What is my IP address ?

Your IP address currently is 18.188.18.197

What does that mean? It depends on the way your Internet device (e.g. desktop PC,  laptop/notebook, netbook, tablet, handheld/PDA, smart phone, game console) is connected to the Internet. The pictures below are illustrating three different scenarios of your computer connection to the Internet. The type of service in the example below is HTTP or web browsing.

Scenario 1 : Your computer connects directly to the Internet

1) Your computer connects directly to the Internet, either using an internal or external dial-up or broadband modem. In this case, the IP address 18.188.18.197 is your computer's unique IP address, nobody else uses this IP address at the same time.

The website you are visiting doesn't know who you are unless you are registering to use its service. However it records your IP address and thereby can locate you up to such details as country, region, city, ISP, connection type, Metro code and ZIP code. The depth of information depends on the type of IP address to location matching database that the website owner uses. Whether your computer is assigned a dynamic or static IP address, the IP address can lead to the way to tracking you via your ISP if such search is warranted by law.

Scenario 2 : Your computer connects to the Internet via a broadband router

2) Your computer connects to the Internet via a residential gateway or broadband router. You may have this kind of connection because you have a home network or you access the Internet via your school or corporate network. In this scenario, the IP address 18.188.18.197 belongs to the router, i.e. the router's WAN IP address. All computers on that LAN share the same public IP address on the Internet. It is made possible by the NAT function in the router which translates private IP address to public IP address and vice versa. To communicate within the LAN  your computer uses a private IP address assigned by the router's DHCP server, e.g. 192.168.0.3.

The website you are visiting records your router's public IP address, not your local address. Therefore, you are hidden behind the router. But again, there is still a way to locate you personally, i.e. via your ISP or the ISP of your school/organization/company.

Scenario 3 : Your computer connects to the Internet via a proxy server

3) Your computer connects to the Internet via a proxy server located somewhere on the Internet. Usually the proxy server is run by individuals or companies not related with an ISP, but there is also ISPs/companies that provide proxy servers for their subscribers/employees in order to control their access to the Internet. In this scenario, the IP address 18.188.18.197 identifies the proxy server, not your router or your computer because the proxy server requests a web content to the web server on behalf of you.

The type of proxy server that doesn't forward your real IP address to the website you are visiting is called anonymous proxy. An anonymous proxy server which doesn't even let a website know that someone is using an anonymous proxy is known as elite proxy. On the other hand, there is another type of proxy server that forwards your real IP address to the website you are visiting which is called transparent proxy. The transparent proxy only functions to speed up an Internet connection by presenting web pages from its cache of frequently requested web pages whenever available.

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