What is an IP Address?
➤An Internet Protocol Address (IP address) is a numerical label assigned to each device connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.
➤An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a logical numeric address that is assigned to every single computer, printer, switch, router or any other device that is part of a TCP/IP-based network.
➤An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is an identifying number for network hardware connected to a network. Having an IP address allows a device to communicate with other devices over an IP-based network like the internet.
How Does an IP Address Look Like?
Most of the IP address look like this:
151.101.65.121
Why Does IP Address Needed For?
An IP address provides an identity to a networked device on the internet. Similar to a home or business address that supplies a specific physical location with an identifiable address, devices on a network are differentiated from one another through IP addresses. IP Address is like your contact address. If people write a letter/application to you, they need an address to post. Similarly in computer/IT world, IP address is the address to which information is sent to, to reach your computer. Just like how addresses in real world are organized geaographically using pin code, IP address are also organized by ICANN to ensure we know which IP resides where.
IP Versions (IPv4 vs IPv6)
There are two version of IP address:
- Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4)
- Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6)
IPv4 is older version while IPv6 is newer & upgraded version of Internet Protocol (IP)
What is IPv4 & IPv6?
One main reason IPv6 is replacing over IPv4 is that, IPv6 provides a larger number of IP addresses than IPv4. When multiple devices on the same network are connected to the internet, it's very important that there's a unique address available for each device.
- IPv4:- The way IPv4 addresses are constructed means it's able to provide over 4 billion unique IP addresses. This is a large number of addresses, but it's not enough for the modern world with all the different devices used on the internet.
- IPv6:- IPv6 supports 340 trillion, trillion, trillion addresses. This means every person on earth could connect billions of devices to the internet.
IPv4 displays addresses as a 32-bit numerical number written in decimal format, for example, 207.241.148.80 or 192.168.1.1. Because there are trillions of possible IPv6 addresses, they must be written in hexadecimal to display them, for example, 3ffe:1900:4545:3:200:f8ff:fe21:67cf.
Diffrent Types of IP Address:
- Private IP Address:- These are used inside a network, for example, a home network that is used by tablets, Wi-Fi cameras, wireless printers, and desktop PCs. These types of IP addresses provide a way for devices to communicate with a router and the other devices on the private home network.
- Public IP Address:- These are used on the outside of a network and are assigned by an ISP. It's the main address that a home or business network uses to communicate with the rest of the networked devices around the world (for example, the internet). It provides a way for the devices in a home, for example, to reach an ISP, and therefore the outside world, allowing the devices to access websites and communicate directly with other computers and servers around the world.
- Static IP Address:- As the name speaks, the static IP addresses are those types of IP address that never change once they are assigned to a device on a network. No doubt this type of addressing is cost effective but could have a high security risk. Static IP addresses are mostly used by web, email and gaming servers who don’t care much about hiding their locations.
- Dynamic IP Address:- On the other hand, a Dynamic IP address changes each time the device logs in to a network. This kind of IP address is very tough to trace and are thus used by companies and business firms.
Each type of IP address can be an IPv4 address or an IPv6 address.
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