The IP address is a number that identifies the connection position of a computer on the internet and, in its classic version (called TCP / IP v4), it is indicated with a series of 4 numbers ranging from 0 to 255 (for example 123.123. 123 123) It is like the physical address of an apartment and is managed by the IP protocol which is the basis for internet communications.
To explain it as a 6-year-old would do, when a computer requests to download information from a website, he must present himself and identify himself so that the site knows who to send the data to, who otherwise would end up who knows where.
In turn, each site resides on a computer called "server", and is identified by a numeric IP address, which is never seen (the IP of each website is associated with a name that is easy to remember via DNS. so that to connect to google just write www.google.com and not something like 123.232.222.222 )
While on Wikipedia you can read a simple guide on what IP address means, here on Navigaweb we have explained how PCs talk to each other thanks to the TCP / IP protocol .
From these preliminary notions it is immediately clear that, in theory, through the IP address of a computer it is possible to trace its geographical position and in fact it is rather easy to locate an IP address .
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Each website is therefore able to understand where we are connecting from and can provide us with different information depending on the place.
For example, therefore, Google opens in Italian and shows us localized results if i search, for example, hotels, shops or other commercial establishments.
To know our IP address with which we are displayed externally just connect to a site like //ipinfo.io/ .
To find out where a particular address is located, just open the ipinfo site indicating the IP number: for example //ipinfo.io/8.8.8.8.8 to locate the 8.8.8.8 address (of Google)
The services of this site can also be used from the command line by opening, on Windows, the Powershell utility found in the Start menu.
From Powershell it is possible to write the command:
curl ipinfo.io
To find out our IP address on the internet and where we are
With the command:
curl ipinfo.io/8.8.8.8
Instead, you can find where the IP address 8.8.8.8 is located and know where it is connected from.
Locating a computer's IP address is quite difficult.
Meanwhile, you need to find the IP address of that computer that we want to locate and, in order to do so, there must be a contact or a communication between our PC and that of the person to be localized.
This communication or exchange of data can take place via a chat or an email or a file transfer.
The problem is that for these operations we always rely on external services such as Gmail, Whatsapp or Facebook that have security systems so as not to let users know the IP of those who use their service.
We must also count that any IP address localization service cannot be completely precise for a simple reason, because the IP address that is assigned to a computer is actually shared by many other computers (see also: how we connect to internet with the same public IP)
The assignment of IP addresses is managed by internet providers who have some available.
Since that series of 4 numbers was very limited, it was impossible to assign one to each device connected to the internet in the world, therefore the trick of the shared or dynamically assigned IP was adopted, so that the same address could be used by many computers in a certain area.
Through an IP location service you can therefore find the city from which you are connected (sometimes not even that is exact), but it is not possible to trace the precise origin.
As explained in the article on Who can see our IP address and what it can do to us, the IP address does not trace the precise identity of who is using it but only the identity of who manages the connection which, usually, is the internet provider i.e. Telecom, Fastweb, Libero etc.
Only the internet service provider knows the identity of who is connected on the internet and will communicate it to the authorities in the event of illegal or illegal operations.
On the other hand, the discourse within a network is different, where the IP address is different from the public one and clearly identifies a specific computer or device.
For example, in an office, it is possible to scan the network to find connected computers and, therefore, locate and spy on them if they have no protection.
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