Как пишется айпи адрес пример

IP-адрес (Internet Protocol Address, айпи адрес) – это уникальный числовой идентификатор конкретного устройства в составе компьютерной сети, построенной на основе протокола TCP/IP. В этом и есть его основная функция. 

Для работы в Интернете требуется его глобальная уникальность. Для частной сети достаточно, чтобы были исключены совпадения в локальном пространстве.

Формат IP-адреса и как он выглядит

Правильный IP-адрес в сети Интернет может быть представлен в одном из двух цифровых форматов, который зависит от типа используемого протокола. В зависимости от того, к какому из этих типов принадлежит IP-адрес, будет понятно, сколько бит в нем.

• IPv4 (Internet Protocol v. 4) — адрес, записанный в 32-битном формате. Имеет вид четырех 8-битных чисел (минимум 0, максимум 255), которые разделены друг от друга точками. Пример: 172.16.255.2.
• IPv6 (Internet Protocol v. 6) — адрес, записанный в 128-битном формате. Имеет вид 8 групп, в каждой из которых находится по 4 шестнадцатеричные цифры, отделенные друг от друга двоеточиями. При этом допустимо опускать ведущие нулевые группы, которые идут подряд, и заменять их двойным двоеточием, однако в одном адресе возможно только одно такое упрощение. Пример: 2001:0da8:11a4:08d6:1f84:8a3e:07a1:655d.

Структура IP-адреса

Разберем, что обозначают цифры. В общем случае IP-адрес состоит из двух частей (ID-номеров): сети и конкретного узла в ее пределах. Чтобы отличать их в полной записи, используют классы или маски.

Для доступа к Интернет необходимо, чтобы IP принадлежал к другому блоку или в пределах локальной сети существовал сервер, на котором происходит подмена внутреннего адреса на внешний. С этой целью используются прокси или NAT. Для доступа к Интернету адрес выдается провайдером или региональным интернет-регистратором.

По умолчанию маршрутизатор может входить в несколько разных сетей. Каждый его порт имеет персональный IP-адрес. Соответственно, такой же принцип работы применим к конкретным компьютерам, которые могут поддерживать различное число сетевых связей.

Типы IP-адресов

В зависимости от способа использования

Внешний. Он же «белый», публичный или глобальный. Используется во время доступа в Интернет. Такой IP-адрес является уникальным и именно под ним устройство видят в сети. Так как количество таких идентификаторов ограничено, задействуют технологию NAT. Она позволяет транслировать сетевые IP-адреса из частных в публичные. Для этого применяются маршрутизаторы определенного типа.

По внешним IP-адресам многие интернет-сервисы отслеживают новых и вернувшихся пользователей. Это позволяет собирать статистику и делать аналитику, важную для продвижения сайта.

Внутренний. Он же «серый», локальный или частный IP-адрес источника. Не используется во время доступа в Интернет. Работает только в пределах локальной сети (домашней или предоставленной провайдером), и доступ к нему можно получить только другим ее участникам. Для этой цели по умолчанию зарезервированы следующие диапазоны частных IP-адресов:

• 10.0.0.0 – 10.255.255.255;
• 172.16.0.0 – 172.31.255.255;
• 192.168.0.0 – 192.168.255.255.

Необходимо понимать, что не всегда внешний IP-адрес является постоянным. Наоборот, IP часто формируется заново от одного подключения к другому.

В зависимости от вариантов определения

Статические. Это IP-адреса, являющиеся неизмененными (постоянными). Они назначаются устройству автоматически в момент его присоединения к компьютерной сети или прописываются пользователем вручную. Статические адреса доступны для использования неограниченное время. Они могут выполнять функцию идентификатора только для одного сетевого узла. Также иногда используется понятие псевдостатических адресов, которые работают в пределах одной частной сети.

Динамические. Это те IP-адреса, которые выдаются устройству на время. Они автоматически присваиваются в момент подключения к сети и имеют ограниченный срок действия (от начала сессии до ее завершения). Динамические IP-адреса – своеобразный способ маскировки. Отследить человека, выходящего в Интернет с помощью такого адреса, сложно технически, в этом случае не обойтись без профессиональных инструментов.

Что дает статический IP-адрес

Статический IP-адрес полезен благодаря следующим возможностям:

• привязке пользователя к конкретной сети;
• инструментам для организации защитного канала передачи данных;
• оптимизации работы с сетевыми серверами;
• решению задач, связанных с информационными технологиями;
• упрощенной работе в пиринговых сетях (например, с торрентами);
• использованию онлайн-сервисов, требующих обязательного наличия статического IP-адреса.

Как узнать IP-адрес

Зачем знать свой реальный IP-адрес? Он понадобится вам для того, чтобы начать работать с некоторыми сервисами, требующими его указания вручную. Каким образом получить информацию об IP? Есть как минимум два способа:

• специализированные онлайн-сервисы. Воспользоваться ими очень просто: достаточно зайти на них, и уже через несколько секунд в динамическом окне появится нужная информация;
• провайдер. Вы можете узнать свой IP-адрес, обратившись в техподдержку поставщика интернет-услуг (как вариант, в «Личном кабинете» пользователя).

Помните, что вместе с IP-адресом другим устройствам (и, соответственно, лицам) будет доступна и иная информация, а именно: названия и данные провайдера интернет-услуг, название и версия установленной операционной системы и браузера, географическая привязка. Сторонние сервисы видят, используете ли вы прокси-сервер или средства защиты данных.

Статьи по теме

• Как найти человека по IP-адресу
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• Как сделать бесплатный статический IP-адрес
• Как сделать бесплатный динамический IP
• Как прописать IP-адрес
• Где купить IP-адрес?
• Вход с другого IP-адреса
• Как определить IP-адрес во «ВКонтакте»

Содержание:

• Что такое IP-адрес
• Структура IP-адреса
• TCP/IP
• Сетевое расположение IP-адресов
• Присвоение IP-адресов
• Версии IP
• DNS
• Как узнать IP-адрес
• Анонимность и безопасность
• Способы защиты IP-адреса
• Как изменить IP-адрес
• Заключение

В мире доминируют сети с IP-адресацией, самая крупная из которых – Интернет. Устройства, начиная от bluetooth-гаджетов и заканчивая компьютерами, имеют собственный IP-адрес, который служит определяющей меткой в сетевом пространстве.

Понимание того, как работает IP-адрес, является основой системного администрирования. Это базовые знания, которые нужны в реальном мире для простейшей конфигурации сетей как в домашней, так и корпоративной среде.

В этой статье расскажем простыми словами, что такое IP-адрес, какова его структура и предназначение, а также — как посмотреть IP-адрес несколькими способами. Затронем тему безопасности в IP-сетях, приведём примеры основных угроз и способы защиты от них.

IP-адрес (IP от англ. Internet Protocol) — цифровой идентификатор, присваиваемый устройству, которое работает в условиях публичной или локальной сети на основе стека протоколов TCP/IP. Без него невозможно существование Интернета или какой-либо внутренней IP-сети.

