If you've come across the terms

IPv6 or IPv4

, you might have wondered what they are and what they are used for. Well in this episode, we tell you

what IPv6 is

and why the current

Internet Protocol

, IPv4, is causing us to

run out of IP addresses

.

You have undoubtedly heard of

IP addresses

. The IP in IP address is short for

Internet Protocol

and IP addresses are necessary for any device that is connected to a network, including the Internet. Here we'll

define IP addresses

and show you

where IP addresses are used

.

In our final episode of this 10-part series on

advanced router techniques

, we'll show you

how to reserve an IP address

. It's a simple settings change that can be done in the

LAN Setup

of your

router software

.

When you surf the Internet you reveal yourself to the sites you visit. Your IP address is unique and it also indicates your location geographically. If you want to

surf anonymous

you can be!

There are times when you need to

know key information about your router

and it's functions. At those times you can

check the status area of your router's

setup to get exactly what you need. Also, if your Internet access goes down, you can check if the problem is with your ISP or whether something has gone wrong with your home network.

In

setting up your home network

each computer and device that accesses the network must have it's own IP address. If you want to get really involved with

managing the IP addresses

on your home network, you can

assign IP addresses and IP address leases manually

. For most of us though, it's much easier to turn this job over to a process called

dynamic host configuration protocol or DHCP

.

The first step in

securing your home network

is to familiarize yourself with your

router's control panel

. First, you'll want to

find your router's IP address

and

login to your router

. There are some

common router passwords

that manufacturers use so if you haven't changed your router's password, you'll find it in the documentation that came with it.
In this 10-part series is to take some of the mystery out of the router and allow you to be comfortable with it... it's not as hard as you may think to

set up your own home network

.

The Mac makes networking really easy. However, for PCs in your house, it can be very difficult to "see" your Mac on the network. Connecting from the Mac to the PC is generally pretty easy. Once you know what to look for it's really easy to be able to let the PC see the Mac and connect to it.

Most home networks are connected to the Internet via cable, DSL or satellite connections. These connections run into your router and it becomes the "gateway" for all the computers on your network. Sometimes you need to know the IP address for your default gateway so here's how to find it!

Your computer has an Internal IP address and an External IP address. It may have been set manually or it may have been set automatically. Regardless of how it was set there are times when you need to know what that IP address is. In our previous tutorial we showed you how to find your External IP address. In this tutorial we'll show you how to find the Internal IP address.

Your computer most likely has an IP address that it uses on your local network. Often it's assigned by your router. This is an internal IP address. You also have an external IP address that is the address that's available to the world when you surf the Internet. Just as it's easy for you to trace your IP address with the tools below, it's also easy for someone else to trace an IP address to find out where it's coming from.

If you need to upload files to your Web site or any other Web server it's best to use an FTP client. CuteFTP Lite is ideal for moving files both up and down with ease.

Now that you're a Gmail power-user, we'll take a look at Gmail Labs / Google Labs. This is the place where Googleites experiment with new features that you can implement with your Gmail to see what's in store. Essentially, you'll be a part of the Gmail beta testing team.
There are some useful new features and services here so it's definitely worth a look. Beware though: no warranties expressed or implied.

Andy and Sean answer viewer mail including fun stuff like file sharing, proxies, anonymizers and static IPs.

Andy and Sean show how to use ping and traceroute on a Mac and PC.

Lab Rats use marshmallows and a fake brick wall to explain how a DMZ works and how to use it to bypass your router's firewall for gaming, a home server and more.

We explain MAC address filtering and show you how it can be used to make your home network more secure.