Your public IP address is:172.70.130.112

Chicago, Illinois, United States

Table of Content

  1. What is IP Address?
  2. Difference between Public IP and Private IP Address
    • Private IP Address
    • Public IP Address
  3. IP Version 4
  4. IP Version 6
  5. IPv4 address vs. IPv6 address

What is an IP address?

If you are a smartphone user, you must have heard the name of the IP address occasionally. Different IP addresses are determined for each device whether it is a smartphone or a computer.

IP address is an important feature of any device that acts as a communication between any devices. And with its help, we can connect one device to another. Let's know what the IP address is and why it is important?

The IP address is a set of numbers that identifies, logically and hierarchically, a Network Interface of a device like computer, laptop or smartphone that uses the Internet protocol or simply Protocol, which corresponds to the network level of the TCP/IP model.

IPv4 address in dotted-decimal notation

The IP address should not be confused with the MAC address, which is a 48-bit identifier expressed in hexadecimal code, to uniquely identify the network card and does not depend on the connection protocol used in the network.

Public IP Addresses vs. Private IP Addresses

Private IP Address

When more than one device is connected in a cable or wireless form such as mobile, computer etc., it creates a private IP address. The IP of all devices connected in it is called private address.

There are certain addresses in each class of IP address that are not assigned and are called private addresses. Private addresses can be used by hosts that use network address translation (NAT) to connect to a public network or by hosts that do not connect to the Internet. Three non-overlapping ranges of IPv4 addresses are reserved for private networks. In the same network there cannot be two equal addresses, but they can be repeated in two private networks that do not have a direct connection to each other or that are connected through a third party that does NAT. The private addresses are :

IPv4 network ranges reserved for private networks

IPv4 network ranges reserved for private networks
NameCIDR blockAddress rangeNumber of addressesClass
24-bit block10.0.0.0/810.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.25516 777 216A class.
20-bit block172.16.0.0/12172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.2551,048,576Adjacent range of 16 class B blocks.
16-bit block192.168.0.0/16192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.25565,536Adjacent range of 256 class C blocks.

These IP address blocks are allocated for use in local area networks (they are not singular in the world) and are not directed by internet service providers in wide area networks. For this reason, NAT is made to real IP addresses when accessing the internet from these IP networks.

Public IP Address

Public IP addresses can be of two types, first Static IP Address which is purchased by ISP (Internet Service Provider) to access a server. Public IP Address is provided by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) Which we cannot change, and this address is different, like, a website, DNS server etc.

Secondly Dynamic IP Address, is based on an Internet connection and automatically changes when the computer is connected to the Internet.

IP Version 4

IP version 4 uses only 32 bits (four bytes) for addresses, and is therefore limited to 4,294,967,296 (232) possible addresses. However, there are addresses that are allocated specifically to private addresses (about 18 million addresses) and to call (multicast) addresses (about 270 million addresses). All these things are one of the growths of the Internet, IP version 6 will therefore take over.

An example of an IP version 4 address: 127.0.0.1 This is called a Loopback address and always returns to the own computer.

IP Version 6

IP version 6 is the new system of IP. Windows Vista, Mac OS X built it in itself. Many versions of Linux included this as well. An IP address of version 6 is 128 bits (16 bytes) that even if released with a bit of exaggerated mass, there does not appear to be a defect in the nearby toothpick. It turns out that it is possible to have 1038×3.4 addresses.

An IPv6 address in hexadecimal

One researcher said that it appears that there will be about 5,000 addresses per meter of the earth's surface. This makes enough additional to the tsunkunft least a every Sell polygon and vehicles and other personal machines will meet the Internet.

Example of IP Version 6 Address: 2001: 0db8: 85a3: 08d3: 1319: 8a2e: 0370: 7334

Difference between IPv4 addresses and IPv6 addresses

The address space of IPv4 is narrower than IPv6. With IPv6, more IP addresses are available. Addresses that are 32 bits in IPv4 have been increased to 128 bits in IPv6. Also, IPv4 header format is simpler than IPv6 format. Because the IPv4 header size consists of 20 octets, the IPv6 header size is consistently 40 octets.

Of the 12 fields of the IPv4 header, 6 do not have IPv6. Removal of these areas has made IPv6 easier to handle. In addition, the automatic configuration feature on IPv6 facilitates address management on the Internet.

The need for NAT (National Address Translation) on IPv6 has decreased. Increasing the number of addresses eliminates the need to convert many addresses provided in NAT applications to IP addresses. In this way, the problems caused by NAT are eliminated. Using IPsec in IPv4 is optional, but mandatory in IPv6.