Do Web Sites Record and Track IP Addresses?
An IP address (or Internet Protocol address) is a series of number that assigned to a computer when it accesses the Internet. All websites on the World Wide Web will track and record IP address when the visitor clicks through the page of that website. Security and site improvement are two reasons for this.
Every page of the web site is hosted on the server. When a visitor clicks to open a page, this mean a visitor sends a request to the server, this request also tells the server the visitor’s IP address, and then, the server will load the page on visitor’s computer screen. Without knowing IP address, the server will not know where to load the page on.
However, if the server receives many requests at once, the page may load slower. In the case of overload, the server will go down and make that site unavailable temporarily. This can be a form for web attack, called DoS (Denial of Service) attack. If the attack is from a network of infected computers, it is called DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack.
For these reasons, the server will record and track IP addresses and store in server log. Each request from any IP address is recorded along with a time stamp. Older log records will purge to make space for newer log records. And the length of time to hold the IP logs will vary; depend on the administrator’s configuration and other factors.
Web site also records and tracks IP address, to know which pages are more popular. And this will help the owner to improve their web site for more traffic or to keep visitor stay longer on the pages.
Normally, when a visitor surfs the page, the website will track and record their IP address. It is also time-stamped and recorded to a cookie, if the cookie is enabled in that web browser. All pages and links that each visitor visited also add to cookies on server (in addition to server logs). Server logs are purged, but cookies might be retained. User can clear cookie on their computer, but they cannot clear the duplicate cookie on web server.
Upon a repeat visiting to the web site, the server might recognize the visitors by using various software and system even they allow temporary cookies or no cookies. For this reason, some web surfers prefer to surf anonymously through proxy server.
In conclusion, every time a visitor surfs the Internet, web server will track and record the IP address for security reason and for site improvement.