Сравнить IP-адрес можно с номером телефона или адресом дома – и тот, и тот указывают на объект. Как человек звонит собеседнику по номеру, так и компьютер обращается к другому устройству по IP-адресу.

Структура IP-адреса

Разберём структуру IP-адреса на примере самого первого и распространённого интернет-протокола IPv4.

IP-адрес IPv4 имеет 32-битную (4 байта) структуру. Он разделён на 4 части, каждая из которых состоит из 8 бит (1 байт) и называется октетом. Каждый бит IP-адреса – цифра двоичной системы.

Пример адреса (IPv4) в двоичном виде: 11000000.10101000.00110010.00000001.

При преобразовании октета с двоичной системы в десятеричную получается одно число со значением от 0 до 255.

IP-адрес в десятичном виде: 192.168.50.1.

Маска подсети

Устройства различают части IP-адреса при помощи маски подсети – 32-битной строки, разделённой на 4 октета, как и IP-адрес. При установке соединения каждый октет IP-адреса сопоставляется с октетом маски подсети.

По умолчанию в стандартной домашней сети маска подсети имеет вид: 255.255.255.0.

В примере маска IP-адреса указана в  десятичном представлении и содержит числа «255» и «0». Первое отвечает за идентификацию сети, а второе за обозначение конечного узла.

Классы IP-адресов

• Класс A. Старший бит в адресах такого формата всегда равен 0. За идентификацию сети отвечает начальный октет, позволяющий разместить 127 уникальных сетей. Оставшиеся 3 октета используются для обозначения узлов, максимальное количество которых составляет 17 млн. на каждую сеть.
• Класс B. Первые биты IP-адреса равны 10. Начальные два октета относятся к идентификатору сети, а последние два – к идентификатору узла. Возможно создание 16384 сетей, каждая из которых поддерживает размещение 65000 узлов.
• Класс C. Начальные биты IP-адреса равны 110. За идентификацию сети отвечают первые три октета, позволяющие создать 2 млн. сетей. Последний октет отводится для идентификации узлов, максимальное число которых составляет 254 на каждую сеть.
• Класс D. Запись IP-адреса начинается с битов 1110. В сетях подобного формата используется широковещательная рассылка сообщений нескольким узлам.
• Класс E. IP-адреса зарезервированы для использования в будущем. Первые биты всегда равны 11110.

IP-адрес в классовой архитектуре сетевой адресации  состоит из двух частей:

• Идентификатор сети. Определяет сеть, содержащую подключённые узлы.
• Идентификатор узла. Отвечает за обозначение узла – сервера, маршрутизатора или любого другого TCP/IP-устройства.

Важно! В связи с ограниченностью ресурса адресов IPv4, в настоящее время классовая адресация почти перестала использоваться. Ей на смену пришла технология бесклассовой междоменной маршрутизации (Classless Inter-Domain Routing, CIDR). Бесклассовая адресация более экономно использует диапазон адресов IPv4, так как в ней нет строгой привязки масок подсети к адресам подсети.

TCP/IP

Любая сеть с IP-адресацией построена на основе TCP/IP – модели, включающей в себя стек протоколов, применяемых при передаче данных по сети. Основными протоколами являются TCP и IP, но имеется и масса других вариантов.

Уровни TCP/IP

• Канальный. Отвечает за физическую передачу данных посредством использования таких протоколов, как Ethernet или WI-FI.
• Сетевой (Интернет). На этом уровне находится система IP-адресов, и осуществляется маршрутизация – перемещение пакетов между устройствами. Сетевой уровень совмещает протоколы: IP, ICMP, IGMP.
• Транспортный. Здесь расположены протоколы TCP и UDP, отвечающие за передачу данных. Первый осуществляет гарантированное перемещение информации, предварительно устанавливая соединение с сетью. Второй же отправляет сообщения без осуществления «рукопожатия», что повышает скорость передачи данных, но также создаёт риск потери отдельных пакетов.
• Прикладной. Совмещает все высокоуровневые протоколы, взаимодействующие с системными приложениями. К таким относятся Telnet, FTP, SMTP, SNMP и подобные.

Сетевое расположение IP-адресов

Уникальные IP-адреса, которые назначаются специальными организациями (например, Интернет-провайдером), называются внешними, белыми или публичными. Публичные IP-адреса применяются для получения доступа к Интернету и осуществления взаимодействия с другими узлами через публичную сеть. Устройство с внешним IP-адресом видно другим пользователям в Интернете.

Кроме того, существуют частные IP-адреса, именуемые также серыми или внутренними. Серые IP-адреса назначаются устройствам в локальной сети и не видны в Интернете. К примеру, можно представить дом, в котором к WI-FI роутеру подключено несколько устройств. Все они объединены в одну сеть и имеют серые IP-адреса.

Присвоение IP-адресов

Динамическое назначение

При подключении к сети через протокол динамической настройки узла (DHCP / Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) все параметры стека TCP/IP автоматически устанавливаются на устройстве. Узлу назначается динамический IP-адрес, который меняется на другой при переподключении устройства. Диапазон IP-адресов указывается на сервере DHCP.

Статическое назначение

Статический IP-адрес присваивается вручную и не изменяется при переподключении к сети. Этот тип присваивания используется на устройствах, доступ к которым должен производится по одному адресу (например, на серверах).

Версии IP

IPv4

В сентябре 1981 года появился первый стандарт интернет-протокола (IP) IPv4, который положил начало современной сети Интернет. Ipv4 IP-адрес имеет вид: 192.168.50.1.

Подробнее этот формат разобран выше.

IPv6

Интернет с 1980-х годов начал стремительно расти, поэтому появилась угроза истощения пула возможных адресов – их просто не хватило бы на все сети и узлы. Поэтому в 1995 году появился формат IPv6, при котором длина IP-адреса возросла с 32 до 128 бит, а десятичная система сменилась шестнадцатеричной.

IP-адрес IPv6 состоит из 16 октетов (8 блоков по 2 октета), раздёленных двоеточиями. В полном виде запись IPv6 выглядит следующим образом: 2001:0bd7:0ccf:0006:0000:0000:012f:002d.

Адрес IPv6 можно сжать, исключив нули из записи. Сокращенная форма IPv6: 2001:bd7:ccf:12f:2d.

Развитие IPv6

Новый формат IP-адреса развивается сравнительно медленно. Первое внутреннее внедрение произошло у Google ещё в 2008, тогда протокол прошёл успешное тестирование. 6 июня 2012 года совершился повсеместный запуск IPv6.

Кстати. Число возможно доступных  IPv6 адресов равняется 340 ундециллионам (ундециллион – число с 36 нулями). Для сравнения, в формате IPv4 этот показатель не превышает отметки 3,4 миллиона IP-адресов.

