
Let's first concentrate on how humans read and write IP addresses. But in order to actually assign and use IP addresses, you must understand the format of these "numerical identifiers" and the rules that pertain to them. You know that an IP address is numbers that represent a device on a network, as a mailing address represents your home's location. However, if you're curious about how computers see IPs, or if you need a quick brush-up on binary math, read on.
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If you're already familiar with the technical details behind IP addresses, feel free to skip this article. In contrast, this article concentrates on describing the mathematics behind an IP address, down to the last binary detail. The Security Fundamentals article, " Internet Protocol for Beginners," describes what IP addresses are, non-technically. For similar reasons, a network administrator, or anyone configuring WatchGuard’s XTM and Firebox appliances needs to know the technical details behind IP addresses in order to recognize wider possibilities in managing a network. However, a mailman has to know more about a mailing address than the person sending a letter does. Your computer's IP is like your home's mailing address.Įnd-users really don't need to know much more about IPs than that. An IP is a numeric identifier that represents a computer or device on a network. The static IP address you will be assigned will be a public IP address, which means that data can be sent directly to your computer.By Corey Nachreiner, CISSP, Director of Security Strategy and ResearchĪnyone who's used a networked computer probably has a functional understanding of Internet Protocol addresses (referred to as IP for short). You will configure your computer to use that IP address for as long as you have the DSL service.

If you are connecting only one computer to your DSL modem, it will use the static IP address that comes with your DSL service (please see the instruction sheet in your DSL kit for which IP address you have been assigned). A static IP address has to be manually configured on the device that is going to use it. The opposite of a dynamically assigned IP address is a static IP address. Computers are set by default to ask for an IP address dynamically. It also means that you do not have to configure your computer’s IP address manually. When the router keeps track of IP address assignments, that means that a human does not have to do it. The next time the computer asks for an IP address, it might get the same IP that the router assigned to it before, or it might get a different one. It uses a network protocol called DHCP ( Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol).Īfter the computer has used an IP address and has disconnected from the router, the address can be put back into the pool of available IP addresses. This process of computers asking for an IP address from the router is called “dynamic” IP address assignment. The router makes sure that two computers are not assigned the same IP address. When a computer connects to it and asks for an IP address, the router picks an IP address from the pool and assigns it to the computer. The router has a “pool” of IP addresses that it keeps track of. One of the primary jobs of a router is to assign IP addresses to the computers on a home network. This is the side of the router that faces the home network’s computers and has a private IP address.ĪSSIGNING IP ADDRESSES TO COMPUTERS DYNAMICALLY The second router interface is called the LAN (Local Area Network) interface. This is the side of the router that faces the Internet and has a public IP address. The first router interface is called the WAN (Wide Area Network) interface. An IP address is assigned to each of the router’s two “interfaces”. Routers are special because they have two IP addresses. It will deliver the data to the router (which has a public IP address) and then the router will deliver the data to the computer that has the private IP address. A Web server will not deliver Internet data to a private IP address.

Private IP addresses are special IP addresses that are known only to a router and its home network. Public IPs are used by routers and by computers connected directly to DSL modems without a router. There are two types of IP addresses – public and private.
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An IP address is a series of four numbers separated by dots: IP addresses identify where the computer is located on the Internet so that Web servers and mail servers can send data to the correct computer. Every computer that connects to the Internet has to have an IP address assigned to it.
