IP Addressing

IP addressing is a fundamental concept in networking that allows devices to communicate with each other on the internet.

IPv4 Addressing

IPv4 addresses are 32-bit numbers usually expressed in dotted-decimal notation. Each number in the notation represents 8 bits and can range from 0 to 255.

Example: 192.168.1.1

IPv4 Address Structure
IPv6 Addressing

IPv6 addresses are 128-bit numbers expressed in hexadecimal notation. They are typically written as eight groups of four hexadecimal digits.

Example: 2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334

IPv6 Address Structure
Special IP Addresses
  • Localhost: 127.0.0.1 (IPv4) or ::1 (IPv6)
  • Private IP ranges:
    • 10.0.0.0 to 10.255.255.255
    • 172.16.0.0 to 172.31.255.255
    • 192.168.0.0 to 192.168.255.255
  • Broadcast address: 255.255.255.255
CIDR Notation

CIDR (Classless Inter-Domain Routing) notation is a compact method for specifying IP addresses and their associated routing prefix.

Example: 192.168.1.0/24

In this example, "/24" indicates that the first 24 bits are used for the network portion of the address, leaving 8 bits for host addresses.