For some computer users, an IP address is confusing and a question “what is my IP address” frequently appears when dealing with the computer networking. For a standalone computer at home you don’t need to worry. Because for standalone computer, you don’t need an IP address. The IP address for a computer is used for unique identity among the computers in a networking environment. Even for a wired home computer networking or wireless home networking, you don’t need to worry about “what is my IP address”. Why?
Basically in a networking environment your computer needs a unique identity to configure which comprises of unique hostname and unique IP address within the network. In a home networking where there is no DHCP server available, your computer will obtain the IP address automatically from the APIPA (Automatic Private IP Addressing) scheme. APIPA is a DHCP-like configuration for small network. While in a medium and large redundant network, the IP address is commonly obtain automatically from the DHCP server.
In some cases you might ask “what is my IP address” such as in a situation when you have a connection problem for your friend’s laptop to join to your wireless home networking. Besides the authentication problem (since it is your wireless networking you know exactly what the password is), the easiest way to check is by asking the question “what is my IP address?” probably your friend’s laptop was set to use fix IP address for some reason by a technician.
How to check “what is my IP address” is by logon to the laptop and running the “ipconfig /all” at the command line prompt.
If you are using windows XP, you can click the “windows” key and “R” key simultaneously. The following run bar will appear.
What is my IP address - Command Line
Type “cmd” and click “OK” it will prompt you to the command line console.
Type “ipconfig /all” and press “Enter” and the following configuration setting will appear.
What is my IP Address - IPConfig /All
Your question “what is my IP address” is now answered here by using the “ipconfig /all” at the command line. You can see here that the “DHCP enable” is “No” that means the IP address is set to manual fix IP address. This IP address scheme might not agree with the network address you are using in your network environment.
Click the LAN connection property to see if the IP is set manually as shown in the following figure. See that the IP and DNS are set manually.
What is my IP address - IP Property
What you need to do now is to set the IP address to “obtain an IP address automatically” and “obtain DNS server address automatically”. Change the position of the radio button both to “obtain an IP address automatically” and “Obtain DNS server automatically”.
In a real IT world, the question “what is my IP address” is very important in troubleshooting the network connectivity to localize the problem.
Check out about
- laptop security guidelines here.
- Networking tutorial – the brief discussions
- Computer networking diagram
Recent Comments