What is internet protocol or IP addressing?
Internet Protocol (IP) addressing is a unique numerical label assigned to each device connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. It acts as an identifier and locator for devices on a network, allowing them to send and receive data.
IP addresses are typically represented as a series of four numbers separated by periods, such as 192.168.0.1. There are two versions of IP addresses currently in use: IPv4 (Internet Protocol version 4) and IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6). IPv4 addresses are written in decimal notation, while IPv6 addresses are written in hexadecimal notation and are longer.
Every IP address has two parts: a network portion and a host portion. The network portion identifies the network the device is connected to, while the host portion identifies the specific device within that network. IP addressing allows devices to communicate with each other across different networks and enables the routing of data packets over the internet.