Многие провайдеры стали предоставлять пользователям услуги с использованием новой технологии, поэтому доля трафика IPv6 к 2020 году составила 30% по всему миру. В России доля трафика IPv6 составляет 4.5%, но постепенно увеличивается. Основным фактором, замедляющим процесс внедрения IPv6, является необходимость замены оборудования провайдеров на более новое, что несёт дополнительные затраты.

DNS и IP-адрес

Путешествуя по Интернету, пользователь устанавливает соединение через браузер с другими серверами в основном не по IP-адресу, а с помощью доменного имени. Система доменных имён (DNS) служит для перенаправления на постоянный IP-адрес конечного веб-ресурса. Говоря простыми словами, она преобразовывает буквенные значения доменного имени в цифры IP-адреса.

Например, чтобы попасть на сайт поисковика Google, не нужно вводить сложный в запоминании числовой адрес «74.125.131.100». Достаточно набрать в адресной строке доменное имя «.google.com».

За осуществление подобной переадресации отвечает DNS-сервер, который работает согласно информации из DNS-записей. Продолжая «телефонную» аналогию можно сказать, что если IP-адрес — это номер телефона, то сервер DNS — это телефонная книга, содержащая все подобные номера.

Домены от Eternalhost — быстрый и выгодный способ получить имя для веб-ресурса! Статус LIR, широкий выбор популярных зон, возможность продления по цене покупки, бесплатный DNS-хостинг.

Как узнать IP-адрес

Определить IP-адрес используемого устройства можно при помощи поискового запроса в браузере вида «мой ip-адрес» («What is my IP»). Многие сервисы, такие как Whoer, 2ip и WhiteWhois, проверяют идентификатор IP-адреса и предоставляют более подробную информацию о пользователе (например, название провайдера или примерное местоположение устройства).

В локальной сети адрес устройства указывается в настройках операционной системы, поэтому прибегать к внешними инструментам не требуется. Определить локальный IP-адрес можно следующими способами.

• Windows – через командную строку (поиск -> «cmd» -> в окне прописать «ipconfig»).
• Unix/Linux – с помощью команды «ifconfig».
• MacOS – «Системные настройки» -> «Сеть».
• iOS – через «Настройки». «Wi-Fi» -> нажать значок информации «i» -> информация во вкладке «DHCP».
• Android – «Настройки» -> «О телефоне» -> «Общая информация».

Анонимность и безопасность

«Вычислю по IP»

Это скорее миф, чем реальная угроза. Среди пользователей существует заблуждение, что злоумышленник может отследить человека, узнав его внешний IP-адрес. На деле не всё так просто — информация о клиентах находится в безопасности у провайдера. Доступ к личным данным такого рода могут получить только органы государственной безопасности.

Единственное, что можно узнать по IP-адресу, так это местоположение оборудования провайдера. А такая информация указывает лишь на примерную геолокацию пользователя с точностью до страны и города.

Атака сетевого устройства

Злоумышленник может обнаружить IP-адрес устройства и просканировать его на наличие потенциальных дыр в безопасности. В качестве последних могут выступать брандмауэры со слабой защитой. Также существуют программы, которые прослушивают внешние порты (например, SSH, VNC, HTTP, RDP) устройства пользователя на предмет уязвимостей.

Атаки сетевых устройств проводятся как через Интернет, так и по локальной сети. Иногда спасает использование DHCP — IP-адрес меняется при переподключении, поэтому злоумышленнику приходится заново искать IP и начинать атаку.

Фиксация деятельности со стороны провайдера

Интернет-провайдер выступает в роли посредника и может анализировать сетевой трафик. Данные, передающиеся через незашифрованные протоколы (например, HTTP, FTP), разбираются без проблем. При использовании защищённых вариантов (HTTPS, SFTP, SSH) передаётся информация только об адресе или домене конечного сервера.

Провайдеры не проверяют всех подряд. Подобный анализ трафика выполняется при поступлении запроса со стороны органов безопасности (МВД, ФСБ и других).

Способы защиты IP-адреса

От перечисленных угроз может обезопасить использование сети TOR, прокси или VPN. Представленные типы защиты выполняют скрытие IP-адреса, что анонимизирует деятельность пользователя в сети.

Сеть TOR работает по принципу «луковичной маршрутизации», когда пользовательский трафик перенаправляется через несколько серверов-посредников и выходит в Интернет. Публичный IP-адрес пользователя постоянно меняется, что анонимизирует деятельность и не позволяет отследить трафик. Начать использование сети TOR можно, скачав официальный браузер Tor Browser, который, помимо маршрутизации, блокирует отслеживающие трекеры интернет-ресурсов.

Прокси и VPN работают схоже. Трафик перенаправляется через сервер (или несколько серверов) и выходит в Интернет с подменой IP-адреса. Технология VPN, в отличие от прокси, шифрует данные по пути от пользователя до сервера-посредника, поэтому считается лучшим вариантом в плане безопасности.

Как изменить IP-адрес

Локальная сеть

Изменение IP-адреса выполняется через настройки операционной системы. Далее будут приведены два способа изменения сетевого идентификатора на примере операционных систем Windows и Linux.

Windows

Для начала необходимо открыть «Панель управления» и перейти по пути: «Центр управления сетями и общим доступом» -> «Изменение параметров адаптера».

Далее нужно перейти в свойства необходимого сетевого интерфейса и в появившемся окне открыть свойства компонента «Протокол Интернета версии 4 (TCP/IPv4)». В разделе «Общие» остаётся назначить статический IP-адрес, заполнив все необходимые поля.

Linux

В первую очередь нужно посмотреть список подключенных сетевых интерфейсов. Для этого можно воспользоваться консольной командой: ifconfig.

Необходимо выбрать сетевой интерфейс и запомнить его наименование. Теперь стоит ввести следующую команду, чтобы назначить другой IP-адрес:

sudo ifconfig eth0 192.168.0.1 netmask 255.255.255.0

В приведенном примере:

• eth0 – наименование сетевого интерфейса;
• 168.0.1 – назначаемый IP-адрес;
• 255.255.0 – макса подсети.

Глобальная сеть

Многие провайдеры используют динамическое назначение IP-адреса, поэтому достаточно перезагрузить маршрутизатор (роутер) для смены сетевого идентификатора.

Если назначен белый IP, то варианты решения проблемы уже другие:

• VPN
• Прокси
• Обращение к провайдеру

Первые два способа были описаны выше – эти варианты являются наиболее простыми. Обращение к провайдеру является крайним вариантом – потребуется совершить звонок по номеру телефона горячей линии или сделать запрос на получение IP-адреса в ближайшем филиале.

Заключение

В основе Интернета и любой IP/TCP сети лежит IP-адресация. Каждый системный администратор должен знать её основы для построения сетей как в домашней, так и в корпоративной среде.

Не стоит забывать и о безопасности, ведь плохо сконфигурированная сеть имеет уязвимости, позволяющие злоумышленнику нарушить работу подключения или получить доступ к личной информации.

