IP address stands for internet protocol which is a numeric address and is an identifier for a host connected on a network.
Every host has an IP address for communication purposes.
There are two types of IP addresses: IPv4 and IPv6.
IPv4
The Internet protocol version 4 is the current version of IP addresses.
The IP numeric address is written and represented by four groups of numbers separated by periods, each group of numbers are called octets.
1 Octet = 8 Bits. The IPv4 is a total 32 bit numeric address.
The number range is from 0-225.
As an example: 192.168.0.1
Talking about computers, they just can read and understand the IP addresses by a numeric format, which is called binary numbers. The binary numbers just uses 1’s and 0’s to understand the IP address.
In the given example we said: 192 .168 .0 .1
This, is terms of binary numbers would be: 11000000 . 10101000 . 00000000 . 00000001
This IPv4 is capable of producing over 4 billion unique addresses which is a problem because we will be using another type of IP address much more big.
IPv6
The internet protocol version 6 is the next generation of IP addresses.
With 128 bit hexadecimal address, which means that uses both, numbers and letters in the same address.
Therefore the conversion is much more complex and longer to do, but this is the solution of the soon end of IPv4.
Example:
This is capable of producing over 340 undecillion addresses. Huge enough for the future generations.