an ip address is a unique number given to each item (usually a computer) on a network. click Start -> Run -> type: command.com (then click ok) in the box that pops up, type "ipconfig" and press enter to see your IP address on the network you are on. the computer that runs GT is located at the ip address 209.120.209.11 - accessed via your browser at: http://209.120.209.11 (correct at the moment, it may change).
If you have access to that person's computer and he did not clear his browsing history, you can check that in the browser. If, on the other hand, you mean to check by an internal (local LAN) IP at the edge of the network, there are special network devices that do that. You would need to know you network administrator.
Also, the web sites that you visit generally store the IP address of all your computer (along with alot of other information.) The log of all the IP addresses (and the other information) can let the website owner get a better idea of who is visiting his site, how long they stay, where they came from, and where they went.
Just to clarify on the original question: an IP address is basically just your unique identifying number on the internet. Sorta like how if you make a phone call, it probably means you are dialing from a phone that has its own 10 digit number of some kind. Your IP address itself does not reveal much more information about you than your general geographic location (such as your city). So when you go to websites or post on GT and your IP address is logged, it just tells them another (probably) unique visitor from your general area has visited their site. I say "probably" because many IP's are considered "dynamic" in that your ISP assigns you a new one ever so often as one is free. Therefore if someone knows your IP address one day, it may be someone elses entirely the next day. For someone to gain access to what websites you have been to, they'd need to get at the internet history stored on your computer, and they would need much more invasive access to your machine than just knowing your IP address gets them. You would likely have had to unwittingly installed a trojan of somekind for them to gain this. Or if you are using a company computer at your job, they may have installed tracking software to monitor your internet activity (which you can think of as basically like a company-run trojan) While it's not exactly your full internet history, a website can know you are a repeat visitor if its placed a cookie on your machine that it sees when you return. This is likely not a security concern... but if it bothers you, you can disable cookies and clear them as desired. Although some nice features (like not having to login everytime you come to Glocktalk) are made possible because of a cookie.
Sure it does. He didn't say to point your browser at your own computer. He only said how you can check your own ip address. Ping www.glocktalk.com, and it will tell you what the address is and whether it is reachable. You can also type "nslookup www.glocktalk.com" and just get the remote's ip address.