Not to be confused with IP Code.

An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as 192.0.2.1 that is connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.^[1][2] An IP address serves two main functions: network interface identification and location addressing.

Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) defines an IP address as a 32-bit number.^[2] However, because of the growth of the Internet and the depletion of available IPv4 addresses, a new version of IP (IPv6), using 128 bits for the IP address, was standardized in 1998.^[3][4][5] IPv6 deployment has been ongoing since the mid-2000s.

IP addresses are written and displayed in human-readable notations, such as 192.0.2.1 in IPv4, and 2001:db8:0:1234:0:567:8:1 in IPv6. The size of the routing prefix of the address is designated in CIDR notation by suffixing the address with the number of significant bits, e.g., 192.0.2.1/24, which is equivalent to the historically used subnet mask 255.255.255.0.

The IP address space is managed globally by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), and by five regional Internet registries (RIRs) responsible in their designated territories for assignment to local Internet registries, such as Internet service providers (ISPs), and other end users. IPv4 addresses were distributed by IANA to the RIRs in blocks of approximately 16.8 million addresses each, but have been exhausted at the IANA level since 2011. Only one of the RIRs still has a supply for local assignments in Africa.^[6] Some IPv4 addresses are reserved for private networks and are not globally unique.

Network administrators assign an IP address to each device connected to a network. Such assignments may be on a static (fixed or permanent) or dynamic basis, depending on network practices and software features.

Function

An IP address serves two principal functions: it identifies the host, or more specifically its network interface, and it provides the location of the host in the network, and thus the capability of establishing a path to that host. Its role has been characterized as follows: «A name indicates what we seek. An address indicates where it is. A route indicates how to get there.»^[2]
The header of each IP packet contains the IP address of the sending host and that of the destination host.

IP versions

Two versions of the Internet Protocol are in common use on the Internet today. The original version of the Internet Protocol that was first deployed in 1983 in the ARPANET, the predecessor of the Internet, is Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4).

By the early 1990s, the rapid exhaustion of IPv4 address space available for assignment to Internet service providers and end-user organizations prompted the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to explore new technologies to expand addressing capability on the Internet. The result was a redesign of the Internet Protocol which became eventually known as Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) in 1995.^[3][4][5]
IPv6 technology was in various testing stages until the mid-2000s when commercial production deployment commenced.

Today, these two versions of the Internet Protocol are in simultaneous use. Among other technical changes, each version defines the format of addresses differently. Because of the historical prevalence of IPv4, the generic term IP address typically still refers to the addresses defined by IPv4. The gap in version sequence between IPv4 and IPv6 resulted from the assignment of version 5 to the experimental Internet Stream Protocol in 1979, which however was never referred to as IPv5.

Other versions v1 to v9 were defined, but only v4 and v6 ever gained widespread use. v1 and v2 were names for TCP protocols in 1974 and 1977, as there was no separate IP specification at the time. v3 was defined in 1978, and v3.1 is the first version where TCP is separated from IP. v6 is a synthesis of several suggested versions, v6 Simple Internet Protocol, v7 TP/IX: The Next Internet, v8 PIP — The P Internet Protocol, and v9 TUBA — Tcp & Udp with Big Addresses.^[7]

Subnetworks

IP networks may be divided into subnetworks in both IPv4 and IPv6. For this purpose, an IP address is recognized as consisting of two parts: the network prefix in the high-order bits and the remaining bits called the rest field, host identifier, or interface identifier (IPv6), used for host numbering within a network.^[1] The subnet mask or CIDR notation determines how the IP address is divided into network and host parts.

The term subnet mask is only used within IPv4. Both IP versions however use the CIDR concept and notation. In this, the IP address is followed by a slash and the number (in decimal) of bits used for the network part, also called the routing prefix. For example, an IPv4 address and its subnet mask may be 192.0.2.1 and 255.255.255.0, respectively. The CIDR notation for the same IP address and subnet is 192.0.2.1/24, because the first 24 bits of the IP address indicate the network and subnet.

IPv4 addresses

An IPv4 address has a size of 32 bits, which limits the address space to 4294967296 (2³²) addresses. Of this number, some addresses are reserved for special purposes such as private networks (~18 million addresses) and multicast addressing (~270 million addresses).

IPv4 addresses are usually represented in dot-decimal notation, consisting of four decimal numbers, each ranging from 0 to 255, separated by dots, e.g., 192.0.2.1. Each part represents a group of 8 bits (an octet) of the address.^[8] In some cases of technical writing,^[specify] IPv4 addresses may be presented in various hexadecimal, octal, or binary representations.

Subnetting history

In the early stages of development of the Internet Protocol, the network number was always the highest order octet (most significant eight bits). Because this method allowed for only 256 networks, it soon proved inadequate as additional networks developed that were independent of the existing networks already designated by a network number. In 1981, the addressing specification was revised with the introduction of classful network architecture.^[2]

Classful network design allowed for a larger number of individual network assignments and fine-grained subnetwork design. The first three bits of the most significant octet of an IP address were defined as the class of the address. Three classes (A, B, and C) were defined for universal unicast addressing. Depending on the class derived, the network identification was based on octet boundary segments of the entire address. Each class used successively additional octets in the network identifier, thus reducing the possible number of hosts in the higher order classes (B and C). The following table gives an overview of this now-obsolete system.

Historical classful network architecture

Class	Leading bits	Size of network number bit field	Size of rest bit field	Number of networks	Number of addresses per network	Start address	End address
A	0	8	24	128 (27)	16777216 (224)	0.0.0.0	127.255.255.255
B	10	16	16	16384 (214)	65536 (216)	128.0.0.0	191.255.255.255
C	110	24	8	2097152 (221)	256 (28)	192.0.0.0	223.255.255.255

Classful network design served its purpose in the startup stage of the Internet, but it lacked scalability in the face of the rapid expansion of networking in the 1990s. The class system of the address space was replaced with Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) in 1993. CIDR is based on variable-length subnet masking (VLSM) to allow allocation and routing based on arbitrary-length prefixes. Today, remnants of classful network concepts function only in a limited scope as the default configuration parameters of some network software and hardware components (e.g. netmask), and in the technical jargon used in network administrators’ discussions.

Private addresses

Early network design, when global end-to-end connectivity was envisioned for communications with all Internet hosts, intended that IP addresses be globally unique. However, it was found that this was not always necessary as private networks developed and public address space needed to be conserved.

Computers not connected to the Internet, such as factory machines that communicate only with each other via TCP/IP, need not have globally unique IP addresses. Today, such private networks are widely used and typically connect to the Internet with network address translation (NAT), when needed.

Three non-overlapping ranges of IPv4 addresses for private networks are reserved.^[9] These addresses are not routed on the Internet and thus their use need not be coordinated with an IP address registry. Any user may use any of the reserved blocks. Typically, a network administrator will divide a block into subnets; for example, many home routers automatically use a default address range of 192.168.0.0 through 192.168.0.255 (192.168.0.0/24).

