Ever thought what connects the various computer devices in a communication? Or how is information exchanged between computers?

If every house has an address, do devices also have a unique address? The answer is yes. IP addresses is the answer to the above questions. IP in IP addresses stand for Internet Protocol, where protocol is defined as "the set of rules for exchanging information between computers." Socket communication takes place via a protocol. A socket allows a single computer to serve many different clients at once, as well as to serve many different types of information. This is accomplished through the use of a port, which is a numbered socket on a particular machine. There are three types of protocols for socket communication1. Internet Protocol (IP) - It is a low level routing protocol that breaks data into small packets and sends them to an address across a network. 2. Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) - It manages to robustly string together the packets, sorting and retransmitting them as necessary to reliably transmit data. 3. User Datagram Protocol (UDP) - Sits next to TCP and can be used directly to support, fast, connectionless transport of packets.

What are IP Addresses? An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label assigned to each device (e.g. computer, printer) participating in a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. An IP address serves two principal functions: host or network interface identification and location addressing. Its role has been characterized as follows: A name indicates what we seek. An address indicates where it is. A route indicates how to get there.

Versions of Internet Protocol Two versions of the Internet Protocol (IP) are in use: IP Version4 and IP Version6. IPv6 (Internet Protocol, version 6) is a new addressing scheme which has come into play. Although, there are several reasons for and advantages to IPv6, the main is that it supports a much larger address space than does IPv4 (Internet Protocol, version 4).

IPv4 Addresses In IPv4 an address consists of 32-bits, organised as four 8-bit values, which limits the address space to 2^32 possible unique addresses. IPv4 addresses are canonically represented in dot-decimal notation, which consists of four decimal numbers, each ranging from 0 to 255, separated by dots, e.g., 172.16.254.1. Each part represents a group of 8 bits (octet) of the address. In some cases, IPv4 addresses may be presented in various hexadecimal, octal, or binary representations.

IPv6 Addresses In IPv6 an address consists of 128-bits, organised into eight 16-bit chunks, which limits the address space to 2^128 possible unique addresses. IPv6 addresses are represented by 8 colon separated segments where each 16-bit segment is written in hexadecimal, eg., 3ffe:3700:1100:0001:d9e6:0b9d:14c6:45ee.

IP Address classes IP addresses are divided into five IP classes: IP address class A

IP address class B IP address class C IP address class D IP address class E

As we know, IPv4 addresses contain four octets. All IP addresses are placed in a particular class based on the decimal values of their first octets. In the first octet, an IP address can start with a decimal value between 1 and 255.

IP class A addresses have first octets with a decimal number from 1 to 127. Example: 27.x.y.z 102.x.y.z

IP class B addresses have first octets with a decimal number from 128 to 191. Example: 128.x.y.z 151.x.y.z

IP class C addresses have first octets with a decimal number from 192 to 223. Example: 192.x.y.z 223.x.y.z

IP class D addresses have decimal values from 224 to 239 in the first octet, and the 4 leftmost bits are 1110. These are used for multicasting ie., same IP addresses on two different machines.

Example: 224.x.y.z 239.x.y.z

The last IP address class of addresses is IP class E. IP class E addresses range from 240 to 255 in the first octet, and the 4 leftmost bits are 1111. They are used in scientific research. Example: 240.x.y.z 255.x.y.z

Class a , b , c addresses are available free of cost whereas we have to buy class d, e addresses.

Domain names and their IP addresses A domain name is an identification string that defines a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control in the Internet. Domain names are formed by the rules and procedures of the Domain Name System (DNS). Domain names are used in various networking contexts and application-specific naming and addressing purposes. In general, a domain name represents an Internet Protocol (IP) resource, such as a personal computer used to access the Internet, a server computer hosting a web site, or the web site itself or any other service communicated via the Internet. eg., www.google.com.

www.google.com is the domain name where google.com is the parent domain and it has several child domains. eg., in maps.google.com , images.google.com, videos.google.com, etc, maps , images, and videos are the child domains and google.com is the parent domain. maps.google.com is called fully qualified domain name.

As all devices like computers , printers , etc. have IP addresses, all domain names also have IP addresses. Each domain name correspond to a unique IP address. In fact, all child domains have separate domain names from their parent domains.

How to resolve host names into IP addresses and vice-versa

The process of resolving host names into IP addresses and vice-versa is carried out by Domain Name Server (DNS). A Domain Name Server (DNS) resolves host names into IP addresses (forward lookup) and IP addresses into hostnames (reverse lookup). It also allows machines to be logically grouped by name domains and provides email routine information.

There are two processes by which a host name can be resolved First method : * * * User enters the hostname in the web browser , eg., www.google.com. It is sent to the DNS If DNS identifies the IP address, it is sent back and the website is opened, if it does not, then it asks the user to send the hostname to root domain Root domain has IP addresses of com, org, etc It sends the IP address of com to user and asks him to go to .com domain The user goes to .com domain and gets the IP address of .com It further asks the user to go to google.com

* * * *

* *

The user goes to google.com domain and gets the IP address of google.com The website www.google.com is opened

Second method : * * * User enters the hostname in the web browser , eg., www.google.com. It is sent to the DNS If DNS identifies the IP address, it is sent back and the website is opened, if it does not, then it sends the hostname to root domain Root domain has IP addresses of com, org, etc It sends the IP address of com to .com domain It goes to .com domain and gets the IP address of .com It further sends the IP address to google.com It goes to google.com domain and gets the IP address of google.com The IP address of the website is sent back to the user in a reverse process The website www.google.com is opened

* * * * * * *

How to find IP addresses for a hostname on a computer The IP addresses of various websites can be found on a computer system using the ping command. Steps: Start --> Run --> cmd Command Prompt will open. In command prompt, write the command : ping 'hostname'. eg., ping www.google.com Command prompt will start receiving packets from google.com. End it using 'ctrl+c'.

Similarly, for finding hostname for an IP address, ping the IP address in command prompt.

How to open websites using IP addresses Once the IP address for a hostname has been found, the website can be opened using the IP address. In the address bar of the web browser, write the IP address of the website you want to open and the browser opens that website using the corresponding IP address.

By- IPSA ARORA