IP Address
Often it is useful to know your public IP address. For example, your public IP address is often your VC number if you have a hardware based VC system. Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) dynamically or statically assigns this address to you. This address is what is visible to the Internet, and is how communication over the Internet is achieved.
Public vs Private IP addresses
Most intranet networks have separate private IP address range assignments for their computers, e.g. 192.168.0.1 to 192.168.0.255. These private IP addresses are not able to communicate directly with computers outside the private network and among other reasons, are used to separate the Internet from your internal network. On the other hand, public IP addresses are available for communication with any computer with another public IP address. Computers with private IP addresses can access the Internet by using a Network Address Translation (NAT) service, usually built in to your router.
How to find your Public IP Address
Step 1
Open up your Internet browser and go to www.whatismyipaddress.com.
The following screen will come up immediately, showing your IP address as the IP Information. In this example the IP address is 60.230.4.48
