Training & Events. TechNet Library Home. United States (English) Sign in Home Library Wiki Learn Gallery Downloads Support Forums Blogs.
W3Schools Online Web Tutorials. IP address. Numerical label used to identify a network interface in an IP network 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 172.16.254.1 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., 192.168.1.15/24, which is equivalent to the historically used subnet mask 255.255.255.0. 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.