What Is My IP? Best Way To Check Your Public IP Address

An IP (Internet Protocol) address is a uniquely-identifying string of numbers assigned to each Internet-connected device or any device connected to a network. The address identifies and allows these devices to communicate with each other, either on an internal or external computer network.

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Any device that transmits or receives network traffic gets an IP. 192.168.10.1 is an IP address example; any device with that IP can communicate with other devices across the same network. All governing devices, whether DHCP server, router, or Internet service provider, all use some sort of IP address management (IPAM) to prevent the assignment of the same Internet Protocol address to multiple devices. When there exists two devices with the same IP on the same network, an IP conflict prevents data from correct transmission and reception on these devices.

Your Internet activity then goes through your Internet service provider and routes back to you via the IP address assigned to you. Your address isn't permanent, though; it can change based on your connection and the network you choose to connect to. It works, theoretically, as a digital version of your home address. It's like how you need a home address to receive mail, and the sender must have your correct home number and zip code; you need an Internet Protocol address to connect to the Internet, and any device trying to connect to yours needs the proper IP for a successful connection.

An IP can indicate which Internet service provider you use and your Internet speed. It also reveals information about your general location. It could indicate your country, state, city, or postal region. However, you can't find someone's exact location from their IP. The information is intended for other devices and networks to identify your device, not for others to track you down.

What is an IP address?

A private IP address is an IP assigned to devices on private networks. These types of IPs, also referred to as local IP addresses or internal IP addresses, are used on local area networks (LANs) like your home network. They usually begin with 10, 172, or 192, which are in classes A, B, and C, respectively. These blocks are reserved for private IP addresses only by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA).

There are two types of IP addresses: IPv4 and IPv6. Originally, private IP addresses were created to help delay the exhaustion of IPv4 addresses, as there is a limited number of IPv4 addresses. But even with the theoretical 4,294,967,296 addresses created by the 32-bit system, IPv4 address space began to run low with the amount of new Internet-connected devices that came into businesses and homes.

Thus, private IP addresses allow private networks to use the same IP addresses internally without causing conflicts for public IP addresses. Though IPv6 addresses ended up being the solution to IPv4 exhaustion, the private IP address system still exists for internal networks.

What is a Private IP Address?

Our homepage shows you your public IP address above. You'll see the IPv4 and, if available, the IPv6 assigned by your Internet service provider (ISP). Your public IP address is the IP that is logged when you visit websites or use any other services on the Internet. It differs from your private IP address, which varies by individual device as each device is assigned a private IP address.

If you want to find your private IP address on another device, like your or computer, you can follow our guides.

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Yes, you can find the location of an IP address in most cases. However, the location may not always be accurate. Locational data for IP address geolocation varies based on the database. Though the information is generally accurate at pinpointing an IP's country and city, it can't tell you an exact street address.

Essentially, the accuracy decreases as the map narrows; an IP location search can bring up the continent, country, city, zip code, and time zone of an address, but it can't get more specific than that. If you need to find someone's exact address, looking up their location may not get you as far as you need to go.

Use the IP address lookup tool to gather location information about an IP address.

IP Address Lookup

In short, no ' you don't need to worry about your exact location being found through your IP address. Though IP addresses, by design, can be tracked, the purpose is to indicate your location to Internet service providers and other devices when you're accessing the Internet. Without this service, they wouldn't be able to serve their purpose. However, this doesn't mean that someone can track you by your IP address.

If someone was able to get your IP address, they could learn a bit about your Internet service, such as which provider you use to connect to the Internet, but they really can't locate you, your home, or your office. Your IP address doesn't contain the information necessary to reveal your exact physical location to anyone who may attempt to trace your IP address and find you. In some circumstances, a person may be able to locate the city or general area you're in. But they can't get your physical address; though your IP address links to a geographical location, it's not specific enough to find you. Anyone tracing your IP address could only get to your Internet service provider.

If you want to know how to find someone with IP address information, you'll still find helpful data from the address. An IP address does contain some geographical location information. In some cases, an IP address indicates the country, state, city, or zip code where a device is located. It also tells others the identity of your ISP. However, even with that information, your IP address doesn't reveal enough to pinpoint your location, your personal information, or put you in any danger.

Can Someone Find Me With My IP Address?

A dividing breast cancer cell.

