What is the difference between an IP Address and a http address?

Answer 1

An Ip (internet protocol) address is assigned to every modem by an Internet Service Provider (ISP) such as Comcast. A network's Ip address is its identifier online. A domain name (http address) is just a cover-up for an ip. It is a little too complicated to explain in a few sentences, so we need to first define a few terms.

Local Ip addresses are assigned to individual computers inside a network by the network's DHCP server. These addresses typically look like 10.0.0.x (x being a number), 192.168.1.x, 192.168.2.x, or 172.0.0.x. These are just used by the network to identify the devices that are using it.

Every network gets only one external ip address, which is used as identification to the outside world.

A computer can run a service on a port (I think ports range from 1-10,000). One such service is a web server. These almost always run on port 80 as that is the default port your browser uses.

A domain name (http address) covers up the ugly ip of the network the web server is on. Your browser (e.g. chrome, internet explorer, firefox) by default assumes that when you type in an http address, you want to go to port 80 (you can tell it otherwise by typing something like Google.com:8080). When you access the web server, you are interacting with the host computer application. The application sends you html code, and now you have a website to browse!

In short, an Ip address is a network identifier, while an http address covers up an Ip address. A website runs on a computer within the network of that Ip address and sends you code that your browser interprets.

I hoped that helped. I am sure it was much more helpful than the last noob who responded (no offense).