IP address
An IP address is a device's street address on the network. Data packets use it to know where to go and where they came from.
Think of it like this
Like the recipient and sender addresses on a parcel. When a website receives your request, the "sender address" it sees is your IP — enough to roughly tell your country and internet provider.
In this setup
Your server has a public IP (four groups of numbers, such as 203.0.113.10). Once your app connects to it, websites see the server's IP instead of your home IP. The IP is also written into the server's certificate, so visiting https://IP does not show a security warning.
Common misconceptions
- "An IP pinpoints my front door": usually it only reveals country, city and provider.
- "A NAT machine has a public IP too, so it works": NAT machines share one IP and each gets only a few ports, so the ports this setup needs (80, 443…) are not available.
- "IPv4 and IPv6 are the same thing": they are two separate address systems. The nodes use IPv4; see "System proxy vs TUN" for the IPv6 setting in the app.
Related: Domain names and DNS, VPS and data-center routes, IP reputation and risk control