For instance, your IP address is how websites like Google figure out where you are — which, in turn, allows them to send you region-specific search results, advertisements, and other content.

As such, your IP address could be used to track your online activity and gather data based on your online habits and search history.

Let's say you have an IP address scheme of 192.168.1.1 that's assigned, dynamically, by your router. You might want to give a computer with an associated share the address 192.168.1.101.

You probably won’t be using IP addresses in your daily life. But in order to access a website, our computers need to “lookup” the IP address for that site.

Some websites such as Netflix are sensitive to IP changes and block traffic if you’re using a shared VPN. A dedicated IP address can help fix this issue since your IP will never change. Also, a ...

So the complete IP address space ranges from 0.0.0.0 through to 255.255.255.255. See an example below, using the IP address of one of the servers that hosts theconversation.com.

You may not realise it, but your IP address being visible is risky because everyone – including your internet service provider (ISP), the government, and curious snoopers – can use it to track ...

What you can do with an IP address Firstly: most users won't have to worry about any of this. It's unlikely that any hacker would take the time to learn your specific IP address, and manipulate ...

But what exactly is a default gateway, and how do you find it? Your home network's default gateway is simply the IP address of your router.