IP adress

A number on the basis of which we can unambiguously identify a network interface in a computer network in computer science. Currently, the most commonly used IPv4 format occurs and is being replaced by IPv6.

What is an IP address?

An IP address is a number based on which it is theoretically possible to track a device on an Internet network. It is a kind of signature that computer devices leave on their way through the Internet. In practice, however, the situation is such that the most used IPv4 addresses are sufficient. Therefore, a larger number of devices share one address. This problem should be solved by switching to IPv6, which will be written in hexadecimal.

In practice, this means that while so far the most used IP address was in the form of, for example, 96.98.23.76. There are always four numbers in the range 0-255 separated by periods. It follows that the available combinations are the final amount. But the IPv6 address looks like this: 2001: db8: 0: 1234: 0: 567: 8: 1. Switching to a new standard will solve one problem. The available addresses will not just run out. In fact, there are 5 × 1028 addresses for each inhabitant of the planet. In other words, it is an extremely huge number, the potential of which will most likely never be realized.

The IP address also plays a role in online marketing. Based on it, we can recognize in analytical tools where users come from and how many there are in total. This information is to some extent distorted by the fact that some users use a variety of VPN clients that can hide the real IP address.