Seemingly difficult technological concepts aren’t impossible to teach or learn, you just need to find everyday words to describe what’s going on. In the June 2012 issue of PLSN, Video World contributor Paul Berlinger uses the somewhat abstract concept of an IP address as a case in point. Here’s his explanation of what it is, for non-techies. “An IP address is essentially a computer’s home address, so that the digital postman knows how to deliver mail. If you want to communicate with (or deliver to) that computer, you need to be in the same city and neighborhood, with knowledge of exactly where that computer is. We call this being in the same IP “scheme.” Now, a computer’s subnet mask is like a zip code — a special function that limits a set of addresses to a particular range. To complete the analogy, the computer’s “gateway” is like the border patrol. If you have any hope of ever communicating with that computer (or device), you better know how to get in the gateway.”
—Paul Berliner, from “Video World,” PLSN, June 2012
