127.0.0.1 – Represents “localhost” or the “loopback address”, allowing a device to refer to itself, regardless of what network it is connected to.255.255.255.255 – Represents the broadcast address, or place to route messages to be sent to every device within a network.0.0.0.0 – Represents the “default” network, i.e.IP addresses automatically assigned by a DHCP server are therefore referred to as “dynamic IP addresses”, as a device with a DHCP-assigned IP address may eventually receive an IP different from its original one.ĭHCP servers will not assign devices just any IP address in the maximum range of IPv4 addresses (0.0.0.0 to 255.255.255.255), as certain IP addresses are reserved for special purposes. DHCP assigns IP addresses on a temporary “lease” basis once a device’s IP address lease expires, a DHCP server will assign it a new (potentially different) one. The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), which runs on special devices (usually routers) allows for the assigning of IP addresses within a local area network (LAN).
As the number of Internet-connected devices began to grow significantly, people worried that the IPv4 protocol would not contain enough addresses to meet the growing demand for new unique addresses - this is why IPv4 will eventually be replaced by IPv6 on a large scale (IPv6 already officially launched in June 2012), which contains 2128 or roughly 3.4 x 1038 unique addresses.
When the Internet first became popular, IPv4, with its 32-bit addresses, offered 232, or roughly 4.3 x 109 unique addresses. 0.0.0.0 to 255.255.255.255), or 128-bit IPv6 addresses consisting of eight hexadecimal (base-16) numbers separated by colons representing sixteen digit binary (base-2) numbers (i.e. IP addresses can either be 32-bit IPv4 addresses consisting of four base-10 numbers separated by periods representing eight digit binary (base-2) numbers called “octets” (i.e. An IP address is an identifier for a device connected to a network using TCP/IP - a protocol that routes network traffic based on the IP address of its destination.