IP address in plain language

Currently, more and more computer owners in the world are becoming users of local networks or the World Wide Web. At the same time, each PC is assigned its own name, the so-called IP address (formed from the English Internet Protocol Address).

An IP address is a number of four numbers separated by dots from 0 to 255, for example 172.148.0.1. It should be said that it is not the computer that receives the IP address, but its network card or modem.

So why do we need an IP address?
In fact, there is nothing complicated. People, for comfortable communication among themselves, use names, for search – addresses, phone numbers, etc. A similar situation occurs on the Internet. The World Wide Web is needed to receive information that is sent from the server to the user on the computer. This is where the IP address is needed, since it is a determinant for “communication” between computers.
Using IP, the host computer, the so-called server, will know where to download the information requested by the user. Also by IP, you can determine the location of the geographic location of the computer. This is due to getting an address on the Internet.

There are five regional Internet registrars in the world:

ARIN is a registrar issuing addresses to users of North America.
APNIC is a registrar issuing addresses to users of Southeast Asia.
AfriNIC is a registrar issuing addresses to African users.
LACNIC is a registrar issuing addresses to users in South America and the Caribbean.
RIPE NCC is a registrar issuing addresses to users in Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East.
They get large ranges of addresses in Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (abbreviated ICANN (read as Iken)), and then distribute them between local registrars, the so-called providers, those in turn are child, etc. until the user receives their address.
There are several ways to access the Internet, for example, using a modem, you can go directly to the World Wide Web or you can create a local network that has several computers (routers), will have Internet access and each will be given a unique IP address, and the rest of the computers will use these IP addresses. In this case, the rest of the computers will have addresses unique to this network only.

It is easy to calculate that there can only be up to 4,228,250,625 users. This maximum number of IP addresses is certainly not enough. Therefore, three methods have been developed at the moment:

Local Area Networks described below.
Dynamic IP address.
Change TCP / IP protocol.
When accessing the Internet using a modem, the computer can either have an address assigned to it or a constantly changing address, the so-called dynamic IP address. Imagine at the same time everyone can’t use the Internet, so it was decided to give the same IP to several users. For example, in the morning one user uses it, then it is given to another, etc. to infinity.
But even using the first two methods in the end, all the same, the addresses may not be enough. Therefore, a new protocol was developed, the so-called IPv6. Unlike the IPv4 protocol currently in use, which uses an address length of up to 32 bits, IPv6 can use an address with a capacity of 128 bits. Now this puncture is being tested in the CIS countries and is already starting to be used by some providers.