2. Connecting to the Internet:
Connecting to the Internet requires an IP address. An IP
address is like a mailing address that can be located on all
computers and peripherals such as printers, scanners and
so on. Shown below is an example of an IP address:
172.16.254.1
3. IPv4 IP Addressing:
Presently, the world is using IPv4 addressing to connect
to any type of network and especially the Internet.
Presently, the world is running of these type of IP
addresses due to the popularity of the Internet. Some of
the characteristics of IPv4 IP addressing include:
Uses 32-bit IP addressing
Four octets and four billion IP addresses used
Limited to how many can be utilized
Comes in five classes: A, B, C, D, and E. Classes A, B, and
C are utilized for overall usage, but E is for multicasting and
E is for future usage.
Three range of addresses are for private networks (inside a
company).
4. IPv6 IP Addressing:
IPv6 IP addressing will be replacing IPv4 one day since
the present version is running out of IP addresses. The
characteristics of IPv6 IP addressing includes:
128 bits
IPv6 addresses have two logical parts: a 64-bit network
prefix, and a 64-bit host address part. Example:
2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334
Will provide 2 to the power of 128 addresses (2128) or
340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456.
Built-in support for audio and video.
5. Conclusion:
As you can tell, IPv6 needs to be implemented soon
since the world is running of IP addresses due to the
popularity of the Internet. However, before this can be
done, many changes will be needed to be done before
this can happen.
