IP addresses are the base cells that form the computer networks used today.
With a little help, anyone can understand some fundamental points regarding IP addresses and subnet masks, what they used for and why they are useful.
What is an IP address
To help you understand what an IP address is, we’ll make a description of the IP address using an analogy with a situation in everyday life:
Let’s say you want to send a letter to a person. You wrote the letter, but before you send it, you need to know the person’s address. Name and street number, town and postcode. Otherwise, the letter will not get right. Now you’re trying to think of an IP address as a computer on a network. In other words, it is the unique identifier of a networked device and is used to establish a communication channel between multiple computers or devices on either the same network or the Internet.
At the time of writing this article, two fundamental standards govern the use of IP addresses: IP version 4 (IPv4) and IP version 6 (IPv6).
An IP address can be static or dynamic. The static IP address is one that you need to configure manually through your Windows network settings. A dynamic address is assigned by the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) – a service that runs on dedicated network servers or network-specific devices such as routers.
Dynamic addresses are the most used ones because static addresses can cause network problems if they are used inadvertently. Also, static is more challenging to manage because it requires manual intervention to be created. In a home network or small business network, IP addresses are usually assigned and maintained automatically by a wireless router.
Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4)
IP version 4 (IPv4) is the most used IP standard today. An IPv4 address uses 32-bit addresses, which limits the address space to 4.294.967.296 (2 ^ 32) of possible unique addresses. To be understood by everyone, IPv4 addresses are represented by four decimals, separated by points.
IPv4 addresses are divided into three categories, called classes. Unfortunately, the IPv4 standard will soon become obsolete because of the exhaustion of available addresses. Therefore, for more devices to be added, we will have to move to the IPv6 standard, which can support much more addresses.
Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6)
Internet Protocol version 6 or IPv6 was created in 1995 to replace the IPv4 protocol. IPv6 is a new standard that is not yet widely spread, but it will be as soon as IPv4 addresses are exhausted. IPv6 addresses are composed of eight groups of characters separated by “:”. Unlike IPv4 addresses, they can also contain letters from a to f.
What is the subnet mask?
A subnet mask is a division of an IP network and is therefore called a subnet. Think of it as the prefix of your phone number. The subnet is typically used in large networks to divide them into smaller and manageable networks. Within home networks or small businesses, all computers will be in the same subnet, and all computers and devices in the same subnet will have the same subnet mask.
The network mask is used in the subnetting process. Subnetting involves splitting a network into smaller portions called subnets. As you know, an IP address is divided into two parts, one for identifying the network and one for identifying the workstation. Using the network mask, the main network is divided into two or more subnets. This is accomplished by the AND operation between the IP address and the network mask. In simple terms, this means that part of the bits for identifying the workstation will be used to identify the subnet.
1. Default gateway.
A gateway (sometimes called a walkway) is usually a network router that acts as a point of access to other networks and the internet. For example, the internet provider has one or more such gateways through which computers on the network connect to the Internet. In large enterprise networks, gateways are used to connect different sub-networks within the company.
2. Server DNS.
The name comes from the Domain Name System and is a naming system for computers connected to the Internet that practically associates memorable addresses such as www.mvps.net with their IP addresses. If the DNS server does not work, you will not be able to browse the internet using the usual addresses. The DNS server is usually provided by the internet provider.
3.WINS Server.
The name comes from the Windows Internet Name Service and is an outdated appointment system that was used on older Microsoft computers and operating systems such as Windows 98 or Windows 2000. It was used to associate IP addresses with computer names dynamically. Today, DNS servers are used for this process, making them more efficient.