Credit: National Cancer Institute / Univ. of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute

The Definition of Cancer

Cancer is a disease in which some of the body's cells grow uncontrollably and spread to other parts of the body. 

Cancer can start almost anywhere in the human body, which is made up of trillions of cells. Normally, human cells grow and multiply (through a process called cell division) to form new cells as the body needs them. When cells grow old or become damaged, they die, and new cells take their place.

Sometimes this orderly process breaks down, and abnormal or damaged cells grow and multiply when they shouldn't. These cells may form tumors, which are lumps of tissue. Tumors can be cancerous or not cancerous (benign). 

Cancerous tumors spread into, or invade, nearby tissues and can travel to distant places in the body to form new tumors (a process called metastasis). Cancerous tumors may also be called malignant tumors. Many cancers form solid tumors, but cancers of the blood, such as leukemias, generally do not.

Benign tumors do not spread into, or invade, nearby tissues. When removed, benign tumors usually don't grow back, whereas cancerous tumors sometimes do. Benign tumors can sometimes be quite large, however. Some can cause serious symptoms or be life threatening, such as benign tumors in the brain.

Differences between Cancer Cells and Normal Cells

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Cancer cells differ from normal cells in many ways. For instance, cancer cells:

• grow in the absence of signals telling them to grow. Normal cells only grow when they receive such signals. 
• ignore signals that normally tell cells to stop dividing or to die (a process known as programmed cell death, or apoptosis).
• invade into nearby areas and spread to other areas of the body. Normal cells stop growing when they encounter other cells, and most normal cells do not move around the body. 
• tell blood vessels to grow toward tumors.  These blood vessels supply tumors with oxygen and nutrients and remove waste products from tumors.
• hide from the immune system. The immune system normally eliminates damaged or abnormal cells. 
• trick the immune system into helping cancer cells stay alive and grow. For instance, some cancer cells convince immune cells to protect the tumor instead of attacking it.
• accumulate multiple changes in their chromosomes, such as duplications and deletions of chromosome parts. Some cancer cells have double the normal number of chromosomes.
• rely on different kinds of nutrients than normal cells. In addition, some cancer cells make energy from nutrients in a different way than most normal cells. This lets cancer cells grow more quickly. 

Many times, cancer cells rely so heavily on these abnormal behaviors that they can't survive without them. Researchers have taken advantage of this fact, developing therapies that target the abnormal features of cancer cells. For example, some cancer therapies prevent blood vessels from growing toward tumors, essentially starving the tumor of needed nutrients.  

How Does Cancer Develop?

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Cancer is caused by certain changes to genes, the basic physical units of inheritance. Genes are arranged in long strands of tightly packed DNA called chromosomes.

Credit: © Terese Winslow

Cancer is a genetic disease'that is, it is caused by changes to genes that control the way our cells function, especially how they grow and divide.

Genetic changes that cause cancer can happen because:

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• of errors that occur as cells divide. 
• of damage to DNA caused by harmful substances in the environment, such as the chemicals in tobacco smoke and ultraviolet rays from the sun. (Our Cancer Causes and Prevention section has more information.) 
• they were inherited from our parents. 

The body normally eliminates cells with damaged DNA before they turn cancerous. But the body's ability to do so goes down as we age. This is part of the reason why there is a higher risk of cancer later in life.

Each person's cancer has a unique combination of genetic changes. As the cancer continues to grow, additional changes will occur. Even within the same tumor, different cells may have different genetic changes.

Fundamentals of Cancer

Cancer is a disease caused when cells divide uncontrollably and spread into surrounding tissues.

Cancer is caused by changes to DNA. Most cancer-causing DNA changes occur in sections of DNA called genes. These changes are also called genetic changes.

A DNA change can cause genes involved in normal cell growth to become oncogenes. Unlike normal genes, oncogenes cannot be turned off, so they cause uncontrolled cell growth.

 In normal cells, tumor suppressor genes prevent cancer by slowing or stopping cell growth. DNA changes that inactivate tumor suppressor genes can lead to uncontrolled cell growth and cancer.

Within a tumor, cancer cells are surrounded by a variety of immune cells, fibroblasts, molecules, and blood vessels'what's known as the tumor microenvironment. Cancer cells can change the microenvironment, which in turn can affect how cancer grows and spreads.

