This is your IP address: 203.101.50.14
TCP/IP uses 4 numbers to address a computer. Each computer must have a unique 4 number address.
The numbers are always between 0 and 255. Addresses are normally written as
four numbers separated by a period like this: 192.168.1.50.
IP addresses are normally expressed in dotted-decimal format, with four numbers
separated by periods, such as 192.168.123.132. To understand how subnet masks
are used to distinguish between hosts, networks, and subnetworks, examine an IP
address in binary notation.
For example, the dotted-decimal IP address 192.168.123.132 is (in binary
notation) the 32 bit number 110000000101000111101110000100. This number may be
hard to make sense of, so divide it into four parts of eight binary digits.
These eight bit sections are known as octets. The example IP address, then,
becomes 11000000.10101000.01111011.10000100. This number only makes a little
more sense, so for most uses, convert the binary address into dotted-decimal
format (192.168.123.132). The decimal numbers separated by periods are the
octets converted from binary to decimal notation.
For a TCP/IP wide area network (WAN) to work efficiently as a collection of
networks, the routers that pass packets of data between networks do not know the
exact location of a host for which a packet of information is destined. Routers
only know what network the host is a member of and use information stored in
their route table to determine how to get the packet to the destination host's
network. After the packet is delivered to the destination's network, the packet
is delivered to the appropriate host.
For this process to work, an IP address has two parts. The first part of an IP
address is used as a network address, the last part as a host address. If you
take the example 192.168.123.132 and divide it into these two parts you get the
following:
192.168.123. Network
.132 Host
-or-
192.168.123.0 - network address.
0.0.0.132 - host address.
|