What is the Role of an IP Address?

Internet Protocol (IP) addresses comprise numbers separated by several dots. IP addresses allow individuals to identify their locations easily, it also makes it easy to locate and send data to internet-connected devices, wherever they are.

Whenever an individual sends an email, consults a website, or probably makes a VoIP call, the computer sends information in the form of data packets to the IP addresses at the other terminal of the connection. Also, it receives information in packets at its internet protocol address. From this, it appears that the internet depends on internet protocol addresses to function.

To truly deal with the topic comprehensively, some questions need to be asked and answers provided too.

Why Do We Need IP Addresses?

The reason behind using an IP address is simple: without IP addresses, it will be difficult to identify specific locations and send data comfortably to people. For instance, sending emails and browsing on web pages will also not be possible without IP addresses.

How are IP Addresses Represented?

Presently, there are two different versions of IP addresses available, they include:

  • IPv4
  • IPv6

Both IP address versions have entirely different functions. The IPv4 addresses are written in four groups, each group separated by dots. IPv4 addresses have numbers ranging from 0 and 255. Below is what an IPv4 address looks like this 193.178.0.1. The dots in IP addresses specify their functions and make it easier for users to read the internet protocols.

For IPv6 addresses, they tend to have long strings of numbers, they are usually represented by a hexadecimal (combining figures and alphabet). IPv6 can fit more information into fewer numbers. Numbers you will in an IPv6 address range between 0-9 and only letters between a-f be used.

Given this range of figures and alphabets, typical IPv6 addresses can have up to 16 different values. IPv6 addresses also have a group of numbers separated colons rather than dots as in IPv4 addresses. An example of IPv6 is 1002:0af7:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0052.

IPv6 doesn’t have to be this complicated, they can be simplified by substituting the numerous 0s with double colons. So technically, the previous IPv6 address can also be written as 1002:0af7::52.

Over 7 billion people are on Earth, but IPv4 offers only about 4.3 billion IP addresses. As the number of IP users continues to increase on the earth, the number of end devices will also continue to increase and with time, IPv4 will get to its maximum limit and will not be able to provide new addresses for users.

On the contrary, IPv6 offers enough IP addresses for everyone. IPv6 tends to take over IP addresses totally at the expense of IPv4 because of the wide IP address creation range.

What are the Devices That Have IP Addresses?

All devices, mobile phones, laptops, tablets, as long as they have internet connections, all have IP addresses. These IP addresses are often allocated to these devices by their routers for example:

Router: 192.168.177.1

This router will allocate IP addresses to devices connected to it as follows:

Mobile phones: 192.168.177.30

Laptop: 192.168.177.40

Conclusion

Now that we’ve discussed what IP addresses entail, you should now have a better understanding of how packets are transferred among devices. Knowing how packets are transferred makes it easier to solve constraints that might arise when sending information to other devices. IP addresses make digital life more interesting and less difficult. Usually, what is my ip or can I change my ip are prominent questions regarding this topic. After reading this, you will no longer need to ask them.