Immune system cells can detect and attack cancer cells. But some cancer cells can avoid detection or thwart an attack. Some cancer treatments can help the immune system better detect and kill cancer cells.

Each person's cancer has a unique combination of genetic changes. Specific genetic changes may make a person's cancer more or less likely to respond to certain treatments.

Credit: National Cancer Institute

Genetic changes that cause cancer can be inherited or arise from certain environmental exposures. Genetic changes can also happen because of errors that occur as cells divide.

Most often, cancer-causing genetic changes accumulate slowly as a person ages, leading to a higher risk of cancer later in life.

Cancer cells can break away from the original tumor and travel through the blood or lymph system to distant locations in the body, where they exit the vessels to form additional tumors. This is called metastasis.

Types of Genes that Cause Cancer

The genetic changes that contribute to cancer tend to affect three main types of genes'proto-oncogenes, tumor suppressor genes, and DNA repair genes. These changes are sometimes called 'drivers' of cancer.

Proto-oncogenes are involved in normal cell growth and division. However, when these genes are altered in certain ways or are more active than normal, they may become cancer-causing genes (or oncogenes), allowing cells to grow and survive when they should not.

Tumor suppressor genes are also involved in controlling cell growth and division. Cells with certain alterations in tumor suppressor genes may divide in an uncontrolled manner.

DNA repair genes are involved in fixing damaged DNA. Cells with mutations in these genes tend to develop additional mutations in other genes and changes in their chromosomes, such as duplications and deletions of chromosome parts. Together, these mutations may cause the cells to become cancerous.

As scientists have learned more about the molecular changes that lead to cancer, they have found that certain mutations commonly occur in many types of cancer. Now there are many cancer treatments available that target gene mutations found in cancer. A few of these treatments can be used by anyone with a cancer that has the targeted mutation, no matter where the cancer started growing.

When Cancer Spreads

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In metastasis, cancer cells break away from where they first formed and form new tumors in other parts of the body. 

Credit: © Terese Winslow

A cancer that has spread from the place where it first formed to another place in the body is called metastatic cancer. The process by which cancer cells spread to other parts of the body is called metastasis.

Metastatic cancer has the same name and the same type of cancer cells as the original, or primary, cancer. For example, breast cancer that forms a metastatic tumor in the lung is metastatic breast cancer, not lung cancer.

Under a microscope, metastatic cancer cells generally look the same as cells of the original cancer. Moreover, metastatic cancer cells and cells of the original cancer usually have some molecular features in common, such as the presence of specific chromosome changes.

In some cases, treatment may help prolong the lives of people with metastatic cancer. In other cases, the primary goal of treatment for metastatic cancer is to control the growth of the cancer or to relieve symptoms it is causing. Metastatic tumors can cause severe damage to how the body functions, and most people who die of cancer die of metastatic disease.  

Tissue Changes that Are Not Cancer

Not every change in the body's tissues is cancer. Some tissue changes may develop into cancer if they are not treated, however. Here are some examples of tissue changes that are not cancer but, in some cases, are monitored because they could become cancer:

• Hyperplasia occurs when cells within a tissue multiply faster than normal and extra cells build up. However, the cells and the way the tissue is organized still look normal under a microscope. Hyperplasia can be caused by several factors or conditions, including chronic irritation.
• Dysplasia is a more advanced condition than hyperplasia. In dysplasia, there is also a buildup of extra cells. But the cells look abnormal and there are changes in how the tissue is organized. In general, the more abnormal the cells and tissue look, the greater the chance that cancer will form. Some types of dysplasia may need to be monitored or treated, but others do not. An example of dysplasia is an abnormal mole (called a dysplastic nevus) that forms on the skin. A dysplastic nevus can turn into melanoma, although most do not.
• Carcinoma in situ is an even more advanced condition. Although it is sometimes called stage 0 cancer, it is not cancer because the abnormal cells do not invade nearby tissue the way that cancer cells do. But because some carcinomas in situ may become cancer, they are usually treated.

Normal cells may become cancer cells. Before cancer cells form in tissues of the body, the cells go through abnormal changes called hyperplasia and dysplasia. In hyperplasia, there is an increase in the number of cells in an organ or tissue that appear normal under a microscope. In dysplasia, the cells look abnormal under a microscope but are not cancer. Hyperplasia and dysplasia may or may not become cancer.

Credit: © Terese Winslow

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