What is an IP address ?

IP Address :-

Full form of Ip address is Internet Protocol . An internet protocol address is a numeric address which is assigned to all the devices . It is different for different devices . It cannot be be same for two devices in a network . It is a 32-bit number .

There are two reasons to use IP address. One, it is used as local address and second a device can be identified with its IP address by the host interface over a network.

IP address can be static or dynamic :-

Static IP address :- 

A static IP address is permanent address which will never change and is assigned by an administrator.

Dynamic IP address :- 

A dynamic IP address device changes its IP address every time when accessing internet. It is assigned by the host software .

There are primarily two types of IP address formats used today .

1.IPv4

2.IPv6

1.IPv4:-

• It was the first verson of IP address .
• It is used to identify devices on a network using an addressing system .
• Today it is the most widely used IP version .
• It is the primary Internet Protocol and carries 94% of internet traffic .

IP address classes :-

With an IPv4 IP address , there are five classes of range of IP address is available i.e. Class A, Class B, Class C, Class D, Class E . While only Class A, Class B, Class C are commonly used . Each class allow for a range of valid IP addresses which is given in the table below :-

Class	IP address range	Support
Class A	1.0.0.1 to 126.255.255.254	Supports 16 million hosts on each of 127 networks.
Class B	128.1.0.1 to 191.255.255.254	Supports 65,000 hosts on each of 16,000 networks.
Class C	192.0.1.1 to 223.255.254.254	Supports 254 hosts on each of  2 million networks.
Class D	224.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255	Reserved for multicast groups.
Class E	240.0.0.0 to 254.255.255.254	Reserved for future use, or research  and development purposes.

2.IPv6:-

• It is the most recent version of Internet Protocol .
• This new IP address version is being deployed to fulfill the need for more Internet addresses .
• It was aimed to resolve the problems which was associated with IPv4 .
• IPv6 also called IPng (Internet Protocol next generation) .

Types of IP address :-

1. Unicast IP Address: It transforms information to a specific device over a network.
2. Broadcast IP Address: It is used to deliver information to all the computers on a given subnet at once.
3. Multicast IP Address: These are reserved IP addresses and used only for specific group.
4. Private IP Address: These are local addresses and one IP address can be used by more than one organization. It is absolutely free to use and can?t be routed over the network
5. Public IP Address: They are unique and their duplication is not possible hence they need to be bought