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What Is An IP Address?

An IP address is a unique numeric label assigned to devices connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. It allows devices to identify themselves and communicate with other devices on the IP network. There are two main versions of IP addresses: IPv4 addresses which are 32-bit numbers and IPv6 addresses which are 128-bit numbers and were created to provide more addresses as IPv4 addresses were running out. IP addresses are classified into classes A, B, and C based on their size and the number of hosts they can connect.

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20 views7 pages

What Is An IP Address?

An IP address is a unique numeric label assigned to devices connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. It allows devices to identify themselves and communicate with other devices on the IP network. There are two main versions of IP addresses: IPv4 addresses which are 32-bit numbers and IPv6 addresses which are 128-bit numbers and were created to provide more addresses as IPv4 addresses were running out. IP addresses are classified into classes A, B, and C based on their size and the number of hosts they can connect.

Uploaded by

Jason Echevaria
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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What is an IP Address?

Internet Protocol or IP address is a numeral label


assigned to each device connected to a computer network
that uses the inter protocol for communication. It is
unique address that computer devices such as personal
computers, tablets, and smartphones use to identify itself
and communicate with other devices in the IP network.

Any device connected to the IP network must have a


unique IP address within the network. An IP address is
analogous to a street address or telephone number in that
it is used to uniquely identify an entity.
Versions of IP Address
IP address has composed of two versions that
currently coexist in the global Internet:

- Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4)


- Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6)
IP addresses are made up of binary values and drive the
routing of all data over the Internet.

IPv4 address are composed of 32bits long to represent


an IP address, and it defines both network and host
address.
This version has capable of providing roughly 4
billion unique numbers, and hence IPv4 addresses
running out as more devices are connected to the IP
network.
IPv4 are made up of four numerical octets that
combine to from a 32-bits address. It also consists of
a decimal number ranging from 0 to 255 and these
numbers are typically separated by “dot” or
“periods”.

IPv6 address are composed of 128 bits long and are


made up of hexadecimal characters. This version has
been invented to offer virtually limitless number of
unique addresses.

In this version addresses are expressed as a series of


eight 4-character hexadecimal numbers, which
represent 16 bits each (for a total of 128 bits.
Classes of IP Address

Class A addresses
Class A addresses are used for very large networks and
always start with a leftmost bit being a zero. Each class A
network can hold as many as 16,777,216 hosts.
There are only 127 class A addresses and these were very
quickly used up - examples include Apple, IBM and MIT.
Class B addresses
These addresses are used for medium sized networks and
always start with the leftmost bits 10. Each class B
network can hold as many as 65,534 hosts.
There are 16,384 class B addresses which are all used up -
examples include Microsoft and Glasgow University.

Class C addresses
These addresses are used for smaller networks and always
start with the leftmost bits 110. Each class C network can
only hold up to 254 hosts.
There are 2,097,152 class C addresses - ICANN no longer
issues class C addresses, instead they issue classless
addresses which are described later in this tutorial.

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