What Browser? Help with problems on the internet.
This website - SmallSeo-tools Have A Tool Known As Whatismybrower - tells you what browser
and version you have, the type of device you are using, which operating system
you're using, and your settings for important things such as JavaScript and
Cookies.
When someone is troubleshooting a problem with you, it's
very useful for them to know all the technical details about your system - it
can narrow down where the problem might be and help ensure that you have all
the required software.
This website saves you all the complicated steps to figuring
out what versions of software you have, what features you have enabled &
whether your web browser is up to date and let you focus on solving your
problem.
Having problems with your
computer or phone? You can clear cache or enable cookies browser,
both of which can help. I have free tools like to Know Domain to ip.
If you're curious, you can find out things like the
latest version of Chrome or what
version of Firefox do I have?
How to update Chrome
Chrome will notify you if there is a new
version available and prompt you to install it. Running the latest version of
software helps you to avoid security problems and bugs.
If you need help updating Chrome, you can
follow the guide here: How to
update Chrome.
More questions?
If you have any more questions, use
the contact
form - we'll answer it and include it here too.
Find local IP Address on Windows
The easiest and quickest way to find your
local IP address on a Windows 10 computer is to type a special command into the
command prompt. These instructions will clearly show you how to do this.
1. Search
for the Command Prompt tool
In the bottom-left corner of your Windows
desktop, you will see an input box which says Type here to search.
Windows will search your whole system for anything you type in there.
We want to open a command prompt, so search
for the command prompt by typing in Command Prompt
Note that you can also search for the
abbreviation: cmd
2. Press
the Enter key to run the Command Prompt tool
Now that you've searched for the Command
Prompt, Windows has found it and has highlighted as the main search result.
Simply press the Enter key
on your keyboard to run the Command Prompt tool. Alternatively you can double
click the icon.
If Windows Search hasn't found the Command
Prompt, make sure that you've typed Command Prompt properly -
remember you can also search for the abbreviation: cmd. Also make
sure that the All tab is selected at the top of the Search
window (and not "Documents" or "Web" etc).
3. You'll
see a fresh Command Prompt window appear
Now that you have selected the Command
Prompt from the Windows Search, you'll now see a fresh Command Prompt window.
It's possible to type lots of different commands into it to get Windows to
perform certain tasks or show you various information.
4. Use
the ipconfig command
Now that you have a Command Prompt open,
simply type the command ipconfig into
it and then press the Enter key. The Internet Protocol Configuration tool
will now run and show you some information about your local network connection.
5. Look
for your local IP Address Number
The ipconfig tool will have printed a number
of things on the command prompt, it will look something like this screenshot:
We have underlined the line which says IPv4
Address, you can see the IP Address (in this example, it begins with 192.168...)
in the right-hand column.
If you have more than one local network
connection (perhaps you have two network cards, or perhaps you are connected by
WiFi and a network cable) you may have more than one network adaptor; you will
need to look for the IPv4 Address line under each adaptor section of the
read-out.
Find local IP Address on macOS
To find your local IP Address on macOS you
need to look at your Network Settings. Here is how to easily find your network
details.
1. Click
the Apple Menu icon
In the top-left corner of your Mac screen,
click the small Apple icon. It will expand a list of System options.
2. Click
the "System Preferences" item
3. Click
the "Network" icon
The System Preferences window will have a
number of icons which let you view and control various settings for your Mac.
Near the middle you will see the "Network" icon as shown in the
screenshot. Click on it to open your Network settings.
4. Look
for your local IP Address Number
System Preferences will show you a list of
your network adaptors up the side of the Network window; it will put the
connected interfaces at the top (and highlight them with a Green dot).
If you only have one connected network
adaptor (as shown in the screenshot above), you simply need to look to the
right of the Network window: macOS will show you what your local IP Address is
and how you are connected to your local network.
If you have more than one network adaptor,
you will probably also have more than one local IP address. This can happen if
you are using a laptop with WiFi but also have it plugged in to a network cable
or Thunderbolt or USB network adaptor. If you do have more than one network
adaptor, you can click on each one in the left-hand section of the Network
window and look over on the right-hand side of the window to read each local IP
address.
How did we (used to) detect local IP
Addresses?
One of the new additions to some modern
browsers is WebRTC.
WebRTC is an API which is geared at enabling
real-time in-browser communications without the need for extra plugins - for
things like in-browser video chat without the need for extra plugins. It holds
a lot of potential for the future of online communication and is an exciting
development.
For a while, it was possible to get the
WebRTC API in some web browsers to reveal what your local IP address/s were.
Most web browser manufacturers have now blocked web browsers from finding this
information, as it can also lead to a loss of your privacy online. As a result,
we're not able to easily show you what your local IP address is to help you
with your troubleshooting; instead you need to go thorugh your computer's
network settings and find it yourself.
It is still actually possible for web
browsers to provide this type of detection, however it is disabled by default
(and probably shouldn't be enabled).
Change your location with a VPN
You can use a VPN to trick websites into
thinking that you come from a different geographic location.
What are IP Addresses?
IP Address is short for "Internet
Protocol Address".
You can think of an IP Address a bit like
phone number for your computer; it is a number that identifies any device that
is connected to a network; although there are a few key differences between
phone numbers and IP Addresses.
