Wanted: Stolen IP Address

Recently, I was on my laptop late at night when I received an unsuspected notification on my laptop. "Another computer on this network is using the same IP Address as this computer." I was a little concerned, but at the same time shocked. We had just begun our Computer Science lecture on IP Addresses. While I did not really know if I should be concerned about this message, I did know one thing: I had a topic for my blog this chapter. I went into class and asked about my IP address problem and found out that it was nothing to be too concerned about. The world is running out of IP Addresses and it was more than likely that when the other person had logged onto the same network I had been using, they were given the same IP address as me since there were no more to use. Luckily, it did not mean anyone was trying to hack into my computer and could steal my information.
After studying my notes and attending lecture, I learned an IP address is a thirty-two bit identifier for a machine. They can be public or private and are assigned by the name server. As mentioned before, we are running out of IP addresses in the world; however, computer scientists are currently trying to expand IP addresses to a 128 bit system.
Whenever I attend lecture, I always wonder to myself how these computer science terms apply to my life. They always seem so businesslike and never have anything to do with me. With this IP address message, I learned that things we learn in lecture really can apply to my life.