Do my computer and phone have the same IP address if they’re connected to the same wifi? If so, how do the websites distinguish my computer from my phone?
In: 5
Complicated question, I’ll do my best
An IP Address is an internet address, and they function in the same way that a house address does.
Packets of information heading to and from the internet are stamped with source and destination addresses, and information travels over the internet like a series of highways with intersections called routers.
IPs are 4-octets or 4x 8-bit numbers (0-255)
for example 151.101.65.140 (reddit.com)
IP addresses are unique to ensure information gets to and from where it’s going.
Where it gets complicated is with NAT. Businesses and Houses use Private IPs, IP addresses that are illegal on the internet. Addresses that often look like 192.168.0.100. These addresses are reserved to be used inside of businesses so that a business only needs 1 or a handful of Unique or Public IPs to connect to the internet.
We do this because if we didn’t, we would have run out of unique IP addresses a long time ago. This clever trick has the benefit that a lot of different houses and businesses can re-use the same 192.168.x.x IPs over and over again without a problem.
When traffic leaves a house or a business the NAT router (often your modem or router) removes the private IP on the package and replaces it with the public IP assigned by your ISP. When the packet returns the router then swaps the address back to your private one.
It keeps track of this on a table in its memory like a doorman to an apartment building tracking which apartment sent and is expecting a package from where.
So when your computer, smart TV, and phone are connected to the wifi the internet sees them all as having the same IP address while it’s actually your router acting like the doorman.
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