What is an IP Address?

What is an IP Address?

 

An IP address, short for Internet Protocol address, is an identifying number for a piece of network hardware. Having an IP address allows a device to communicate with other devices over an IP-based network like the internet. Most IP addresses look like this: 15110165121 7 Other IP addresses you might come across could look more like this: 2001:4860:4860::8844 

What is an IP Address Used For? 

An IP address provides an identity to a networked device. Similar to a home or business address supplying that specific physical location with an identifiable address, devices on a network are differentiated from one another through IP addresses. If I'm going to send a package to my friend in another country, I have to know the exact destination. It's not enough to just put a package with his name on it through the mail and expect it to reach him. I must instead attach a specific address to it, which you could do by looking it up in a phone book. 7 This same general process is used when sending data over the Internet. However, instead of using a phone book to look up someone's name to find their physical address, your computer uses DNS servers to look up a hostname to find its IP address.

IPv4 stands for Internet Protocol version 4. It is the underlying technology that makes it possible for us to connect our devices to the web. Whenever a device access the Internet (whether it's a PC, Mac smartphone or another device), it is assigned a unique, numerical IP address such as 9948227227 To send data from one computer to another through the web, a data packet must be transferred across the network containing the IP addresses of both devices. 7 IPv6 is the sixth revision to the Internet Protocol and the successor to IPv4. It functions similarly to IPv4 in that it provides the unique numerical IP addresses necessary for Internet-enabled devices to communicate. However, it does sport one major difference: it utilizes 128-bit addresses. I'll explain why this is important in a moment.

why this is important in a moment.

Without IP addresses, computers would not be able to communicate and send data to each other. It's essential to the infrastructure of the web.