Network

What is an IP Address?

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No doubt you’ve heard the term “IP address.” Unless you’re a techie, though, you may not have more than a shadowy notion of what an IP address actually is or how it works. Let’s explore the concept.

An IP address is a fascinating product of modern computer technology designed to allow one computer (or other digital device) to communicate with another via the Internet. IP addresses allow the location of literally billions of digital devices that are connected to the Internet to be pinpointed and differentiated from other devices. In the same sense that someone needs your mailing address to send you a letter, a remote computer needs your IP address to communicate with your computer.

“IP” stands for Internet Protocol, so an IP address is an Internet Protocol address. What does that mean? An Internet Protocol is a set of rules that govern Internet activity and facilitate completion of a variety of actions on the World Wide Web. Therefore an Internet Protocol address is part of the systematically laid out interconnected grid that governs online communication by identifying both initiating devices and various Internet destinations, thereby making two-way communication possible.

An IP address consists of four numbers, each of which contains one to three digits, with a single dot (.) separating each number or set of digits. Each of the four numbers can range from 0 to 255. Here’s an example of what an IP address might look like: 78.125.0.209. This innocuous-looking group of four numbers is the key that empowers you and me to send and retrieve data over our Internet connections, ensuring that our messages, as well as our requests for data and the data we’ve requested, will reach their correct Internet destinations. Without this numeric protocol, sending and receiving data over the World Wide Web would be impossible.

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What is a Web Server?

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Many people know how to drive a car, but have little or no knowledge about how the car actually works. So, too, are many people familiar with how to view and navigate web pages, but have limited knowledge of how those web pages do what they do. Here we will answer the question: “What is a web server?”

At the most basic level, a web server is simply a computer program that dispenses web pages as they are requested. The machine the program runs on is usually also called a server, and the two references are interchangeable in everyday conversation. When someone sits down at a computer and enters an address into an internet browser like Internet Explorer or Firefox, the browser sends a request off into the internet asking to view the web page found at that address. The web server is the program or machine that responds to that request, and delivers the content of the page back to the user.

This can be done because every computer or device that connects to the internet has a uniquely identifying number, called an Internet Protocol address, or IP address for short. This address is what allows computers to find one another and communicate across the network. In brief, the process works as follows.

Every web page on the internet also has a unique address, called a Uniform Resource Locator, or URL. Something like “www.example.com/page1.htm” is an example of a typical URL. When a user types that URL into a web browser, the machine the browser is running on sends a request to the IP address of the machine running the web server for that page, requesting that all the content found there be sent back. Once the web server receives that request, it sends the page content back to the IP address of the computer asking for it. The web browser then translates that content into all of the text, pictures, links, videos, etc. that so many web pages contain.

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What is a POP3?

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POP3, which is an abbreviation for Post Office Protocol 3, is the third version of a widespread method of receiving email. Much like the physical version of a post office clerk, POP3 receives and holds email for an individual until they pick it up. And, much as the post office does not make copies of the mail it receives, in previous versions of POP3, when an individual downloaded email from the server into their email program, there were no more copies of the email on the server; POP automatically deleted them.

POP3 makes it easy for anyone to check their email from any computer in the world, provided they have configured their email program properly to work with the protocol.

Mail Server Functionality

POP3 has become increasingly sophisticated so that some administrators can configure the protocol to “store” email on the server for a certain period of time, which would allow an individual to download it as many times as they wished within that given time frame. However, this method is not practical for the vast majority of email recipients.

While mail servers can use alternate protocol retrieval programs, such as IMAP, POP3 is extremely common among most mail servers because of its simplicity and high rate of success. Although the newer version of POP offers more “features,” at its basic level, POP3 is preferred because it does the job with a minimum of errors.

Working With Email Applications

Because POP3 is a basic method of storing and retrieving email, it can work with virtually any email program, as long as the email program is configured to host the protocol. Many popular email programs, including Eudora and Microsoft Outlook, are automatically designed to work with POP3. Each POP3 mail server has a different address, which is usually provided to an individual by their web hosting company. This address must be entered into the email program in order for the program to connect effectively with the protocol. Generally, most email applications use the 110 port to connect to POP3. Those individuals who are configuring their email program to receive POP3 email will also need to input their username and password in order to successfully receive email.

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What is W3C Browser Geolocation?

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W3C Browser Geolocation

If you’ve looked at an iPod, iPhone or other smartphone, if you’ve used the Firefox, Chrome or Opera browsers, or if you’ve used Google in the past couple years, you’ve probably seen something that points out your location. Indeed, Google has long been able to target local results to your searches based on where you are in the world – geolocation technology is behind the increased push toward localized search. The web is becoming local, as it is increasingly the case that people want to use the Internet not to reach far afield, but to deepen their understanding of their own backyards.

How W3C Geolocation Works

W3C Geolocation is the World Wide Web Consortium’s attempt to standardize this technology for use in any web-related application for a client-side device. Standardization isn’t as easy as it seems, as geolocation isn’t so much about a single program as it is a collection of several disparate programs, each of which provides an imperfect solution to the problem. The imperfections in each solution overlap with the geolocation capacities of the others, so the combination is a sort of perfect basket that allows for any computer connected to the Internet to find where it’s located. The technologies used are: IP Geolocation, GPS, Wi-Fi Positioning and Cell Tower Triangulation. Each technology adds a level of certainty to W3C geolocation.

IP Geolocation

IP Geolocation is easily implemented into a website, but it suffers from limitations of specificity. Each IP block corresponds roughly to a geographical area, so you can usually figure out what city someone is in. However, it often produces false positives, and the data should be checked against other forms of geolocation.

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