Internet protocol address is the virtual address that contains information regarding the location of a certain device located somewhere in an internet network.

The IP address identifies the location where a particular activity comes from. Ip addresses are always visible to other users especially those that are running online communities such as online networking sites, ecommerce sites and many more.

They have tools that determine the origin or the location of a particular device through ip address. This is very much important as it enables them to monitor and manage their sites with strong security measures. This is a way for site owners to sort and distinguish spammers, violators and troublemakers on their sites.

It is common for sites such as mentioned above to have a hell lot of spammers and troublemakers whose sole purpose is to create annoyance and disturbances. They can cause problems in various ways such as creating multiple accounts, sending spams and viruses to other users and the possibility of interfering the activities of one’s site. So, how do site owners control these kinds of users? The answer is through their ip address. Site owners can access the logs on their servers in which the information about a particular ip address and the activities associated on it are recorded. They can check and ban that ip address from entering their sites. However, site owners have to consider the fact that most of these users do not have static ip addresses so there is still a possibility that they can continue their activities. The thing is that most Isps of these users do not have all the available ip addresses but they only have limited numbers of it. Taking tabs on these ip addresses in necessary because their ISP will always assign them the same ip address. At the same time, the ip addresses do not just show location of the device but also give information about their ISP.  If some users continue their abusive activities form the same ISPs, site owners can actually contact the ISPs.  They can send out recorded logs about those ip addresses and contest for the banning of the users from their ISPs but of course, this is not that simple, as it requires a lot of effort and time.

At the same time, ip addresses show the physical location of the users like their current city or country. Many site owners find this information valuable as they get to know the locations of their frequent visitors. For e commerce sites, this kind of information will help them in creating their own marketing strategies and stuff. In some cases, most site owners’ use this in filtering the visitors for their sites especially for promos and ad. For example, there are companies based in United States that are offering promos and contest through various surveys. These surveys are available to a hell lot of sites through different links and bookmarks. The target customers of these companies are only from the United States and those surveys are only viewable from those that are living inside US. They use and check the location of the visitors through checking the ip address. Most users that are living outside United States cannot view those surveys and promos because of their ip address. This is also useful in blocking abusive users from certain communities even if they are using dynamic ip address. ISPs may assign different ip address to a certain users but it will still display the actual location of that ip address. Site owners sometimes have to ban an entire country just to control abusive users if they cannot manage them through banning a particular ip address.