This post will take maybe three minutes to read, and it will give you insight into a term that’s thrown around a lot and that is “IP” which stands for Internet Protocol. A good way at looking at it is the world of geeks came up with an electronic postal system that is a standardized way (protocol), throughout the world of sending data between electronic devices. Think of IP as being comparable to our postal system. All the electronic postal routes are established around the world thus the name World Wide Web (which depicts a spider web that goes different directions).
We can’t just hand mail off to our postal carrier without a physical address for the system to work. For them it’s a letter or package but in our internet world it’s all kinds of electronic data (i.e. emails, files, pictures, etc.). An IP Address is an electronic mailbox number our cellphones, computers, electronic readers, video cams, etc., are given when they’re manufactured. The moment we log on to the internet with
our new device, the world of electronic post offices knows we’re now part of the
worldwide delivery system. Unfortunately, millions of companies know you’ve
arrived as well so the advertising pop-ups begin.
I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed this, but not only does the web know where to send the information based on your electronic address but it also knows what route it had to take to get there. In other words, you can be in Charlotte getting pop-ups for a restaurant there and then travel to Orlando and get pop-ups for Disney tickets.
Law enforcement definitely knows about IP addresses. Let’s say you got a threatening email from someone, and you don’t know who it is. You don’t notice it but when the message comes in your computer knows what IP address the message is coming from. By the way my IP is: 68.58.173.219, so you know what they look like. Law enforcement can key in someone's IP, and a location shows up like an Internet Café in Springfield or an apartment in Charleston.
Tracking locations isn’t always easy as the police can end up finding an email was sent from Russia with little else to go on. I can’t say that I’m right, but it seems like it’s harder to track down IP addresses in countries where there’s a lot of internet fraud. Coincidence?
Servers also have their own IP addresses which is great because it's a fantastic bread trail in trying to track down the bad guys. Even though countries like China and Russia have their own networks (kind of like the dark web), so they can control the flow of information, we at least know if a digital message came from their country. We don't end up with the full picture where the computer is in their country, but we at least end up with some directional insight into the matter.
Sometimes satellites are used to move our data around especially if we’re sending information overseas. There’s also massive cabling running at the bottom of the ocean where our data travels back and forth as well. Think about how fast this all happens…you go on Zoom and say something, and the audio and video is instantaneously received over 5,000 miles away. I find this amazing, humbling, and scary.
In wrapping up, an IP address is just like the physical addresses for our homes, but these addresses are assigned to various electronic devices that are constantly on the move. These addresses aren’t anything that we deal with, it is assigned by the manufacturer; just like you didn’t decide what your street address would be. Well, maybe you did, but I don’t have that kind of clout.
We can’t just hand mail off to our postal carrier without a physical address for the system to work. For them it’s a letter or package but in our internet world it’s all kinds of electronic data (i.e. emails, files, pictures, etc.). An IP Address is an electronic mailbox number our cellphones, computers, electronic readers, video cams, etc., are given when they’re manufactured. The moment we log on to the internet with
our new device, the world of electronic post offices knows we’re now part of the
worldwide delivery system. Unfortunately, millions of companies know you’ve
arrived as well so the advertising pop-ups begin.
I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed this, but not only does the web know where to send the information based on your electronic address but it also knows what route it had to take to get there. In other words, you can be in Charlotte getting pop-ups for a restaurant there and then travel to Orlando and get pop-ups for Disney tickets.
Law enforcement definitely knows about IP addresses. Let’s say you got a threatening email from someone, and you don’t know who it is. You don’t notice it but when the message comes in your computer knows what IP address the message is coming from. By the way my IP is: 68.58.173.219, so you know what they look like. Law enforcement can key in someone's IP, and a location shows up like an Internet Café in Springfield or an apartment in Charleston.
Tracking locations isn’t always easy as the police can end up finding an email was sent from Russia with little else to go on. I can’t say that I’m right, but it seems like it’s harder to track down IP addresses in countries where there’s a lot of internet fraud. Coincidence?
Servers also have their own IP addresses which is great because it's a fantastic bread trail in trying to track down the bad guys. Even though countries like China and Russia have their own networks (kind of like the dark web), so they can control the flow of information, we at least know if a digital message came from their country. We don't end up with the full picture where the computer is in their country, but we at least end up with some directional insight into the matter.
Sometimes satellites are used to move our data around especially if we’re sending information overseas. There’s also massive cabling running at the bottom of the ocean where our data travels back and forth as well. Think about how fast this all happens…you go on Zoom and say something, and the audio and video is instantaneously received over 5,000 miles away. I find this amazing, humbling, and scary.
In wrapping up, an IP address is just like the physical addresses for our homes, but these addresses are assigned to various electronic devices that are constantly on the move. These addresses aren’t anything that we deal with, it is assigned by the manufacturer; just like you didn’t decide what your street address would be. Well, maybe you did, but I don’t have that kind of clout.
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