IP blocking

Have you ever had a friend that you didn't want to play with because they were being mean or not following the rules? Well, sometimes websites or servers have friends (or computers) that they don't want to play with either because they are trying to do bad things like hacking or spamming.

When a website or server decides they don't want to play with a certain computer anymore, they block that computer from being able to connect to the website or server. It's like putting up a big sign that says "NO TRESPASSING" in front of a house. This is called IP blocking, which is a way to prevent unwanted traffic from accessing a certain website or server.

Every computer and device connected to the internet has an address called an IP (internet protocol) address. When someone's computer is blocked, it means that their IP address is not allowed to access the website or server anymore.

It's kind of like being grounded from going to a friend's house because you broke their rules. Except in this case, you broke the rules of the website or server by doing things that were not allowed, and you can't connect to it until you fix the problem and show that you can be a good friend (computer) again.