IP address: What You Need to Know



An Internet Protocol (IP) address is a logical address assigned to devices participating in a network that utilizes the IP for communication between nodes. Although normally stored as binary numbers, an IP address is usually displayed in forms or notations that are readable by humans.

Every time someone requests a webpage or sends emails, a part of the information includes the IP address. At the other end, the recipient can see the IP address of the one that sent an email or requested an HTML webpage.

In short, the role of an IP address is characterized as a name that indicates what we are looking for, an address where one can be able to locate it, and the route that one needs to get there, without any further hassle.

The original designers of the IP address came up with a 32-bit Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4), which is still widely used today. But due to the huge growth of the Internet, they have developed a new addressing system, the 128-bit Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6).

An IP address specifies the locations of the sources and destination nodes of the routing system. This is why some of the bits in an IP address are used to comprise a subnetwork. An IP address may be private for use on a Local Area Network (LAN), or for the use on the Internet thus making it public.

The Design

The IP address was earlier intended to be uniquely designed for a single computer or device but this isn’t always necessary, since some private networks create their own addresses. Besides, some technologies redesigned their system to be able to allow multiple hosts for a single address but its place depends on the request of the clients in the network.

More Info

In an isolated network, one can assign an IP address at random as long as each one is unique but if one is about to connect to a private network, a registered IP address is needed so as not to be hassled with duplicates.

In the early stages of Internet protocol, the administrators interpreted IP address as a structure of host and network number.

The Parts

The IP address has two parts, which is the identifier of the particular network and the device within that network. On the Internet though, especially when administrators ping IP, only the network part is important because it is the only one that is looked at.

The Classes and Their Formats

Networks vary in size and that is why there are four formats of IP addresses:

▪ CLASS A addresses are for large networks with many devices
▪ CLASS B addresses are for medium sized networks
▪ CLASS C are for smaller networks which have fewer than 256 devices
▪ CLASS D are multicast address

The address class format is indicated by the first few bits of the IP address itself.

Usually, the IP address is written as four decimal numbers each of them representing 8 bits and is separated by periods. This form is more technically known as the dotted quad notation.

To put it bluntly, an IP address is a 32-bit number that identifies either the sender or receiver of certain information. When you use the command ping IP, this is usually sent in packets that pass through routes across the Internet.