An IP address (Internet Protocol address) is a unique numerical label assigned to each device connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. It serves two main functions: identifying the host or network interface, and providing the location of the host in the network. The IP address is a unique combination of numbers and/or letters that are separated by periods, like a string of numbers (e.g. 192.168.1.1). There are two versions of IP addresses: IPv4 and IPv6. IPv4 addresses are 32-bit numbers and have a format of x.x.x.x where x is a number between 0 and 255. IPv6 addresses, on the other hand, are 128-bit numbers and have a format of x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x, where x is a hexadecimal number.
There are several types of IP addresses, including:
IPv4: This is the most commonly used type of IP address, and it consists of four sets of numbers separated by periods. IPv4 addresses are 32-bit numbers, which means that there are about 4.3 billion possible unique addresses.
IPv6: This is the newer version of IP addresses, and it consists of eight sets of numbers separated by colons. IPv6 addresses are 128-bit numbers, which means that there are approximately 340 trillion, trillion, trillion possible unique addresses.
Public IP address: These are IP addresses that are assigned to devices by an Internet Service Provider (ISP) and are visible to the public on the internet.
Private IP address: These are IP addresses that are used within a private network and are not visible to the public on the internet. Examples are 10.0.0.0, 172.16.0.0, 192.168.0.0
Dynamic IP address: These IP addresses are assigned by a DHCP server and can change over time, as opposed to static IP addresses which are fixed.(IPv4)
Static IP address: These IP addresses are fixed and do not change over time, as opposed to dynamic IP addresses which are assigned by a DHCP server.( IPv6 )
source IP address: A source IP address is the IP address of the device that originated a network communication. It is the IP address of the sender in a network communication. It is used by the network routing devices to forward the network packets to the correct destination. The source IP address is included in the IP header of the packet, which is used by routers to determine the next hop to which the packet should be forwarded. The source IP address can also be used to track the origin of a network communication, for example, in security applications to detect and block malicious network traffic.
