What is IP Address and Its different types?

IP addresses are also called internet protocol as IP address is abbreviation of it , a unique identifiers that are used by each and every "server / system" that is  connected to the Internet.

Internet Protocol transmits data or packets between two nodes and this requires two nodes to have unique addresses that is called IP Address.

In the previous time, Internet was addressed with IP version 4 (IPv4) addresses but after analyzing lack of future addresses as internet is requiring more and more IP addresses, IPv6 addresses have started to be used. So IP address is now structured in two different addresses type "ipv4" and "ipv6".

Difference between ipv4 and ipv6 addresses assigned to server -

ipv4 is 32 bit number that is typically written as four decimal numbers separated by periods. An example is "192.168.2.4".

while ipv6 is 128 bit to support larger number of addresses ,typically written as eight groups of four hexadecimal digits. The groups are separated by colons. An example is "2001:601:113b:50a1::123"

IPv6 is  offering a much larger address pool than IPv4. However, IPv6 is not intended as a direct replacement for IPv4. Rather, the two address protocols are able to be used together across the Internet.

What if client need particular range  of IP assigned to his server?

IP addresses are either "class based " or "classless".

·         Class-based IP Address -

In starting, IP address was introduced by blocks. There are three classes of blocks: Class A, Class B and Class C. The higher the class, the larger the number of IP addresses in the block. When IP address is made by using class method then it is called class based IP address.

class Range is defined as below:

Class A addresses range in between 1 and 127, Class B is in between 128 and 191, Class C is 192 to 223. There are also other two classes that are rarely used- Class D (224 to 247) and Class E (248-255).

Hosting companies /firms divide the IP addresses in its allotted block to servers /systems in its IP network. And assign the required IP to their client.

e.g. if any web hosting company "A" is providing you the Class B block of 133.156, then you can use

any IP address between 133.156.0.1 and 133.156.255.254. where ".0.0" and ".255.255"

addresses are reserved.

·         Classless IP Address -

To allow a more fine-grained way of handing out addresses, Most IP version 4 address blocks are handed  out as subnets. This approach avoids the class-based division, For IPv6, blocks of IP version 6 addresses can be obtained by classless assignment .