What is IP address in computer science?
IP address, Short for Internet Protocol address, an IP address is an address of a computer or other network device on a network using TCP/IP. For example, the number "69.72.169.241" is an example of such an address. These addresses are similar to an addresses used on a house and is what allows data to reach the appropriate destination on a network and the Internet.
There are five classes of available IP ranges:
Class A, Class B, Class C, Class D and Class E, while only A, B, and C are commonly used. Each class allows for a range of valid IP addresses. Below is a listing of these addresses.
Class Address Range Supports
Class A 1.0.0.1 to 126.255.255.254 Supports 16 million hosts on each of 127 networks.
Class B 128.1.0.1 to 191.255.255.254 Supports 65,000 hosts on each of 16,000 networks.
Class C 192.0.1.1 to 223.255.254.254 Supports 254 hosts on each of 2 million networks.
Class D 224.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255 Reserved for multicast groups.
Class E 240.0.0.0 to 254.255.255.254 Reserved for future use, or Research and Development Purposes.
Ranges 127.x.x.x are reserved for the loopback or localhost, for example, 127.0.0.1 is the common loopback address. Range 255.255.255.255 broadcasts to all hosts on the local network.