Devices on the Internet are communicated or connected with cables or wirelessly or even through satellites. Suppose I want to download a file or connect a device to the Internet. In that case, your devices should be assigned an IP address by ISP or Network Provider. Other machines on the Internet can locate my computer on the Internet terms that address is the IP address. 

 Let us understand it with another example like if someone wants to send you a mail/postal, and should have your home address. Similarly, your computer also needs your address, so that computers on the Internet can send you a file that you want to download from an address in internal terms called IP address.  

 An IP address is nothing but a set of numbers assigned in a specific format when you compare your home address that your area postman identifies and get all the things delivered to that address. Similarly, the IP addresses of your computer address specified by other computers on the Internet. You get all the downloads available at this computer address this address is the IP address of your computer. 

 IP address stands for Internet Protocol address, but what does this mean Internet Protocol is a set of rules that makes the Internet work.  

 Two types of Internet Protocol version 4 IPV4 and Internet Protocol version 6 IPV6

 Internet Protocol version 4 consists of 4 numbers separated by a dot each number can range from 0 to 255 in decimal numbers. But computers do not understand these decimal numbers. IP addresses are converted to a binary form which is computer understandable; therefore in binary, this range can be Witten as 0 and 1. 

 Since a group of 8 binary digits represents each number n, the whole ipv4 address is represented by a sequence of 32 ones and zeros or I should say by a series of 32 bits ipv4 is a 32-bit address in ipv4.

 A unique sequence of ones and zeros is assigned to each computer; therefore a total of 2 raised to power 32 devices which are approximately 4 billion devices can be addressed and connected to the Internet with ipv4.

 But there is a problem with these 32-bit ipv4 addresses. We can connect only this amount of devices to the Internet, but these days we have devices like computers and smartphones more than 4 billion, so slowly we are moving towards ipv6 the address which is 128-bit. 

 IP address IPV6 is a group of 8 Hexadecimal numbers separated by colons. For example, the IPV6 address can be written like this "2000:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:6a2e:0370:8334". A sequence can write an ipv6 address of 128 ones or zeros in computer-friendly form since a unique series of ones and zeros are given to each computer connected to the Internet. 

 So with ipv6, a total of 2 raised to power 128 devices can be connected to the Internet. That is, ipv6 can address this number of devices which is far more than enough for many future generations to find your computer's public IP address right.

Without the Internet we would be standing in long queues to get our train tickets we would be looking at newspapers to see where jobs are available. We would be buying storage devices like CDs because Internet cloud storage would not work, so an IP address is a must for an Internet connection.

Classification of IP Addresses

 Dynamic IP addresses and Static IP addresses

Dynamic IP

An IP address has a Dynamic IP address and Static IP address. When you connect your device like a smartphone or computer to the Internet. 

The Internet service provider's dynamic IP addresses provide you with an IP address from the range of available IP addresses. Your device has an IP address that connects the Internet to send/receive data from another computer on the Internet.  

 Whenever connecting your device to the Internet, your internet service provider provides you with different IP addresses, but from the same available range since the IP address keeps changing every time you connect your device to the Internet. so such IP addresses are called Dynamic IP addresses. 

 Static IP

 Static IP addresses never change and they serve as permanent Internet addresses DNS servers use static IP addresses. What is a DNS server? These are computers that help you open a website in your computer's static IP addresses. It provides information such as the device is located in which continent which country which city and which Internet service provider provides an internet connection to that device. Once we know who is the intended service provider we can trace the device's location connected to the Internet. Therefore, IP address allows billions of digital devices to pinpoint static IP addresses that are considered more insecure than dynamic IP addresses. 

 They are easier to track; however, following safe Internet practices can help you to protect your computer no matter what type of IP address you use.