What you need to know about IP addressing

 

1. IP addressing is used to uniquely identify devices connected to a network.

2. IP addresses are divided into two categories: IPv4 and IPv6. IPv4 addresses are composed of four sets of numbers from 0 to 255, while IPv6 addresses are composed of eight sets of hexadecimal characters.

3. An IP address consists of a network portion and a host portion. The network portion indicates which network the device is on, while the host portion identifies the specific device within that network.

4. IP addresses can be assigned statically or dynamically. Static IP addresses are manually assigned to a device, while dynamic IP addresses are assigned by a DHCP server.

5. Private IP addresses are used within a local network and are not routable on the internet. Public IP addresses are attributed by ISPs to devices that need to be accessible from the internet.

6. CIDR notation is used to express the size of a network. It's represented by a slash followed by a number that indicates how many bits are used for the network address.

7. Subnetting is used to divide a network into smaller sub-networks to improve performance and manageability.

8. NAT (Network Address Translation) is used to map multiple private IP addresses to a single public IP address. This is used to conserve public IP addresses and improve security.

9. IP addresses can be used to track user activity on the internet, which is why some users use VPNs or proxies to hide their IP address.

10. IPv6 was created to address the issue of running out of IPv4 addresses and provides significantly more unique address space.