An ip address is just that...an address. Every PC tied into the net has one, just like every house on your street (or any street) has one (an address).

So, you may not want everyone to know where you live, you may not want everyone to have your ip address. On the other hand, anyone who matters can get their hands on it. Your ISP (who assigns it!), law enforcement, the sites you visit. OK, maybe your Mom can't get her hands on it, but you see what I mean? Now, having said that, there's ways of hiding and/or masking your ip address.

The best place to start is to start paying attention to your PC's ip address. Just bring up a command prompt and type in "ipconfig".

After you've played with that awhile and picked up some of the switches ("ipconfig /all" for instance), download a little app called ShowIP. If you're behind a router, that one'll give you your LAN ip address and another (different) WAN address.

You wanna learn everything? Be patient...