COMPUTER EDUCATION 10: What Is A Network or IP Address?

A network address is any logical or physical address that uniquely distinguishes a network node or device over a computer or telecommunications network. It is a numeric/symbolic number or address that is assigned to any device that seeks access to or is part of a network.

Computers on a network use a network address to identify, locate and address other computers. Besides individual devices, a network address is typically unique for each interface; for example, a computer's Wi-Fi and local area network (LAN) card has separate network addresses.

A network address is also known as the numerical network part of an IP Address. This is used to distinguish a network that has its own hosts and addresses. For example, in the IP address 192.168.1.0, the network address is 192.168.1.

Common examples of IP Address

Two Versions Of An Internet Protocol (IP) Address

1. IPv4 (Standard Version)

IPv4 (Internet Protocol Version 4) is the fourth revision of the Internet Protocol (IP) used to to identify devices on a network through an addressing system. The Internet Protocol is designed for use in interconnected systems of packet-switched computer communication networks.

IPv4 is the most widely deployed Internet protocol used to connect devices to the Internet. It uses a 32-bit address scheme allowing for a total of 2^32 addresses (just over 4 billion addresses). With the growth of the Internet it is expected that the number of unused IPv4 addresses will eventually run out because eve -ry device- including computers, smartphones and game consoles -- that connects to the Internet requires an address.

2. IPv6 (Advanced Version)

A new Internet addressing system Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is being deployed to fulfill the need for more Internet addresses.

IPv6 (Internet Protocol Version 6) is also called IPng (Internet Protocol next generation) and it is the newest version of the Internet Protocol (IP) reviewed in the IETF standards committees to replace the current version of IPv4 (Internet Protocol Version 4).

IPv6 is the successor to Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4). It was designed as an evolutionary upgrade to the Internet Protocol and will, in fact, coexist with the older IPv4 for some time. IPv6 is designed to allow the Internet to grow steadily, both in terms of the number of hosts connected and the total amount of data traffic transmitted.

Binary Digit

A binary digit, or bit, is the smallest unit of information in a computer. It is used for storing information and has a value of true/false, or on/off. An individual bit has a value of either 0 or 1, which is generally used to store data and implement instructions in groups of bytes. A computer is often classified by the number of bits it can process at one time or by the number of bits in a memory address. Many systems use four eight-bit bytes to form a 32-bit word.

The value of a bit is typically stored above or below an allocated level of an electrical charge within a capacitor inside a memory module. For devices that use positive logic, value 1 (true value or high) is positive voltage relative to the electrical ground and value 0 (false value or low) is 0 voltage.

Example