IP (Internet Protocol) Address is an address of your network hardware. It helps in connecting your computer to other devices on your network and all over the world. An IP Address is made up of numbers or characters. So, generally speaking, an IP address is something like your own ID number, just a bit more confusing and not so unique. The IP address has great importance and in this article, you will find some of the facts why it is so.

1.An IP address can be changed
You and your computer actually connect to the Internet indirectly: You first connect to a network that is:
1) connected to the Internet itself and
2) grants or gives you access to the Internet.
That network might be your Internet service provider (ISP) at home, or a company network at work, or a wireless network at a hotel or coffee shop when you’re on the road.

If you’re at home, an IP address is assigned to your computer by your Internet service provider — easy as that. Since they are the ones giving you access to the Internet, it’s their role to assign an IP address to the computer and you use that one. But when you leave your house and you sit in the coffee shop enjoying your well-deserved cappuccino while writing some emails, you connect to the wifi network of that coffee shop and you automatically get a new IP address.

2. How to change your IP address
Of course, there are some other ways to change your IP address — proxy services and VPNs. These are needed when you need to bypass geo-restrictions, firewalls, to access blocked content, etc. Both proxies and VPNs can assign you with a new IP address — let us say you’re sitting at home in New York but you want to watch the Eurovision final which isn’t available in the US. You simply connect to your proxy provider or a VPN provider, choose any location in Europe, get an IP there, and here’s Eurovision on your tv screen.
While VPNs are mostly used for personal matters (access Youtube, Netflix, purchase on Amazon, etc.), proxies are widely used by businesses all around the world. This is the reason why proxy services cost more. Nevertheless, they have a great demand and are very useful. Some of the best proxy providers to change/hide your IP or stay anonymous and safely work online are:

Smartproxy — over 40million IPs in various locations around the world. Also, one of the cheapest proxy providers in the market at the moment that offers you residential and datacenter proxies. You can also get a discount for their services with the coupon SMARTPRO;

Oxylabs — 100 million IPs. For real. Any location in the world, fast services, good connection, and everything else you need. One of the best solutions for B2B;

Luminati — very well known proxy provider with residential, datacenter, and mobile proxies. Over 70 million IPs and fast, but pricy services. Nevertheless, worth checking out.

If you’re interested in purchasing VPN services, you can find the best of them here.

3. IP versions are different
There are two versions of IP in use today, IPv4 and IPv6. The original IPv4 protocol is still used today on both the internet and many corporate networks. However, the IPv4 protocol only allowed for 232 addresses. This, coupled with how addresses were allocated, led to a situation where there would not be enough unique addresses for all devices connected to the internet. IPv4 addresses are composed of two parts. The first numbers in the address specify the network, while the latter numbers specify the specific host. A subnet mask specifies which part of an address is the network part, and which part addresses the specific host.

IPv6 was developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and was formalized in 1998. This upgrade substantially increased the available address space and allowed for 2128 addresses. In addition, there were changes to improve the efficiency of IP packet headers, as well as improvements to routing and security. The IPv6 has a theoretical limit of 3.4 x 1038 addresses. That’s over 340 undecillion addresses, which are reportedly enough addresses to assign one to every single atom on the surface of the earth.

First publication of this article appeared on Medium