IP address
Internet Protocol address , The standard way of identifying a computer that is connected to the Internet, much the way a telephone number identifies a telephone on a telephone network.
The IP address is four numbers separated by periods, and each number is less than 256, for example, 192.200.44.69.
Your system administrator or Internet service provider will assign your machine an IP address. When the internet was invented many years ago, there needed to be a way to identify one computer from another. The "IP" or "internet protocol" address has been used since then. In fact many corporate networks assign IPs to desktop computers without the employee knowing that they've been using Internet related technology for years, whether connected to the internet or not.
When a Web server is setup, it has its own IP address to identify itself on the local network.
Each virtual server is given its own static (non-changing) IP address as if it were its own machine.