks is a server that masks a user’s IP address by connecting the user to an IP address from a different place around the world. Since the ban on Twitter in Nigeria, many users have still been able to use Twitter through VPNs because they bypass Nigerian IP addresses, which were what was actually banned from accessing Twitter. VPNs are also used to access a version of a website that is only available in another country.

The workings of the internet are much more complex than this, and the huge work that goes on behind the scenes when something as simple as Google is used is ready to take for granted, but having this basic knowledge helps to have and this basic understanding is important.