Hiding your IP address can be a defensive tactic, but it can also be an offensive tactic. Just like someone can track you down when they know your home address, they can also track you down (in a virtual sense) when they know your IP address. Your IP address can be used against you for those annoying ads, and it can also be used for more malicious purposes. Have you ever seen advertisements on the sides of your browser that tell you there's something going on in your city? Those aren't a coincidence - and there probably aren't actually any singles looking to mingle. Since most of the IP address stuff is taken care of automatically when you connect to the internet, why should you care? For example, when you launch a web browser and type a URL (such as the DNS recognizes it, finds the IP address of the site, and sends it back to be displayed on your screen. Instead of having to type specific IP addresses into a web browser, something called a Domain Name System (DNS) exists which translates URLs into IPs. They use a 128-bit address, which provides an enormous number of possible options - more than will be needed for a long, long time.

IPv6 addresses were introduced as an answer to the waning number of available IPv4 addresses. An IPv4 address usually looks something like this: 168.90.0.255 Due to its 32-bit format, there are only about 4 billion possible addresses available. The former was introduced back in the '80s but is still used for most internet traffic today. There are two main types of IP address: IPv4 and IPv6. It's sort of like how you differentiate homes on a street by their numbers, except here the numbers are longer. To keep track of the computers on the internet, each one that's connected is assigned an IP address. That big place is filled with websites and connected computers that access and host them. In the case of an IP address, that step is hiding it from the public. Nothing would usually come of wearing your address prominently on your jacket, but that one time something did happen you'd wish you'd taken a precautionary step. However, when you browse the internet, that's sort of what happens, except with your internet protocol (IP) address.

When you head out into public, to a coffee shop to meet friends or a convenience store for some supplies, you don't usually have your phone number or home address pasted to the back of your jacket.

Hide my ip address