IP address is Internet Protocol address. There are two IP versions : IP version 4 and IP version 6, but IP version 4 is in use dominantly. It is composed of four octets (numbers ranging from 0 to 255) separated by single dots. The general format of IP address is : xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx, i.e., four octets are written separated by single dots. When you type a web site name like www.google.com in your browser, it is translated into the IP address by the DNS server and the browser connects to that IP address. For example, the IP address of google.com is 74.125.45.100. In this case the first octet is 74, second octet is 125, third octet is 45 and the fourth octet is 100. Actually a web site can have more than one IP address; it all depends on the web hosting service, how it translates the domain name into ip address. For example, google.com has four domain name servers.
In Windows XP / Vista / 7, we can find the ip address of a web site using the following methods :
Using the in-built ping command
- Open the command prompt window :
- In Windows XP, open Start Menu → Run and type cmd and press Enter.
- In Windows Vista, click on Start Menu, type cmd in the search box, click on cmd.exe.
- Type ping followed a space and then the site name. For example, ping google.com. And press Enter. Do not type anything like http:// or www in the site address. You would see something like this :
- You can clearly see that the google.com translates to the IP address 74.125.67.100
Using the in-built nslookup command
- Open the command prompt window :
- In Windows XP, open Start Menu → Run and type cmd and press Enter.
- In Windows Vista, click on Start Menu, type cmd in the search box, click on cmd.exe.
- Type nslookup followed a space and then the site name. For example, nslookup google.com. And press Enter. Do not type anything like http:// or www in the site address. You would see something like this :
- You can clearly see that the google.com translates to the IP addresses 74.125.53.100, 74.125.45.100, 74.125.67.100