About IP address knowledge

An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label assigned to each device (e.g., computer, printer) participating in a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.[1] An IP address serves two principal functions: host or network interface identification and location addressing. Its role has been characterized as follows: "A name indicates what we seek. An address indicates where it is. A route indicates how to get there.

IPv4 addresses

Two versions of the Internet Protocol (IP) are in use: IP Version 4 and IP Version 6. Each version defines an IP address differently.

IPv4 uses 32-bit (four-byte) addresses, which limits the address space to 4294967296 (232) addresses. This limitation stimulated the development of IPv6 in the 1990s, which has been in commercial deployment since 2006.

IPv6 addresses

Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is the most recent version of the Internet Protocol (IP), the communications protocol that provides an identification and location system for computers on networks and routes traffic across the Internet.

IPv6 uses a 128-bit address, allowing 2128, or approximately 3.4x1038 addresses, or more than 7.9x1028 times as many as IPv4, which uses 32-bit addresses and provides approximately 4.3 billion addresses.

What an IP address looks like

Your IP address will be a number, like 12.136.234.4 or 2002:db7:0:1245:0:567:8:1.

IP Tools

In Windows the IP address can be determined by using the command-line tool ipconfig. In Unix/Linux the command-line ifconfig performs this function.

Windows ipconfig command:

C:\>ipconfig
Windows IP Configuration

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.4
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1

Ethernet adapter VMware Network Adapter VMnet1:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe81::a184:b492:3580:a93a%19
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.134.1
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

Unix/Linux ifconfig command:

root@myhost:~# ifconfig
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:17:3f:01:1e:18
          inet addr:10.241.237.40  Bcast:10.241.237.255  Mask:255.255.248.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:54538390 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:338794 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:2349349610 (2.1 GiB)  TX bytes:25156862 (23.9 MiB)
          Interrupt:71

eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:17:3f:01:1e:18
          inet addr:111.10.27.154  Bcast:111.10.27.255  Mask:255.255.252.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:1948821357 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:1428899906 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:981273024714 (913.8 GiB)  TX bytes:144336037637 (134.4 GiB)
          Interrupt:72

When you visit our site GEO IP Lookup, you'll see the IP address and GEO location information of your computer or device.