Reserved private IPv4 network ranges^[9]

Name	CIDR block	Address range	Number of addresses	Classful description
24-bit block	10.0.0.0/8	10.0.0.0 – 10.255.255.255	16777216	Single Class A.
20-bit block	172.16.0.0/12	172.16.0.0 – 172.31.255.255	1048576	Contiguous range of 16 Class B blocks.
16-bit block	192.168.0.0/16	192.168.0.0 – 192.168.255.255	65536	Contiguous range of 256 Class C blocks.

IPv6 addresses

In IPv6, the address size was increased from 32 bits in IPv4 to 128 bits, thus providing up to 2¹²⁸ (approximately 3.403×10³⁸) addresses. This is deemed sufficient for the foreseeable future.

The intent of the new design was not to provide just a sufficient quantity of addresses, but also redesign routing in the Internet by allowing more efficient aggregation of subnetwork routing prefixes. This resulted in slower growth of routing tables in routers. The smallest possible individual allocation is a subnet for 2⁶⁴ hosts, which is the square of the size of the entire IPv4 Internet. At these levels, actual address utilization ratios will be small on any IPv6 network segment. The new design also provides the opportunity to separate the addressing infrastructure of a network segment, i.e. the local administration of the segment’s available space, from the addressing prefix used to route traffic to and from external networks. IPv6 has facilities that automatically change the routing prefix of entire networks, should the global connectivity or the routing policy change, without requiring internal redesign or manual renumbering.

The large number of IPv6 addresses allows large blocks to be assigned for specific purposes and, where appropriate, to be aggregated for efficient routing. With a large address space, there is no need to have complex address conservation methods as used in CIDR.

All modern desktop and enterprise server operating systems include native support for IPv6, but it is not yet widely deployed in other devices, such as residential networking routers, voice over IP (VoIP) and multimedia equipment, and some networking hardware.

Private addresses

Just as IPv4 reserves addresses for private networks, blocks of addresses are set aside in IPv6. In IPv6, these are referred to as unique local addresses (ULAs). The routing prefix fc00::/7 is reserved for this block,^[10] which is divided into two /8 blocks with different implied policies. The addresses include a 40-bit pseudorandom number that minimizes the risk of address collisions if sites merge or packets are misrouted.

Early practices used a different block for this purpose (fec0::), dubbed site-local addresses.^[11] However, the definition of what constituted a site remained unclear and the poorly defined addressing policy created ambiguities for routing. This address type was abandoned and must not be used in new systems.^[12]

Addresses starting with fe80::, called link-local addresses, are assigned to interfaces for communication on the attached link. The addresses are automatically generated by the operating system for each network interface. This provides instant and automatic communication between all IPv6 hosts on a link. This feature is used in the lower layers of IPv6 network administration, such as for the Neighbor Discovery Protocol.

Private and link-local address prefixes may not be routed on the public Internet.

IP address assignment

IP addresses are assigned to a host either dynamically as they join the network, or persistently by configuration of the host hardware or software. Persistent configuration is also known as using a static IP address. In contrast, when a computer’s IP address is assigned each time it restarts, this is known as using a dynamic IP address.

Dynamic IP addresses are assigned by network using Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP).^[13] DHCP is the most frequently used technology for assigning addresses. It avoids the administrative burden of assigning specific static addresses to each device on a network. It also allows devices to share the limited address space on a network if only some of them are online at a particular time. Typically, dynamic IP configuration is enabled by default in modern desktop operating systems.

The address assigned with DHCP is associated with a lease and usually has an expiration period. If the lease is not renewed by the host before expiry, the address may be assigned to another device. Some DHCP implementations attempt to reassign the same IP address to a host, based on its MAC address, each time it joins the network. A network administrator may configure DHCP by allocating specific IP addresses based on MAC address.

DHCP is not the only technology used to assign IP addresses dynamically. Bootstrap Protocol is a similar protocol and predecessor to DHCP. Dialup and some broadband networks use dynamic address features of the Point-to-Point Protocol.

Computers and equipment used for the network infrastructure, such as routers and mail servers, are typically configured with static addressing.

In the absence or failure of static or dynamic address configurations, an operating system may assign a link-local address to a host using stateless address autoconfiguration.

Sticky dynamic IP address

Sticky is an informal term used to describe a dynamically assigned IP address that seldom changes. IPv4 addresses, for example, are usually assigned with DHCP, and a DHCP service can use rules that maximize the chance of assigning the same address each time a client asks for an assignment. In IPv6, a prefix delegation can be handled similarly, to make changes as rare as feasible. In a typical home or small-office setup, a single router is the only device visible to an Internet service provider (ISP), and the ISP may try to provide a configuration that is as stable as feasible, i.e. sticky. On the local network of the home or business, a local DHCP server may be designed to provide sticky IPv4 configurations, and the ISP may provide a sticky IPv6 prefix delegation, giving clients the option to use sticky IPv6 addresses. Sticky should not be confused with static; sticky configurations have no guarantee of stability, while static configurations are used indefinitely and only changed deliberately.

Address autoconfiguration

Address block 169.254.0.0/16 is defined for the special use of link-local addressing for IPv4 networks.^[14] In IPv6, every interface, whether using static or dynamic addresses, also receives a link-local address automatically in the block fe80::/10.^[14] These addresses are only valid on the link, such as a local network segment or point-to-point connection, to which a host is connected. These addresses are not routable and, like private addresses, cannot be the source or destination of packets traversing the Internet.

When the link-local IPv4 address block was reserved, no standards existed for mechanisms of address autoconfiguration. Filling the void, Microsoft developed a protocol called Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA), whose first public implementation appeared in Windows 98.^[15] APIPA has been deployed on millions of machines and became a de facto standard in the industry. In May 2005, the IETF defined a formal standard for it.^[16]

Addressing conflicts

An IP address conflict occurs when two devices on the same local physical or wireless network claim to have the same IP address. A second assignment of an address generally stops the IP functionality of one or both of the devices. Many modern operating systems notify the administrator of IP address conflicts.^[17][18] When IP addresses are assigned by multiple people and systems with differing methods, any of them may be at fault.^{[19][20][21][22][23]} If one of the devices involved in the conflict is the default gateway access beyond the LAN for all devices on the LAN, all devices may be impaired.

Routing

IP addresses are classified into several classes of operational characteristics: unicast, multicast, anycast and broadcast addressing.

Unicast addressing

The most common concept of an IP address is in unicast addressing, available in both IPv4 and IPv6. It normally refers to a single sender or a single receiver, and can be used for both sending and receiving. Usually, a unicast address is associated with a single device or host, but a device or host may have more than one unicast address. Sending the same data to multiple unicast addresses requires the sender to send all the data many times over, once for each recipient.

