IP Address


Internet Protocol address, short IP address is a network address that may be assigned to one device on a network only once. This is necessary so that data packets can be properly addressed and delivered.

An IP address is the unique identifier of a computer which defines its location on the Internet. It shows which provider is being used. The 32-bit IP address (also called IPv4) consists of four sets of numbers from 0 to 255.

Example of an IP address

192.168.0.1.

An IP address consists of two parts. The front part, the network address, and the rear part, the host address. The network address is mainly important for IP routing, while the host address is important to the router, in whose network the host is located.

A transition to 128-bit (IPv6) is soon to take place, because the current address space is no longer sufficient in the foreseeable future. This extension will allow more devices to connect to the Internet. Instead of four billion numeric codes which are available with IPv4, the new standard will provide 340 sextillion addresses, virtually an infinite number.

Types

You can distinguish between two basic IP address types, the static IP address and the dynamic IP address. A static IP is one which is permanently assigned. If a computer is assigned changing IP addresses while being connected to the Internet, one speaks of a dynamic IP address. Dynamic IP addresses can be found with providers such as T-Online, Alice or 1und1. When a customer connects to the Internet he is assigned an unused IP address which gets deleted again after disconnecting.

IPv4

The IP address is available with a 32-digit bit code or four bytes. It can optionally be displayed as hexadecimal or decimal number combination. Typically, IPv4 addresses are expressed with the decimal system. The 32 bits of the IPv4 address are divided into 8 bits each and separated by periods.

IPv6

In contrast to IPv4, IPv6 uses 128-bit addresses. The address is listed in hexadecimal 16-bit groups. The last 64 bits designate the host address. A valid IPv6 address would be:

1234:5678:90BC:DEFG:0000:0000:0000:2345

IP range

The IP Range denotes an address area within the host portion of the IP address. Within this range, various other devices can be connected in a local network or the web. All IP addresses of a range directly follow one another. The size of a range is determined by the subnet mask.

The start of the IP range is limited by the actual network address. The end of the IP range is the broadcast address, which can be used for all devices connected to the same network.

Example of an IP Range

The IP address is 198.168.10.1. In a standard subnet mask, additional IP addresses up to 192.168.10.254 can be allocated within the range.

Consequently, the larger the IP range, the more devices can be used within that network.

How is an IP address located?

Based on IP address it can be determined where the respective Internet user is located. Different IP address ranges are allocated to Internet service providers, large enterprises, and government agencies. Deutsche Telekom customers could thus be assigned an IP address that starts with 79, 95 or 234. Depending on the distance of each Internet dialup node, the locating accuracy increases or decreases accordingly. In urban areas the distance to the next node is usually relatively low. In rural areas, however, the distance is usually a few miles and the determination is inaccurate.

Anonymity

The IP address plays an important role when it comes to privacy and anonymity on the Internet. If you want to surf the web anonymously, you have the option of using an anonymizer, which will guarantee your anonymous use of the Internet. Programs such as Tor or JAP can cover your tracks on the web, however, speed suffers when surfing with it. Due to the current legislation, Internet providers are obligated to delete the entire data stream after the session is ended. IP addresses allocated to customers must be deleted latest after seven days.

Relevance for SEO

The term link building defines specific measures to increase domain and link popularity of a website. Each domain is assigned an IP address. This IP address in turn, has different classes (e.g. 127.1.1.0 and 127.1.2.0). There are different C-classes. If a website has a high C-class popularity it means that it has naturally grown website backlinks from many different sites, all of which are operated by different persons or companies. And each has their own web host, which in turn operates servers with different IP addresses. On the other hand, a website having backlinks from the same IP range seem quite unnatural. This happens when a person has several websites in an account with one host and runs backlinks from all websites to one specific landing page.