Devices such as computers (and smart phones
or game consoles etc) can be linked up to other computers. This is called
computer networking. Each computer that gets connected to a network is given a
different IP address, so that each computer can be identified and communicated
with individually.
When you link different computers together,
a computer network is formed. You can have a computer network contained
completely inside your home; in fact, if you have an internet connection at
home that gets shared by all your different computers, laptops and ipods then
you already have your own network!
In the case of most home and business
networks (e.g. your office), all the different computers are joined on a
private network. On the private network, each computer will have it's own
"internal" IP Address, but externally, all the computers on that
private network will appear to have the same IP Address.
So that's why if you load this webpage on
two different computers on the same private network, it will show the same IP
Address at the top: because they are coming from the same network, even though
on the private network those two computers have different IP Addresses.
Can my IP Address reveal my physical location?
Essentially: yes. Your ISP knows exactly
where you are (because they have your billing details linked to your IP
Address), however to most other people, websites and organisations, IP
Addresses can usually only reflect an approximate location (perhaps at a suburb
level).
Can I hide my IP Address?
You always need an IP Address to do anything
on the internet... however it is possible for your internet traffic to appear
to come from a different IP Address.
If you don't want web servers to be able to
see which IP Address you are coming from, you can use a " "
service, which puts another network link in front of your computer; so that it
seems like your traffic is coming out of a different location.
Can I get a new IP Address?
It depends your arrangement with your ISP,
but in some cases it's definitely possible.
To understand this you need to understand
how you are assigned an IP Address in the first place, and there are a few
scenarios regarding how this happens, however essentially what happens is that
in some way your Internet Service Provider will provide you
with your public IP.
Getting a new IP address involves getting
your ISP to provide you with a new one and there are a few ways this can
happen: and this basically depends on your arrangement with them.
The situations below are general outlines
only: ultimately it comes down to your arrangement with your ISP and if you
have any doubts you should contact them for more information regarding your
actual situation.
Work/Office IPs
Depending on the type of internet connection
your internet has, this may be a "fixed" IP Address. If your IT Team
has organised a high bandwidth connection to support tens or hundreds of
employees at the same office location then it's very likely that this IP
address would be static and never change; and thus there's nothing that can be
done to change your IP address. Your internet traffic will appear to come from
the same place as all the other employees.
Home internet
In our experience most home internet
connections will have a dynamic IP address. This means that every time your
home router connects to your ISP it will be given a different IP address by
your ISP.
ISPs have pools of IP addresses and will
randomly pick one out and assign it to every new internet connection. Often
rebooting your router is enough to cause it to be assigned a different IP
address. In some cases, while your internet connection technically has a
dynamic IP address, even when you reboot your router your ISP will still give
you the same IP for a few days, weeks or months.
Some home internet or small office internet
connections will provide you with a fixed IP address as a part of your plan
with them. You should contact them for more information.
Small Office
If you work in a smaller office you may be
on an internet connection that is similar to a Home Internet connection; a
dynamic IP address behind a router and the same scenario applies.
Mobile internet
This refers to 3G/4G internet on your Smart
Phone or 3G/4G Tablet (and not when you're connected via WiFi
at Home, Work or a Cafe etc).
It's particularly hard to make
generalisations about mobile IP address
What's the deal with VPNs?
Using a VPN is a trade-off - there are some
advantages and some disadvantages - and you need to understand the various
reasons why you might want to use one.
Coming from a different geographic location
Some services - commonly gambling or online
TV websites - will restrict your access to their services unless your internet
traffic is coming from the correct location (eg. the same country). If you try
to access their website from overseas, you will be denied.
Using a VPN is a primary way of getting
around these kinds of blocks. You'll need a VPN which has end-points in the
country you need to appear to come from - then when you select that end-point
for your traffic, when you access that site it should detect that your traffic
is local and let you in.
Be aware that some websites that have these
location-based checks, also include checks to see if you're coming from
well-known VPNs as well - and may choose to block you as well, to prevent
customers using VPNs to get around their blocks.
Preventing people snooping on your web browsing
Another common reason for people using VPNs
is to prevent malicious third-parties from intercepting and analysing their
internet traffic.
Any time you connect your computer to a
network, you are - at a certain level - trusting that network
and their owners to act "properly" - not intercept or tamper with
your network traffic. If your computer is connected to your Employer's network,
a University network or a free WiFi hotspot in a restaurant, when you access
the internet, your traffic goes out through their router/firewall and reaches
the broader internet.
As such, we have to trust whoever is
providing that link to the internet... however it is possible for the provider
of that router/firewall to keep copies of some or all of the internet traffic
that is going through it, without you being aware that this is happening.
Fortunately more and more websites are using TLS/SSL to secure themselves and
help prevent this from happening, but the firewall would still know that you're
sending some kind of traffic to that website (it just couldn't
see what it was). And not all websites are doing this (or doing it properly).
And if your adversary was very determined, they could try to break the TLS/SSL
encryption...
So, by using a VPN when you are using an
untrusted network, you can "tunnel" all of your traffic out to a
different end-point before it his the public internet.
However, as you can probably guess, this
then means that you now have to trust your VPN to not tamper with, intercept or
store the traffic that is now going over their network!
This is why we say that using a VPN is a
trade off - you have moved your trust away from the Free WiFi access point that
you've connected to in a restaurant to a company that you are paying money to
and who should have a vested interest in helping keep you safe.
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