Internet Protocol

INTERNET PROTOCOL (IP)

Internet a complex web of millions of computers has risen to such a status that it has tangled every aspect of our life in its web. When two computers trying to communicate with each other it is actually two persons trying to communicate with each other in a well defined medium. Internet has given a completely new meaning to a box shaped device called computers. Previously standalone computers serves no purpose other than storing the data and data itself gets limited to be used by that particular user. With the advent of internet computer gets a new dimension to be used as a communicating device along with storing and processing device. If Ann and John want to communicate with each other they have to bring their computers on the network. For this to happen their computers must possess NIC(Network interface card) which is inserted into hardware slot on the motherboard . It has got its own address called MAC ID ( Media access control ) address or Physical address. Other is the logical address which is called IP (Internet Protocol) given to individual users by ISP (Internet service Provider). IP is the language used by the devices on the internet to communicate with each other. When Ann wants to communicate with John data will be sent from Ann computer in the form of packets containing source address and destination address . The source address is the IP address of Ann’s computer and destination address is the IP address of John’s computer. IP address is the 32-bit address represented in dotted decimal notation.
IP Address of Ann’s computer or Source address : 216.27.61.137 ( in decimal )
But the computer communicate in binary form .
IP Address of Ann’s computer or Source address : 11011000.00011011.00111101.10001001 (in binary )
Similarly
IP Address of John’s computer or destination address : 133.27.162.125 (in decimal)
IP Address of John’s computer or destination address : 10000101.00011011.10100010.01111101 ( in binary)
The four nos. in an IP address are called octets and each octet represent 8 bits .Therefore IP is a 32 bit address.