Configuración
Entrega rápida
Tipos de pago
Producto del mercado
What is an IP Address?
2026-06-17 | By Maker.io Staff
Most makers eventually come across Internet Protocol (IP) addresses when working on connected projects. Even outside hobby setups, every device on a network must have one. However, they’re usually hidden from plain sight thanks to modern networking hardware automating most of the setup and onboarding. Read on to learn about the different types of IP addresses, their features and shortcomings, and what’s happening under the hood when a device obtains one before connecting to the Internet.
The Basics of IP Addresses
In very simple terms, an IP address can be thought of as similar to a postal address that uniquely identifies a device on a network. Devices, such as computers, can use these identifiers to exchange data on a network. Each website that can be reached on the Internet has one or more public IP addresses that another computer can use to establish a connection. For example, one of Google’s public IPv4 addresses is 142.250.72.14, and it can be typed into a web browser to load the website.
Currently, two active standards are widely in use. Those are IPv4 and IPv6. IPv4 addresses are more commonly known, and they consist of four eight-bit blocks, written as numbers separated by periods. The smallest possible address is 0.0.0.0 (which stands for any address) and the largest possible one is 255.255.255.255 (which is the broadcast address). IPv4 addresses have the huge benefit that they’re easier to type and remember. However, they only allow for 4.3 billion unique addresses.
This image compares IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.
Besides other reasons, IPv6 was introduced to overcome this limited address range. This newer standard uses 128-bit addresses, written as eight blocks of four hexadecimal characters. Each block is separated by colons. For example:
2001:0db8:0000:0000:0000:ff00:0042:8329
Since they can become quite long, IPv6 addresses can be shortened in two ways. Firstly, leading zeros within a block can be omitted. Secondly, a continuous run of all-zero blocks can be replaced by a double colon. So the address from the example before can also be written as:
2001:db8::ff00:42:8329
Static Versus Dynamic IP Addresses
Dynamic IP addresses significantly reduce the work needed to connect a device to a network. Usually, a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server is responsible for assigning a unique IP address to each device that connects to the network. In private networks, this server is typically contained in the router. While DHCP works for both IPv4 and IPv6, Stateless Address Autoconfiguration (SLAAC) is a technique in IPv6 where the router only communicates an address prefix to the device, which is then responsible for calculating a unique IPv6 address.
Dynamic IP addresses greatly simplify device onboarding. Yet, it’s not guaranteed that a device on a network will always end up having the same IP address. This is not an issue in most cases. However, local servers, such as a media server or Network-Attached Storage (NAS), typically rely on a so-called static IP address to ensure that other devices always know how to reach them.
IPv6: More Than Just a Bigger Address Space
The new standard introduces a few useful features that simplify address configuration and routing. One such feature is SLAAC, which simplifies dynamic IP configuration. SLAAC removes the need for a central server that assigns and tracks addresses in a network. Instead, the router only needs to advertise the network prefix, and each device configures its own IPv6 address.
Furthermore, IPv6 addresses are constructed more hierarchically than IPv4 addresses, making it easier for routers to aggregate routes. Therefore, they can employ simpler routing tables and find more efficient routes in large networks.
Lastly, security features, such as encryption and authentication, are built into the IPv6 core standard instead of being add-ons.
Network Address Translation
The beginning of this article simplified how IP addresses work on the Internet. In reality, most devices are not directly reachable via the Internet. Instead, each computer in a local network has a private IP address, which is only valid and unique within that local network. Devices connected to the same network can typically exchange data locally. However, some devices have an additional public IP address, which can be reached from the Internet. A router, which is a device that connects two different networks and routes packages between devices, translates addresses between those two spaces using a process called Network Address Translation (NAT).
This image illustrates how two private networks can have the same address range. Within each network, each device has a unique IP. However, addresses can appear in multiple networks. The router between the boundary of each network is responsible for forwarding packets that arrive at the public IP to the intended recipient within the private network.
So, more accurately, the public IP address can be thought of as a building address. Multiple tenants, who all live within the same building, share the same public address. However, internally, each apartment has a unique local (private) address. The post box can be thought of as the router, as it sorts packets that arrive at the public address so that they end up at the intended recipient.
The split into two separate spaces allows multiple computers in a private network to share the same public IP. Conversely, multiple computers within a private network might be reachable via the same public IP.
Subnetting
Similar to how the post office divides cities and regions into districts using ZIP codes, computer networks can also be divided into smaller segments. Doing so allows more efficient organization of networks. For that purpose, both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses have a network and a host part. Although the length of each address type is fixed (32-bit and 128-bit), the split between network and host part can be adjusted via subnetting and subnet masks in IPv4 and the prefix length in IPv6.
Conclusion
IP addresses are unique identifiers that allow devices to communicate across networks, similar to postal addresses. Two main standards exist today, IPv4 and IPv6, with IPv6 addressing the limitations of IPv4 by providing a vastly larger address space and improved features for configuration and routing.
In practice, most devices receive their addresses dynamically via protocols such as DHCP or SLAAC, while static addresses are reserved for systems that need to remain consistently reachable. NAT separates private and public networks, allowing many devices to share a single public IP address while remaining individually addressable within their local network.
