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| For any computer, printer, or hardware device (also known as hosts) to work on a network using TCP/IP each device requires its own unique IP address. IP addresses are like your street address - there are no duplicate addresses, and it's how you can be located. IP addresses are purchased typically through your Internet Service Provider. Based on your needs, you can buy large blocks of IP addresses or you can buy a few IP addresses and route Internet requests through a designated server; we'll examine both. |
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| Live IP Addresses come in three classes: A (16,777,214 hosts), B (65,534 hosts), and C (254 hosts). Typically you can only purchase Class C licenses now - and maybe part of a class B license. IP addresses are 32-bit addresses; it takes 32-bits to create one IP address. Humans read the bits in a dotted decimal format which means we see 10000011 1101101 1110011 1110011 as 131.109.115.115. It's easier on the eyes and the brain. |
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| As you can guess, you may have more users on your network than there are IP Addresses available. There is a cure, however - a proxy server. A proxy server is server that accepts Internet requests for hosts on a network and then forwards the requests to the Internet. All hosts communicate through the Proxy Server. |
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| When you receive an IP address from an ISP you are actually receiving a network ID. A network ID represents your network that the hosts live in. For example, a class B network is 131.109.0.0. The last two octets are zeros are these will represent the hosts on this network; the 131.109 is the network id - where the hosts will live on the network. |
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