IP Address

An IP address is the numeric label that identifies a computer on the internet. It looks like a string of numbers (such as 192.0.2.10), and every server answering requests has one.

An IP address works much like the street address of a building, providing an exact location, while a site's domain name is more like the business name. The domain name system (DNS) is what connects the two.

You'll mostly deal with IP addresses when pointing a domain at a server or controlling which machines are allowed to talk to each other.