Introduction To Networking

The IP Address

Introduction

An IP address is a 32-bit binary number assigned to you computer on a network. For readability, the 32-bit binary IP address is usually separated by dots into four parts and each part is represented by a single decimal value. Each decimal value van range from 0 to 255, but the first number cannot be 0. In addition, all four numbers cannot be 0 (0.0.0.0) or 255 (255.255.255.255).

Dotted Decimal Notation

An IP address is actually a 32-bit long binary number. Because binary numbers are difficult to read IP addresses are usually displayed in dotted decimal notation rather than in binary. Dotted decimal notation breaks the 32-bit binary number up into 4 decimal numbers and then separates them with by three dots.