Networks, as well as the Internet, do not identify computers (of any size, even your smartphone) by the name you give them. Computers favor numbers, as well as the numbers as identifiers are called IP addresses they use.

The “IP” stands for “Internet protocol,” which is an element of Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TPC/IP). It is all called IP for short, and TCP/IP is the language used for communicating by the majority of networks.

In regards to your computer(s), there are in fact several IP addresses required. One is the way the computer speaks to the Web at large, that is the IP address of your router. So even though a site just sees a request the router knows how to route the info to/from the computer. (That is the reason why it is called a router.)

Computers on the internal networks, be it Wifi or Ethernet, at home or at work, have their particular IP addresses assigned to them (generally by the router). That means, all the nodes on the internal network may also convey.

Nevertheless, you may set up “static IP addresses” on computers so they never change–this may be significant for some types of network communications, particularly when it is significant in order to find the exact same node again and again. You can also get a static IP for your router– in case you operate a Web server, which is useful, as an example, but expect to pay additional to your ISP for it.

This really is known as IP version 4 (or IPv4). But the world was restricted by this to a potential 4 billion IP addresses, which is not enough.