IP Address

An IP address is a unique address that identifies a device on the internet or a local network. Think of this IP address as your device’s street address. Just as the post office knows to deliver your mail to your street address, the internet knows how to send the correct data to the correct device by the IP address.

IP address is a string of numbers separated by periods. Blocks of IP addresses are reserved for private and public network:

• Private IP addresses: These are the addresses your network router assigns to your device. Each device within the same network is assigned a unique private IP address — this is how devices on the same internal network talk to each other.

  Three non-overlapping ranges of IPv4 addresses are reserved for private IP addresses.

  • 10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255
  • 172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255
  • 192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255

  Private IP addresses are not allocated to any specific organization. Anyone may use these addresses without approval from regional or local Internet registries.

• Public IP addresses: These are the addresses that can be accessed directly over the internet and is assigned to your network router by your internet service provider (ISP). You can use myip.com to check the public IP that was used for accessing the internet.

Types of IP address:

• Dynamic IP address: This address is assigned by a network when the device connects to the network and it will change over time.
• Static IP address: This is a fixed IP address assigned to a a device and it does not change over time.