eli5:what is an ip adress and why is revealing it bad?
In: 3
An IP address is just that, an address.
It’s how you get stuff sent to you online.
Like an address it will include some hints on how to get to where you are. Though pretty much only your ISP can trace it down to a specific real world address.
Revealing it is rarely bad, you have to reveal it to someone in order to get anything online. Though if someone had a court order they could force your ISP to tell them where you live.
Some companies host a service called a VPN where you tell them your IP address and then go though their servers, so everywhere you visit gets their IP address instead of your’s.
They say they don’t record, though they’re often lying.
They also usually have you encrypt everything, which means they aren’t a total waste of money.
But at the same time they often want to scare up some business, so they scaremonger saying that revealing your IP is bad.
A public IP is given to you by your ISP. This address is given to everything you do online, games, websites streaming etc so you can in turn receive data. Revealing your IP isn’t bad, and will only provide a general location where you live in real life.
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Like everybody else has already posted it’s not bad. It’s stated that a lot by sellers of VPNs that it’s bad, but ultimately they’re just trying to sell you their service
Revealing your IP when you just have normal household devices doing normal internet things is not really bad. You have a router which performs enough security for your internal (private) network to be a less desirable target for hackers.
However, if I’m a hacker, and I happen to know you have some Bitcoin passwords stored on your home computer, I may stop at nothing to get to that computer. Step one would be finding out your IP address. It’s no different than a burglar knowing the home address of a rich lady with lots of jewelry. In most cases however, hackers arent going to spend time trying to break into networks when all they are likely to find is a grandma’s recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies.
eli5:what is an ip adress and why is revealing it bad?
In: 3
An IP address is just that, an address.
It’s how you get stuff sent to you online.
Like an address it will include some hints on how to get to where you are. Though pretty much only your ISP can trace it down to a specific real world address.
Revealing it is rarely bad, you have to reveal it to someone in order to get anything online. Though if someone had a court order they could force your ISP to tell them where you live.
Some companies host a service called a VPN where you tell them your IP address and then go though their servers, so everywhere you visit gets their IP address instead of your’s.
They say they don’t record, though they’re often lying.
They also usually have you encrypt everything, which means they aren’t a total waste of money.
But at the same time they often want to scare up some business, so they scaremonger saying that revealing your IP is bad.
A public IP is given to you by your ISP. This address is given to everything you do online, games, websites streaming etc so you can in turn receive data. Revealing your IP isn’t bad, and will only provide a general location where you live in real life.
[removed]
Like everybody else has already posted it’s not bad. It’s stated that a lot by sellers of VPNs that it’s bad, but ultimately they’re just trying to sell you their service
Revealing your IP when you just have normal household devices doing normal internet things is not really bad. You have a router which performs enough security for your internal (private) network to be a less desirable target for hackers.
However, if I’m a hacker, and I happen to know you have some Bitcoin passwords stored on your home computer, I may stop at nothing to get to that computer. Step one would be finding out your IP address. It’s no different than a burglar knowing the home address of a rich lady with lots of jewelry. In most cases however, hackers arent going to spend time trying to break into networks when all they are likely to find is a grandma’s recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies.
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