Broadcast addressing

Broadcasting is an addressing technique available in IPv4 to address data to all possible destinations on a network in one transmission operation as an all-hosts broadcast. All receivers capture the network packet. The address 255.255.255.255 is used for network broadcast. In addition, a more limited directed broadcast uses the all-ones host address with the network prefix. For example, the destination address used for directed broadcast to devices on the network 192.0.2.0/24 is 192.0.2.255.^[24]

IPv6 does not implement broadcast addressing and replaces it with multicast to the specially defined all-nodes multicast address.

Multicast addressing

A multicast address is associated with a group of interested receivers. In IPv4, addresses 224.0.0.0 through 239.255.255.255 (the former Class D addresses) are designated as multicast addresses.^[25] IPv6 uses the address block with the prefix ff00::/8 for multicast. In either case, the sender sends a single datagram from its unicast address to the multicast group address and the intermediary routers take care of making copies and sending them to all interested receivers (those that have joined the corresponding multicast group).

Anycast addressing

Like broadcast and multicast, anycast is a one-to-many routing topology. However, the data stream is not transmitted to all receivers, just the one which the router decides is closest in the network. Anycast addressing is a built-in feature of IPv6.^[26][27] In IPv4, anycast addressing is implemented with Border Gateway Protocol using the shortest-path metric to choose destinations. Anycast methods are useful for global load balancing and are commonly used in distributed DNS systems.

Geolocation

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (July 2020)

A host may use geolocation to deduce the geographic position of its communicating peer.^[28][29]

Public address

A public IP address is a globally routable unicast IP address, meaning that the address is not an address reserved for use in private networks, such as those reserved by RFC 1918, or the various IPv6 address formats of local scope or site-local scope, for example for link-local addressing. Public IP addresses may be used for communication between hosts on the global Internet.
In a home situation, a public IP address is the IP address assigned to the home’s network by the ISP. In this case, it is also locally visible by logging into the router configuration.^[30]

Most public IP addresses change, and relatively often. Any type of IP address that changes is called a dynamic IP address. In home networks, the ISP usually assigns a dynamic IP. If an ISP gave a home network an unchanging address, it’s more likely to be abused by customers who host websites from home, or by hackers who can try the same IP address over and over until they breach a network.^[30]

Firewalling

For security and privacy considerations, network administrators often desire to restrict public Internet traffic within their private networks. The source and destination IP addresses contained in the headers of each IP packet are a convenient means to discriminate traffic by IP address blocking or by selectively tailoring responses to external requests to internal servers. This is achieved with firewall software running on the network’s gateway router. A database of IP addresses of restricted and permissible traffic may be maintained in blacklists and whitelists, respectively.

Address translation

Multiple client devices can appear to share an IP address, either because they are part of a shared web hosting service environment or because an IPv4 network address translator (NAT) or proxy server acts as an intermediary agent on behalf of the client, in which case the real originating IP address is masked from the server receiving a request. A common practice is to have a NAT mask many devices in a private network. Only the public interface(s) of the NAT needs to have an Internet-routable address.^[31]

The NAT device maps different IP addresses on the private network to different TCP or UDP port numbers on the public network. In residential networks, NAT functions are usually implemented in a residential gateway. In this scenario, the computers connected to the router have private IP addresses and the router has a public address on its external interface to communicate on the Internet. The internal computers appear to share one public IP address.

Diagnostic tools

Computer operating systems provide various diagnostic tools to examine network interfaces and address configuration. Microsoft Windows provides the command-line interface tools ipconfig and netsh and users of Unix-like systems may use ifconfig, netstat, route, lanstat, fstat, and iproute2 utilities to accomplish the task.

See also

References

Not to be confused with IP Code.

An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as 192.0.2.1 that is connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.^[1][2] An IP address serves two main functions: network interface identification and location addressing.

Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) defines an IP address as a 32-bit number.^[2] However, because of the growth of the Internet and the depletion of available IPv4 addresses, a new version of IP (IPv6), using 128 bits for the IP address, was standardized in 1998.^[3][4][5] IPv6 deployment has been ongoing since the mid-2000s.

IP addresses are written and displayed in human-readable notations, such as 192.0.2.1 in IPv4, and 2001:db8:0:1234:0:567:8:1 in IPv6. The size of the routing prefix of the address is designated in CIDR notation by suffixing the address with the number of significant bits, e.g., 192.0.2.1/24, which is equivalent to the historically used subnet mask 255.255.255.0.

The IP address space is managed globally by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), and by five regional Internet registries (RIRs) responsible in their designated territories for assignment to local Internet registries, such as Internet service providers (ISPs), and other end users. IPv4 addresses were distributed by IANA to the RIRs in blocks of approximately 16.8 million addresses each, but have been exhausted at the IANA level since 2011. Only one of the RIRs still has a supply for local assignments in Africa.^[6] Some IPv4 addresses are reserved for private networks and are not globally unique.

Network administrators assign an IP address to each device connected to a network. Such assignments may be on a static (fixed or permanent) or dynamic basis, depending on network practices and software features.

Function

An IP address serves two principal functions: it identifies the host, or more specifically its network interface, and it provides the location of the host in the network, and thus the capability of establishing a path to that host. Its role has been characterized as follows: «A name indicates what we seek. An address indicates where it is. A route indicates how to get there.»^[2]
The header of each IP packet contains the IP address of the sending host and that of the destination host.

IP versions

Two versions of the Internet Protocol are in common use on the Internet today. The original version of the Internet Protocol that was first deployed in 1983 in the ARPANET, the predecessor of the Internet, is Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4).

By the early 1990s, the rapid exhaustion of IPv4 address space available for assignment to Internet service providers and end-user organizations prompted the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to explore new technologies to expand addressing capability on the Internet. The result was a redesign of the Internet Protocol which became eventually known as Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) in 1995.^[3][4][5]
IPv6 technology was in various testing stages until the mid-2000s when commercial production deployment commenced.

Today, these two versions of the Internet Protocol are in simultaneous use. Among other technical changes, each version defines the format of addresses differently. Because of the historical prevalence of IPv4, the generic term IP address typically still refers to the addresses defined by IPv4. The gap in version sequence between IPv4 and IPv6 resulted from the assignment of version 5 to the experimental Internet Stream Protocol in 1979, which however was never referred to as IPv5.

Other versions v1 to v9 were defined, but only v4 and v6 ever gained widespread use. v1 and v2 were names for TCP protocols in 1974 and 1977, as there was no separate IP specification at the time. v3 was defined in 1978, and v3.1 is the first version where TCP is separated from IP. v6 is a synthesis of several suggested versions, v6 Simple Internet Protocol, v7 TP/IX: The Next Internet, v8 PIP — The P Internet Protocol, and v9 TUBA — Tcp & Udp with Big Addresses.^[7]

Subnetworks

IP networks may be divided into subnetworks in both IPv4 and IPv6. For this purpose, an IP address is recognized as consisting of two parts: the network prefix in the high-order bits and the remaining bits called the rest field, host identifier, or interface identifier (IPv6), used for host numbering within a network.^[1] The subnet mask or CIDR notation determines how the IP address is divided into network and host parts.

