An IP address is a way for every device on a network to be seen. Without IP addresses, it would be impossible for those devices to be located. Think of your computer's IP address like your house's ...
A possible fix arrived in December 1995 in the form of RFC 1883, the first definition of IPv6, the planned successor to IPv4.
I often have to find the IP address of a machine I'm working on (or need to work on). Sometimes, I need to unblock an IP address of a machine on my network, so the machine can reach a network share ...