What is an IP address?

An IP address can be called a unique address or name of a device, most often a personal computer, that is connected to local networks or the Internet.

To those users who have dealt with these addresses, it may seem that there is nothing complicated about them. In fact, everything is much deeper and it is this depth that we will touch on in this article.

As many people know, an IP address is a combination of four numbers, which are separated by dots and can be numbers from 0 to 255 (for example, 192.168.0.77). The user is given a wonderful opportunity to write down such an address himself in the decimal system, familiar to everyone since childhood. But the computer reads our address in the binary system, which is a combination of zeros and ones. It is through the combination of these numbers that the computer can understand where requests are coming from and where to send the information.

A considerable part of computers around the world have permanent IP addresses. But an even larger number of addresses are used for technical needs, and only a small part of the addresses are free for ordinary users connected to the Internet. Such free IP addresses are technically called dynamic, while the rest are called static. With the help of dynamic addresses, it becomes possible to increase the number of available IP addresses in the public domain.

It works like this: user connects to the internet and gets a dynamic IP address. Afterwards, you calmly work on the network, but sooner or later you disconnect from the network and turn off your personal computer. And now the owner of our dynamic address is a complete stranger to us, who is currently connected to the Internet. On the other hand, not all users are allowed to connect to the Internet using dynamic IP addresses, so if the PC is used as a server or information storage to which users subsequently connect, then a static address will be required, that is, a permanent address or so-called name that users connecting to this server should know.

There are countless computers in our time, not much less than modern smartphones, tablets and smart TVs, which means connecting all these devices to the Internet. Therefore, each such device needs an IP address - their network name. But here a problem arises, since the addresses are not infinite and can reach the number 255 to the fourth power. And here it is necessary to work out way to rationally use IP addresses. They acted as such a savior dynamic IP addresses, and they are one of the ways of rationalization.

There is a second way, this is to create an organization, calling it IANA, which means Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, in Russian - Administration of the Internet Address Space. This administration controls IP addresses, their use and issuance to regional registrars. There are only five such registrars: ARIN, LACNIC, AfriNIC, RIPE NCC, APNIC. It is these five regional registrars that distribute packages of IP addresses to large Internet providers and further down the list. And the final link in the long chain is us, Internet users who connect to the network regardless of the type of connection.

There was also a third method - connecting to the Internet using a Wi-Fi router or one of the computers on the local network as the same router.



Let's say there is an office in which there is a local network of five computers. Naturally, they all require permanent IP addresses, but purchasing permanent addresses for each computer is not the best option. There is a simpler solution. So, all computers will have the same address externally, but in the smallest local network they will have different IP addresses. In this case, access to the Internet will be made through one of the computers acting as a router (they are also called routers). In this case, the data received from the Internet will first arrive at the same “main” computer, and then will be redirected to the internal addresses from which they were requested.

Not long ago a network was developed IPv6, while there is no particular need for it. And the amount of equipment that requires the Internet is sufficient for a standard IP address system IPv4. But this situation will soon change, because mobile technologies are developing incredibly quickly. The conclusion from this article can be emphasized as follows: not everything is as simple as it seems at first glance, and sometimes phenomenal developments and discoveries are hidden behind ordinary things. We wish you good luck in exploring the Internet!