IP address

botond published Jan. 2018, 06, 27:21 p.m. time

An Internet Protocol (IP) address is a unique identifier that identifies computers that communicate on a network. Each of the computers and devices connected to the Internet has an IP address. Multiple machines can share the same address at the same time, such as when using NAT or a proxy, but the IP address of a particular machine can change regularly, such as when using a dynamic IP address.

IP addresses are usually described and displayed in a human-readable form. IPv4 addresses (32-bit) consist of four integers between 0 and 255, separated by periods. for example: 127.0.0.1. At the beginning of the Internet, this standard was able to produce enough addresses, but over the years, the camp of Internet users has exploded, so nowadays IPv4 addresses have dwindled and it has become necessary to introduce another standard.

IPv6 addresses are already 128-bit, so many more addresses can be generated from them. These addresses are described in the form of colon-separated hexadecimal terms, which in many cases can be abbreviated. For example, an IPv6 IP address: 2607: f0d0: 1002: 51: 0: 0: 0: 4, abbreviated as 2607: f0d0: 1002: 51 :: 4

Computers connected to the Internet can communicate with other computers using an IP address provided by your ISP, so IP addresses can be used to determine the location and owner of computers on your network. However, this is not always that simple, as ISPs often assign dynamic IP addresses to their users, which can change each time they connect to a network, so only the service provider can trace the IP addresses in time. An IP address is considered personal information in most countries.

The global IP address space is Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) and five regional offices (RIRs) in designated areas, for example for assignment to ISPs. IPv4 addresses were allocated to RIRs by IANA in blocks of approximately 16,8 million addresses each. Each ISP or private network administrator assigns these addresses to each device on your network. These assignments can be static (fixed IP addresses) or they can work on a dynamic basis, depending on what software is used or what is customary with your service provider.