Complexities of the Internet Continued: Focusing on IP address

So hope you’ve been well, as we’re back to the topic of the workings of the internet. Even though it seems to you that we haven’t even talked about “it”, we just spoke about machines communicating…how odd, but how essential!

Let’s go back to the IP address. The broadcast address that we mentioned allows you to communicate with the machines in your subnet and involves delivering a message from one sender to many recipients. This broadcast is 'limited' in that it does not reach every node on the Internet, only nodes on the subnet. Also, it is not of much use for you as a site marketer since you can't "see it", since only the people in the subnet can. MAC address on the other hand, also known as a physical address, is particular to your network card in your computer. So if you know the MAC address you know the exact machine, that’s great, but the only people who can see it are the ones on the subnet. So it doesn’t work for you as a marketer tracking to see what machines are communicating with your servers where your website is located. All you see requesting your link is the router IP address. This is where the ISP comes in, they loan you the router IP address. This is the only way you can connect to other machines and read this current blog. When you type http://sitemarketingandanalytics.blogspot.com/ you are requesting the blogger.com server to display this page that you are currently reading on the machine that you are using identified by the IP address loaned to you by your ISP. I am emphasizing loaned to you here, because you don’t own your router IP address, your ISP does. IP address you are loaned could change and reallocated to another user, unless you are operating within a network where having a static IP address is critical. An example of such network would be a university, where the network administrators are required to track all of the user’s activity in case suspicious or inappropriate activity needs to be tracked to the culprit.

ISPs generally make it easier on themselves and keep a log of loaned addresses, but allocate them dynamically. They do that for a simple reason – more business. If they have 1000 subscribers and only a block of 100 IP addresses, then can reallocated to addresses for people to connect to the internet at different times and keep everyone happy. This is just an example, and those numbers or ratios should not be taken seriously. And if you do track your IP address, you’ll see that it is relatively stable unless there is a power outage or administrative work done by your ISP that may cause it to be reallocated.

So now we know that an internet is a network of networks and we communicate through routers with other networks using IP “virtual” addresses. We also know what an IP address is and how it is used? But, how do we interpret it and how can we use it to understand our online customers? Can we use it to show customized offers to our customers and improve their experience? To have them want to come back and visit our website again, since it was just so easy to use? We'll talk about it tomorrow.