IP Addressing for Advanced Users

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Advance IP Addressing

You don’t have to wait long to hear the term IP Addressing. If you are an internet user or preparing for any network related certification exam, then you may know the basic concepts of IP Addresses. To know the essentials of addressing you can read this article. That article will provide enough information for a beginner user.

On the other hand, in this article we will discuss about some advance concepts related to IP Addressing. Beyond that, we will also talk about classification of IP Addresses.

Assigning IP Address

First and foremost, we have to assign IP addresses in our devices to connect with a network. There are few ways you can assign IP address.

Static

In any case, we can assign IP address statically. But first, we have to obtain an IP address from ISP or network administrator. Moreover, we have to know the default gateway, subnet mask and DNS server address. Afterward, we can assign all these values. Methods of assigning static address varies from device to device and OS to OS. A static address doesn’t change with time, that is what static means, right?

DHCP

DHCP stands for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. Actually, if static addressing is manual mode, then DHCP is dynamic mode. Therefore, DHCP is very useful for large networks. For instance, assume that we have a office network with 200 host device. At this point, we have to assign ip address, subnet mask, default gateway and DNS server address in all of the devices. To do this, we need huge amount of time and patience. Also there is a risk of making errors. For this reason, DHCP is used. We can configure a DHCP server for a network. Afterward, every device connected with that get the IP address automatically.

Multiple Address

We can assign multiple addresses for a device. For example, assume that, we have a server which serves as a web server, mail server, game server and few others. In this case, we can use different IP addresses for different services. Of course, there have to be a primary IP address for initiating communication. On the other hand, that server will be able to respond to other IP addresses which are assigned. Assigning different addresses for different services, improves quality of service.

Types of IP Addresses

Every IPv4 Address has four octets. Also 32 bits long. But strangely enough, they are not all same! There are few types of IP Addresses available.

Public IP Address

To connect with internet, first we need an unique IP address. This type of address is called public IP address. Ironically, public addresses are not provided to all users because of its scarcity. Instead, ISP handles public address for end level users.

Private IP Address

On the other hand, private IP address is opposite to public IP address. As a matter of fact, users can use this private IP addresses without any restriction. However, we won’t be able to connect with internet using private IP addresses. For this reason, ISP uses NAT technology. NAT translates private IP address into public IP address. There are different ranges of private addresses.

1. 10.0.0.0 to 10.255.255.255
2. 172.16.0.0 to 172.31.255.255
3. 192.168.0.0 to 192.168.255.255

Automatic Addressing

When something goes wrong, like DHCP is not working or statically assigned IP address is not working, then computer assigns an IP address to itself. This is called automatic addressing. Range for automatic addressing is from 169.254.0.0 to 169.254.255.255.

Loopback Addressing

Loopback addresses are used for testing purpose. If you ping 127.0.0.1 from your computer, you will get a response. That means, your network card is working properly. If you don’t get a successful response from 127.0.0.1, that means there is something wrong with your network interface. Range for loopback addressing is from 127.0.0.0 to 127.255.255.255. But we only use one address 127.0.0.1 !

So these are the advanced concept you should know about IP addressing. Another most popular topics of IP addressing is subnetting. We will broadly discuss about subnetting in our next post. So stay with us! Thank you again.