{"id":8052,"date":"2019-03-15T13:13:18","date_gmt":"2019-03-15T12:13:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biteno.com\/en\/?p=8052"},"modified":"2023-11-16T18:42:50","modified_gmt":"2023-11-16T17:42:50","slug":"what-is-an-ip-address","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biteno.com\/en\/what-is-an-ip-address\/","title":{"rendered":"What is an IP Address?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>All hardware on a network or connected to the internet has a <strong>unique number<\/strong> <strong>that identifies it<\/strong>. This differentiates every <strong>single device<\/strong> that\u2019s connected to the internet. The <strong>IP address<\/strong> is what is used to load websites, to send or receive files, and more. The IP address for each device will be <strong>unique,<\/strong> allowing the device to send and receive information quickly and easily.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>What is an IP Address?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<div id=\"attachment_8063\" style=\"width: 410px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8063\" class=\"wp-image-8063 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.biteno.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/ip-address.jpg\" alt=\"Home Address\" width=\"400\" height=\"266\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.biteno.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/ip-address.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.biteno.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/ip-address-80x53.jpg 80w, https:\/\/www.biteno.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/ip-address-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-8063\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An IP Address is comparable to a home address<\/p><\/div>\n<p>IP is short for <strong>Internet Protocol.<\/strong> The IP address is what allows devices to <strong>communicate with each other<\/strong> over a network or the internet. It works like a home address, so information can be sent to exactly the right place. Basically, this allows the information to be moved around on the internet and ensure it\u2019s going to end up at the right spot. Right now, <strong>IPv4<\/strong> (or IP version 4) is used, which has a series of numbers in the address. However, this is changing over to <strong>IPv6<\/strong> because of the number of devices now connected to the internet.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>How is an IP Address Used?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The IP address identifies the device and allows it to get information from the internet. When someone opens a website on their computer, <strong>DNS <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.biteno.com\/en\/what-is-a-server\/\"   title=\"servers\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\">servers<\/a><\/strong> <strong>look up the website<\/strong> to find the corresponding IP address. This lets the computer find the website it\u2019s looking for so the information on the website will load on the person\u2019s computer. Without the IP address, the DNS servers would have no idea which website to load. All this is done in seconds, which is why websites will <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biteno.com\/en\/are-you-up-to-date-with-the-new-page-speed-trends\/\">load quickly most of the time<\/a>. If the DNS servers for the website aren\u2019t working properly, it could mean they cannot look up the IP address and, therefore, the website won\u2019t be able to load.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Different Types of IP Addresses<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>There are a few different types of IP addresses. Each of these types can be IPv4 or IPv6 and can be made up of <strong>numbers<\/strong> or <strong>letters.<\/strong> The main types of IP addresses include the following.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Private IP Addresses<\/strong> \u2013 These are the addresses used <strong>inside a network<\/strong> so your computer, tablet, smartphone, and any other internet-connected device can connect with your router. You can usually set these IP addresses manually or have them assigned automatically. These can be dynamic or static IP addresses.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Public IP Addresses<\/strong> \u2013 These are addresses used <strong>outside of a network<\/strong> to connect with the internet. Your router will use a public IP address to be able to connect with the internet. These IP addresses are assigned by the internet service provider. Public IP addresses can be either dynamic or static.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Static IP Addresses<\/strong> \u2013 Static IP addresses <strong>basically do not change<\/strong>. These addresses can change, for instance, if you <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.biteno.com\/en\/what-is-a-switch\/\"   title=\"switch\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\">switch<\/a> internet providers, but typically stay the same as long as there isn\u2019t an interruption in service.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Dynamic IP Addresses<\/strong> \u2013 Dynamic IP addresses are ones that are <strong>assigned by a DHCP server<\/strong>. These addresses <strong>change<\/strong> and may be different each time you check the IP address for the device you\u2019re using. Most of the time, if DHCP is supported, it does need to be enabled to use a dynamic IP address.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>IPv4 Versus IPv6<\/strong><\/h3>\n<div id=\"attachment_8066\" style=\"width: 410px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8066\" class=\"wp-image-8066 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.biteno.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/network.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"266\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.biteno.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/network.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.biteno.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/network-80x53.jpg 80w, https:\/\/www.biteno.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/network-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-8066\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">IPv6 ensures that people can continue to connect around the world<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Most IP addresses right now are IPv4. This is the older and now outdated version of IP addresses and is slowly being replaced by IPv6. The main reason for this is that IPv6 <strong>can handle more IP addresses<\/strong> than IPv4. Basically, all devices connected to the internet must have a unique IP address. IPv4 has the potential for over 4 billion unique IP addresses, but in the modern world, this just isn\u2019t enough. Version 6, IPv6, supports around <strong>340 trillion unique IP addresses.<\/strong> With this many possible, everyone could have a huge number of devices in their home or office and there would still be plenty of IP addresses leftover. IPv6 also provides a number of other benefits, such as more <strong>efficient routing<\/strong> and<strong> built-in privacy<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>If you check the IP address for the device you\u2019re using right now, it will likely look like a series of numbers with periods between different sections. This is the IPv4 display of the IP address. IPv6 will look different. Since it\u2019s written in <strong>hexadecimal,<\/strong> it can be a series of <strong>numbers and letters with colons<\/strong> between the sections.<\/p>\n<p>IP addresses are <strong>crucial for the internet to actually work<\/strong>. They allow your devices to connect with the internet, view websites and send information. Though the version used is changing, they still work in much the same way and allow any of the devices you may have at home or at work to connect to the internet so you can get the information you need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>All hardware on a network or connected to the internet has a unique number that identifies it. This differentiates every single device that\u2019s connected to the internet. The IP address is what is used to load websites, to send or receive files, and more. The IP address for each device will be unique, allowing the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":8068,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2544,1],"tags":[4493,261,4494],"class_list":["post-8052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-networks","category-misc","tag-ip","tag-ipv4","tag-net"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biteno.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biteno.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biteno.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biteno.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biteno.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biteno.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biteno.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biteno.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biteno.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biteno.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}