What is IP Address ? Difference between static and dynamic Ip Address

Devices nowadays are seamlessly compatible with one another. It takes just a few clicks to cast your tablet on to a television screen, or use an Xbox controller to play a PC game. Sometimes to get these devices to correctly work across platforms, a few technical modifications need to be made. In this article, we talk about one such mod, setting a static IP for your windows PC.

I know my postal address, but what is this IP address you speak of???Your postal address pinpoints exactly where on Earth your house is located. If a love letter sent by your girlfriend in the US had to reach you in London, the postal service would just go through the address mentioned and know exactly where to send the letter.

An IP address, short for Internet Protocol Address, is a computer's postal address. It is a set of numbers separated by periods, like this: 132.240.213.0, and each number can be converted to its binary equivalent which is the language a computer understands, but that is not the scope of this article. Every computer has a unique IP address and that is how computers know where exactly to send data to. Your computer’s IP address signifies its physical location.

Dynamic IP, Static IP, what??!

• The words dynamic and static mean exactly what you think they mean. Dynamic is something that changes frequently, like your hairstyle, and static is something that stays constant, like your name (but can be changed if needed). If your computer has a dynamic IP, its IP address will change every time your computer is rebooted. If it has a static IP, it stays fixed unless manually changed by the user.
• Now for regular use, where you surf Google for recipes and watch funny videos on YouTube, or upload your vacation pictures on to Facebook, a dynamic IP works just fine. Every time you power up and connect to the internet, your new IP is published and data reaches you without any hindrance. Dynamic IP's are in use because we have a limited pool of available IP's and if these can be recycled and reused it makes life much easier.
• But in some cases, depending on the need, the application or game, a static IP is a must. For example, if you plan to host a website from home, or if you plan to port forward to an Xbox console in order to play online games, or you want to remotely manage your torrent client, you will need your IP address to stay static and not change even if the computer is rebooted.

What is the cost of static IP Address ?

• For Gaming ? Good news is that its free. Gamers dont need public static IP Address, so they use a static ip within their home network. So, Xbox gamers, PS Gamers, Minecraft players can sigh in relief
• Using IP Cameras ? Most IP Cameras operate using intermediate providers like dyndns or noip, so you dont have to purchase a public static IP too
• For SQL Server / FTP Server / Web Server Hosts ? Yes, you may need to contact your ISP to purchase a public static IP. You can still use dyndns or noip services, but a public static IP is the most reliable one

moIrving

posted on 28 Dec 19