So I was talking with this kid who has been trying to get a game of Starcraft going with his cousin for days and weeks.  Like the rest of us, he wanted to load up connect and get to the carnage.  The problem was that he seemed to have the same IP as his cousin halfway across the country.  Thus began a long explination of the basics of IP addressing.  Click to read more

What is an IP anyways?

There are millions of computers out there on the net and each of them is assigned a unique number that is used to identify it, something like a telephone number.  The number should read something like this  ###.###.###.###.  If you are using windows you can find it by right clicking on My Network Places --> Properties  --> and then clicking on TCP/IP in the center of the window that pops up.

What is this 192.168.1.101 number?

If you are smart you have have your computer behind some kind of router that keeps your computer away from all the garbage that floats around the internet.  If you have a router, it get's that unique IP number and then assigns another set of numbers to the compters around your house.  The numbers that it assigns starts with the 192.168.#.# that you see assigned to you.

So how do I find my unique number?

My suggestion would be to go to a site like IPchicken.com.  It will give you the unique number that is assigned to your router so that you can start your server.  You are still going to have to do something called port forwarding which I will cover in a future article.