IP Addresses and Domains

Ever wonder what the difference between an IP address and a domain or URL is?  Read on to learn the answer….

IP Addresses (Internet Protocol)

The IP, which stands for Internet protocol, is an identifier which sends and receives information across the Internet. It is made of 4 octets consisting of 32 numbers between 0 and 255, separated by periods. Whenever you are browsing the web or sending an email, an IP address (assigned to your computer) is required.

URLs (Uniform Resource Locator) and Domains

A URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is a distinct web address on the Internet for a web page, a PDF file or any other file format available. It is easy for humans to remember URLs but the computer cannot “understand” this format.  For example, the URL of a web page may be www.xyz.com, and its IP address 123.456.789.011.

Converting Domains and URLs to IPs and Back

At present, the Internet uses Domain Name System to convert a URL to an IP address. A domain name server has numerous capabilities. The DNS maintains a list of domain names and IP addresses which are distributed throughout the Internet in a hierarchical order.

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A domain name server locates and translates Internet domain names or the alphanumeric text of your URLs into associated IP addresses. This is done by checking your URL with the IP address lookup tables in the C:\windows directory in your computer’s hard drive or from the database on your Domain Name Server (DNS).

Whenever you are e-mailing or browsing web pages, you are unknowingly using the domain name servers, which are considered as the largest databases available today. Without domain name servers, it would be impossible to easily convert URL to IP addresses and avail yourself of simple and easy service on the Internet.