Hi, gazza8,
gazza8 wrote:should i ever give out my I P address to someone over net?
Simply by surfing to any website, in a sense, you are "giving out" some IP address (probably "yours", unless you are using proxying software like Tor) to anyone who has access to the weblogs for that website. But in most cases that is probably not something to be hugely concerned about.
On the other hand, if someone asked you to
tell them your IP address, I would decline the invitation on principle, unless they provided a very plausible explanation for why they legitimately need that information, pretty much for the same reasons mentioned by the other respondents: your instincts probably tell you "this is creepy!" when someone asks you for information they would not appear to need, and in such cases, you should probably listen to your instincts.