The term subnet mask is only used within IPv4. Both IP versions however use the CIDR concept and notation. In this, the IP address is followed by a slash and the number (in decimal) of bits used for the network part, also called the routing prefix. For example, an IPv4 address and its subnet mask may be 192.0.2.1 and 255.255.255.0, respectively. The CIDR notation for the same IP address and subnet is 192.0.2.1/24, because the first 24 bits of the IP address indicate the network and subnet.

IPv4 addresses

An IPv4 address has a size of 32 bits, which limits the address space to 4294967296 (2³²) addresses. Of this number, some addresses are reserved for special purposes such as private networks (~18 million addresses) and multicast addressing (~270 million addresses).

IPv4 addresses are usually represented in dot-decimal notation, consisting of four decimal numbers, each ranging from 0 to 255, separated by dots, e.g., 192.0.2.1. Each part represents a group of 8 bits (an octet) of the address.^[8] In some cases of technical writing,^[specify] IPv4 addresses may be presented in various hexadecimal, octal, or binary representations.

Subnetting history

In the early stages of development of the Internet Protocol, the network number was always the highest order octet (most significant eight bits). Because this method allowed for only 256 networks, it soon proved inadequate as additional networks developed that were independent of the existing networks already designated by a network number. In 1981, the addressing specification was revised with the introduction of classful network architecture.^[2]

Classful network design allowed for a larger number of individual network assignments and fine-grained subnetwork design. The first three bits of the most significant octet of an IP address were defined as the class of the address. Three classes (A, B, and C) were defined for universal unicast addressing. Depending on the class derived, the network identification was based on octet boundary segments of the entire address. Each class used successively additional octets in the network identifier, thus reducing the possible number of hosts in the higher order classes (B and C). The following table gives an overview of this now-obsolete system.

Historical classful network architecture

Class	Leading bits	Size of network number bit field	Size of rest bit field	Number of networks	Number of addresses per network	Start address	End address
A	0	8	24	128 (27)	16777216 (224)	0.0.0.0	127.255.255.255
B	10	16	16	16384 (214)	65536 (216)	128.0.0.0	191.255.255.255
C	110	24	8	2097152 (221)	256 (28)	192.0.0.0	223.255.255.255

Classful network design served its purpose in the startup stage of the Internet, but it lacked scalability in the face of the rapid expansion of networking in the 1990s. The class system of the address space was replaced with Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) in 1993. CIDR is based on variable-length subnet masking (VLSM) to allow allocation and routing based on arbitrary-length prefixes. Today, remnants of classful network concepts function only in a limited scope as the default configuration parameters of some network software and hardware components (e.g. netmask), and in the technical jargon used in network administrators’ discussions.

Private addresses

Early network design, when global end-to-end connectivity was envisioned for communications with all Internet hosts, intended that IP addresses be globally unique. However, it was found that this was not always necessary as private networks developed and public address space needed to be conserved.

Computers not connected to the Internet, such as factory machines that communicate only with each other via TCP/IP, need not have globally unique IP addresses. Today, such private networks are widely used and typically connect to the Internet with network address translation (NAT), when needed.

Three non-overlapping ranges of IPv4 addresses for private networks are reserved.^[9] These addresses are not routed on the Internet and thus their use need not be coordinated with an IP address registry. Any user may use any of the reserved blocks. Typically, a network administrator will divide a block into subnets; for example, many home routers automatically use a default address range of 192.168.0.0 through 192.168.0.255 (192.168.0.0/24).

Reserved private IPv4 network ranges^[9]

Name	CIDR block	Address range	Number of addresses	Classful description
24-bit block	10.0.0.0/8	10.0.0.0 – 10.255.255.255	16777216	Single Class A.
20-bit block	172.16.0.0/12	172.16.0.0 – 172.31.255.255	1048576	Contiguous range of 16 Class B blocks.
16-bit block	192.168.0.0/16	192.168.0.0 – 192.168.255.255	65536	Contiguous range of 256 Class C blocks.

IPv6 addresses

In IPv6, the address size was increased from 32 bits in IPv4 to 128 bits, thus providing up to 2¹²⁸ (approximately 3.403×10³⁸) addresses. This is deemed sufficient for the foreseeable future.

The intent of the new design was not to provide just a sufficient quantity of addresses, but also redesign routing in the Internet by allowing more efficient aggregation of subnetwork routing prefixes. This resulted in slower growth of routing tables in routers. The smallest possible individual allocation is a subnet for 2⁶⁴ hosts, which is the square of the size of the entire IPv4 Internet. At these levels, actual address utilization ratios will be small on any IPv6 network segment. The new design also provides the opportunity to separate the addressing infrastructure of a network segment, i.e. the local administration of the segment’s available space, from the addressing prefix used to route traffic to and from external networks. IPv6 has facilities that automatically change the routing prefix of entire networks, should the global connectivity or the routing policy change, without requiring internal redesign or manual renumbering.

The large number of IPv6 addresses allows large blocks to be assigned for specific purposes and, where appropriate, to be aggregated for efficient routing. With a large address space, there is no need to have complex address conservation methods as used in CIDR.

All modern desktop and enterprise server operating systems include native support for IPv6, but it is not yet widely deployed in other devices, such as residential networking routers, voice over IP (VoIP) and multimedia equipment, and some networking hardware.

Private addresses

Just as IPv4 reserves addresses for private networks, blocks of addresses are set aside in IPv6. In IPv6, these are referred to as unique local addresses (ULAs). The routing prefix fc00::/7 is reserved for this block,^[10] which is divided into two /8 blocks with different implied policies. The addresses include a 40-bit pseudorandom number that minimizes the risk of address collisions if sites merge or packets are misrouted.

Early practices used a different block for this purpose (fec0::), dubbed site-local addresses.^[11] However, the definition of what constituted a site remained unclear and the poorly defined addressing policy created ambiguities for routing. This address type was abandoned and must not be used in new systems.^[12]

Addresses starting with fe80::, called link-local addresses, are assigned to interfaces for communication on the attached link. The addresses are automatically generated by the operating system for each network interface. This provides instant and automatic communication between all IPv6 hosts on a link. This feature is used in the lower layers of IPv6 network administration, such as for the Neighbor Discovery Protocol.

Private and link-local address prefixes may not be routed on the public Internet.

IP address assignment

IP addresses are assigned to a host either dynamically as they join the network, or persistently by configuration of the host hardware or software. Persistent configuration is also known as using a static IP address. In contrast, when a computer’s IP address is assigned each time it restarts, this is known as using a dynamic IP address.

Dynamic IP addresses are assigned by network using Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP).^[13] DHCP is the most frequently used technology for assigning addresses. It avoids the administrative burden of assigning specific static addresses to each device on a network. It also allows devices to share the limited address space on a network if only some of them are online at a particular time. Typically, dynamic IP configuration is enabled by default in modern desktop operating systems.

