What does IP address mean?

IP address refers to Internet Protocol Address (English: Internet Protocol Address, also translated as Inter-network Protocol Address), which is an abbreviation for IP Address.

IP address is a uniform address format provided by the IP protocol, which assigns a logical address to every network and every host on the Internet as a way of masking differences in physical addresses. There is also some ip proxy software available, but most charge for it.

IP addresses are used to give computers on the Internet a number. What you see every day is that every PC connected to the Internet needs to have an IP address on it in order to communicate properly. We can compare a PC to a telephone, and an IP address is the equivalent of a phone number. "The router in the Internet is the equivalent of a programmable switch in a telecom office.

Expanded Information

The main functions of an IP address:

One, addressing and routing

1, the IP address to identify the hosts of the Internet: in each IP datagram, it will carry the source IP address and the destination IP address to identify the IP datagram's source and destination hosts. The IP protocol can forward IP datagrams based on the routing information provided by the routing protocol until they reach the destination host.

2. IP address and MAC address matching. the ARP protocol. The data link layer uses MAC addresses to send data frames, so in the actual sending of IP messages, it is also necessary to match IP addresses and MAC addresses, which is done by ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) in the TCP/IP protocol cluster.

II. Segmentation and Reassembly

IP datagrams are sent over different types of communication networks, and the size of IP datagrams is limited by the maximum transmission unit (MTU) specified by these networks.

Baidu Encyclopedia - IP Addresses