IP address

An IP address is a unique number that devices use in order to identify and communicate with each other on a computer network utilizing the Internet Protocol standard . Any participating network device — including routers, computers, time-servers, printers, Internet fax machines, and some telephones — must have its own unique address. An IP address can also be thought of as the equivalent of a street address or a phone number for a computer or other network device on the internet. Just as each street address and phone number uniquely identifies a building or telephone, an IP address can uniquely identify a specific computer or other network device on a network.

An IP address can appear to be shared by multiple client devices either because they are part of a shared hosting web server environment or because a proxy server acts as an intermediary agent on behalf of its customers, in which case the real originating IP addresses might be hidden from the server receiving a request. The analogy to telephone systems would be the use of predial numbers and extensions.