The address assigned with DHCP is associated with a lease and usually has an expiration period. If the lease is not renewed by the host before expiry, the address may be assigned to another device. Some DHCP implementations attempt to reassign the same IP address to a host, based on its MAC address, each time it joins the network. A network administrator may configure DHCP by allocating specific IP addresses based on MAC address.

DHCP is not the only technology used to assign IP addresses dynamically. Bootstrap Protocol is a similar protocol and predecessor to DHCP. Dialup and some broadband networks use dynamic address features of the Point-to-Point Protocol.

Computers and equipment used for the network infrastructure, such as routers and mail servers, are typically configured with static addressing.

In the absence or failure of static or dynamic address configurations, an operating system may assign a link-local address to a host using stateless address autoconfiguration.

Sticky dynamic IP address

Sticky is an informal term used to describe a dynamically assigned IP address that seldom changes. IPv4 addresses, for example, are usually assigned with DHCP, and a DHCP service can use rules that maximize the chance of assigning the same address each time a client asks for an assignment. In IPv6, a prefix delegation can be handled similarly, to make changes as rare as feasible. In a typical home or small-office setup, a single router is the only device visible to an Internet service provider (ISP), and the ISP may try to provide a configuration that is as stable as feasible, i.e. sticky. On the local network of the home or business, a local DHCP server may be designed to provide sticky IPv4 configurations, and the ISP may provide a sticky IPv6 prefix delegation, giving clients the option to use sticky IPv6 addresses. Sticky should not be confused with static; sticky configurations have no guarantee of stability, while static configurations are used indefinitely and only changed deliberately.

Address autoconfiguration

Address block 169.254.0.0/16 is defined for the special use of link-local addressing for IPv4 networks.^[14] In IPv6, every interface, whether using static or dynamic addresses, also receives a link-local address automatically in the block fe80::/10.^[14] These addresses are only valid on the link, such as a local network segment or point-to-point connection, to which a host is connected. These addresses are not routable and, like private addresses, cannot be the source or destination of packets traversing the Internet.

When the link-local IPv4 address block was reserved, no standards existed for mechanisms of address autoconfiguration. Filling the void, Microsoft developed a protocol called Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA), whose first public implementation appeared in Windows 98.^[15] APIPA has been deployed on millions of machines and became a de facto standard in the industry. In May 2005, the IETF defined a formal standard for it.^[16]

Addressing conflicts

An IP address conflict occurs when two devices on the same local physical or wireless network claim to have the same IP address. A second assignment of an address generally stops the IP functionality of one or both of the devices. Many modern operating systems notify the administrator of IP address conflicts.^[17][18] When IP addresses are assigned by multiple people and systems with differing methods, any of them may be at fault.^{[19][20][21][22][23]} If one of the devices involved in the conflict is the default gateway access beyond the LAN for all devices on the LAN, all devices may be impaired.

Routing

IP addresses are classified into several classes of operational characteristics: unicast, multicast, anycast and broadcast addressing.

Unicast addressing

The most common concept of an IP address is in unicast addressing, available in both IPv4 and IPv6. It normally refers to a single sender or a single receiver, and can be used for both sending and receiving. Usually, a unicast address is associated with a single device or host, but a device or host may have more than one unicast address. Sending the same data to multiple unicast addresses requires the sender to send all the data many times over, once for each recipient.

Broadcast addressing

Broadcasting is an addressing technique available in IPv4 to address data to all possible destinations on a network in one transmission operation as an all-hosts broadcast. All receivers capture the network packet. The address 255.255.255.255 is used for network broadcast. In addition, a more limited directed broadcast uses the all-ones host address with the network prefix. For example, the destination address used for directed broadcast to devices on the network 192.0.2.0/24 is 192.0.2.255.^[24]

IPv6 does not implement broadcast addressing and replaces it with multicast to the specially defined all-nodes multicast address.

Multicast addressing

A multicast address is associated with a group of interested receivers. In IPv4, addresses 224.0.0.0 through 239.255.255.255 (the former Class D addresses) are designated as multicast addresses.^[25] IPv6 uses the address block with the prefix ff00::/8 for multicast. In either case, the sender sends a single datagram from its unicast address to the multicast group address and the intermediary routers take care of making copies and sending them to all interested receivers (those that have joined the corresponding multicast group).

Anycast addressing

Like broadcast and multicast, anycast is a one-to-many routing topology. However, the data stream is not transmitted to all receivers, just the one which the router decides is closest in the network. Anycast addressing is a built-in feature of IPv6.^[26][27] In IPv4, anycast addressing is implemented with Border Gateway Protocol using the shortest-path metric to choose destinations. Anycast methods are useful for global load balancing and are commonly used in distributed DNS systems.

Geolocation

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (July 2020)

A host may use geolocation to deduce the geographic position of its communicating peer.^[28][29]

Public address

A public IP address is a globally routable unicast IP address, meaning that the address is not an address reserved for use in private networks, such as those reserved by RFC 1918, or the various IPv6 address formats of local scope or site-local scope, for example for link-local addressing. Public IP addresses may be used for communication between hosts on the global Internet.
In a home situation, a public IP address is the IP address assigned to the home’s network by the ISP. In this case, it is also locally visible by logging into the router configuration.^[30]

Most public IP addresses change, and relatively often. Any type of IP address that changes is called a dynamic IP address. In home networks, the ISP usually assigns a dynamic IP. If an ISP gave a home network an unchanging address, it’s more likely to be abused by customers who host websites from home, or by hackers who can try the same IP address over and over until they breach a network.^[30]

Firewalling

For security and privacy considerations, network administrators often desire to restrict public Internet traffic within their private networks. The source and destination IP addresses contained in the headers of each IP packet are a convenient means to discriminate traffic by IP address blocking or by selectively tailoring responses to external requests to internal servers. This is achieved with firewall software running on the network’s gateway router. A database of IP addresses of restricted and permissible traffic may be maintained in blacklists and whitelists, respectively.

Address translation

Multiple client devices can appear to share an IP address, either because they are part of a shared web hosting service environment or because an IPv4 network address translator (NAT) or proxy server acts as an intermediary agent on behalf of the client, in which case the real originating IP address is masked from the server receiving a request. A common practice is to have a NAT mask many devices in a private network. Only the public interface(s) of the NAT needs to have an Internet-routable address.^[31]

The NAT device maps different IP addresses on the private network to different TCP or UDP port numbers on the public network. In residential networks, NAT functions are usually implemented in a residential gateway. In this scenario, the computers connected to the router have private IP addresses and the router has a public address on its external interface to communicate on the Internet. The internal computers appear to share one public IP address.

Diagnostic tools

Computer operating systems provide various diagnostic tools to examine network interfaces and address configuration. Microsoft Windows provides the command-line interface tools ipconfig and netsh and users of Unix-like systems may use ifconfig, netstat, route, lanstat, fstat, and iproute2 utilities to accomplish the task.

See also

References