An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label assigned to each device connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. An IP address serves two main purposes: host or network interface identification and location addressing. IP addresses are usually written in the form of four numbers separated by periods, such as “192.168.1.1”.
There are two main types of IP addresses: IPv4 and IPv6. IPv4 is the most common type of IP address and is used by the majority of devices on the Internet. IPv6 is a newer version of IP that was developed to address the shortage of IPv4 addresses. IPv6 addresses are longer than IPv4 addresses and are written in the form of eight groups of four hexadecimal digits separated by colons, such as “2001:0db8:85a3:08d3:1319:8a2e:0370:7334”.