What is your IP Address (Internet Protocol)
Most people who use the internet has heard of an IP address, but unless you have some sort of training or are a computer enthusiast you probably don’t know what it really means.
Like your house address which distinguishes you from every other house in the world when sending and receiving a letter, an IP Address is similar but for the internet.
Every time you connect to the internet you are using an IP Address to help identify your computer on the internet so you can send emails, surf the web, watch movies and use Facebook etc.
For internet usage you most likely have two IP addresses. One which is public (203.41.178.339) that is assigned to your modem which i talked about above and one which is private (192.168.1.1) assigned to your computer to talk to the modem.
The outside world can see your public IP address assigned by your internet service provider but no one can see your internal private IP address. If you have more than one device connecting to your modem they will all have individual private IP addresses.
What is your Gateway
You gateway is the device your computer, tablet or any other device on your network uses to connect to the internet.
For most people this is your modem/router.
Your modem connects you to the internet and your router which is usually built into your modem routes the flow of internet between your devices on your private network like laptops, computers and tablets etc.
Your modem (gateway) is assigned an IP address from your internet service provider and depending on the type of account you have could be different (dynamic) or the same (static) every time your modem reconnects to the internet.
What is DNS
Your DNS or Domain Name Server is your address book to the internet.
Every webpage you connect to is sitting on a server somewhere in the world. These servers have IP addresses just like any other internet device.
It’s pretty hard to remember the IP address of every web site you want to connect to so DNS serves either on your computer or your modem will do it for you.
Here is an example. I want to go to www.facebook.com. With out a DNS server doing its job in the background for me I would have to type http://173.252.120.6. The I would like to go to Google. Its really easy to type www.google.com. But again without the help of DNS servers I would have to remember and type http://198.142.188.89.
It would be near impossible unless you have a photographic memory to remember all these different IP address for all these different web sites you use.
Thanks to DNS serves you don’t have to. Every tie you type in a website address like www.townsvillenerds.com your DNS server will go out on your behalf and find the IP address for you and direct you to the site.
