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IP address

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IP address

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Also known as Internet Protocol address

label used to identify a network interface of a computer or other network node

AI overview

An IP address is a unique label assigned to devices connected to the internet or a network, like a computer or phone, that helps identify where they are on that network. It matters because it allows devices to find and communicate with each other, similar to how a mailing address lets mail reach your home.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

~22 min read

Encyclopedic overview

An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label, such as 192.0.2.1 or 2001:db8::42, that is assigned to a device connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. IP addresses serve two main functions: network interface identification, and location addressing.

Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) was the first standalone specification for the IP address, and has been in use since 1983. IPv4 addresses are defined as a 32-bit number, which later then became too small to provide enough addresses as the internet grew, leading to IPv4 address exhaustion over the 2010s. Its designated successor, IPv6, uses 128 bits for the IP address, giving it a larger address space. Although IPv6 deployment has been ongoing since the mid-2000s, both IPv4 and IPv6 are still used side-by-side as of 2025.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “IP address” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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