IP Address
The term IP address stands for Internet Protocol address.
Essentially, every computer that is connected to the Internet is allocated a
unique IP address. The IP address consists of four numbers that are separated
by dots. 154.2.234.54 is an example of an IP address.
IP addresses are used by the Internet infrastructure to
direct traffic to the right server. For example, a switch can determine where a
particular package should be routed to, based on the IP address.
Of course, IP addresses are very hard to remember for
humans. For this reason, the domain name system has been invented. The domain
name system provides a lookup mechanism that can translate domain names into IP
addresses. Domain names are much more user-friendly, than IP addresses. So when
a user types a domain name into the browser address bar, then the system will
contact a domain name server to resolve that domain name into an IP address.
When the browser has the valid IP address, the web site can be loaded.
