IP, DNS, Router, PC Confusion

Okay, so first let's settle IP. IP is simply an address used to identify an electronic device to other devices. We have social security numbers as people which identify us uniquely, an IP is very similar in that sense.

One thing people seem to forget is that there are two types of IP addresses: local-area-network and wide-area-network. Let's start with the router. The router is the heart of a computer network. It is the main gateway to the Internet. The modem's usage is mainly to take data sent from the router and manage it in a way to be sent along coaxial cables. Forget the modem for now.

The router's WAN IP address is totally unique, no other router in the world has it. The WAN IP address identifies the computer network itself. The local IP address (LAN IP) is used to indentify an individual computer on the network. So let's get this straight. If you have computers A B and C connected to a router. The router is used to identify that entire network across the Internet. However let's take into consideration when data arrives at the router - which computer is the data meant for? The local IP address of a computer is used solely so the router can identify it. Unlike the router IP, a computer's local IP typically can change each time it connects.

How does the computer receive it's IP? This is known as DHCP, in which the router is the head of assigning local IPs. It is the router's job to give the connected devices a local IP address. This establishes a connection between the computer and router. Remember, the router and other routers across the world use a WAN IP to communicate instead.

DNS stands for domain-name-system and deals with website names such as tomshardware.com. This website name is a human-readable name, so DNS is used to translate tomshardware.com into a WAN IP address such as 0.0.0.0. Whenever you access a website, the data goes through many servers but first goes to the DNS servers. They have tables pretty much that associate a website name with an IP address. Once the DNS server finds the IP associated with the website, it forwards the request to it.

When the request arrives at the website's router, the router uses local IPs to determine which server connected to it is going to grant that request.

IPV4 was always the standard until IPV6 is now taking the lead. The only difference is that IPV6 addresses use more digits. Why? Because when they came up with this stuff they never thought they would run out. Therefore IPV6 came out to account for more addresses.