IP protocol: what is it, what is it for and how does it work in web browsing?

The IP address is used daily by us , simply by connecting to the Internet. Its functions are numerous, knowing what it is is very important because it will allow us to configure it, according to our needs or to connect more devices to it.

There are different types of IP addresses , although they all seem to behave the same, they don't. Today we are going to explain what these types of protocols are and what they are used for.

In the last section of this wonderful article , we will show you the steps to follow to find out which version of the IP protocol you are using. You will find the steps to know the information from your Android or from your Windows.

What is Internet Protocol and what is it for when you browse the web?

The key to running a network resides in Internet protocols. These are necessary so that what we call the data exchange between two or more servers / computers can exist . Protocols establish the rules and conditions under which information transfers must be carried out.

In the Internet world, there are several protocols, but the most common, important and considered to be pillars are: the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP).

A little bit of history

One of the first civilian organizations, which was highly recognized and funded even by the Pentagon, made up mostly of hackers and researcher Bob Taylor, was the ARPA (Advance Research Projects Agency), whose biggest project in the 60s, which served as a basis for the promotion of Internet protocols, was the interconnection of computers from different universities , managing to do so through a central server. From this ARPAnet was born.

Then in the 70s, the DARPA (US Defense Projects Research Agency) was born, where studies on data transmission were carried out, the objective of which was to use satellites with radio waves to propagate information.

In 75, the first official tests were carried out, and at the beginning of 1982, TCP / IP has become the standard for the transmission of information through US military networks to be more efficient. En 1983, the protocols were activated and officially recognized across the country.

So we have to understand why many people say that the father of protocols communication and Internet was the US military.

How does the IP protocol work in global web browsing?

IP codes identify our computer and our connection , these are transmitted from a router or device via a range that it has already assigned, in other words IP is our identity , where one sending point and one of the receiving others usually call it EMIREC, where the receiving point changes to be the sender and the sender to the receiver.

The main function of IP protocols is to avoid confusion between computers , there are therefore two types of IP, which are: dynamic and static . Static is what is assigned to the main device (the one that allows the transfer) while dynamic is assigned to each device, so if we have two or more devices on the same network, each of them in will have a dynamic IP different to avoid confusion between them.

Some vendors configure the static IP address , although there are many devices on which we will have to determine it ourselves. Indeed, if we do not have static IP address, we will not be able to access the information sharing.

The same thing usually happens on the internet, when we go online, an IP address is generated which identifies us, in this way, many pages keep track of the different people or computers that have visited it. For this to exist, the colon must share their IP addresses.

IP Versions What are IPv4 and IPv6 and how are they different?

The more the cyber population increases, the greater the demand for data transfer , at the beginning many networks used the standard protocol known as IP version 4 (IPv4) which offers four-byte (32-bit) long IP addresses , but thanks to New studies have promoted IP version 6 (IPv6) protocol, whose length is 16 bytes (128 bits).

Whose basis or argument for such a push is that version 4 of the IP is no longer sufficient, because devices connected to the Internet have grown a lot and they need a channel offering better data transfer.

There is no version 5 of the protocol?

The truth is that at the moment this version is not officially available, however after version 4 the development of the IPv5 protocol has been implemented, although its real name is Internet Stream Protocol (ST), but due to transmission errors it was abandoned before becoming the norm.

What are Internet Protocol IP addresses and what are they used for?

La main function of IP protocols is message exchange . These messages can carry any information from us, as requested by the receiver, these are often called packets and professionally as datagrams .

They may have different names, but in layman's terms they refer to the same thing, because every IP datagram includes both a header, where it specifies the origin, destination and other information , as well as the data of the message itself.

This type of protocol is used by many other higher level protocols, such as TCP and UDP, as well as by all Internet software applications, web browsers, FTP clients, and email programs which use this protocol (IP) as a basis.

The IPX / SPX protocols used by Novell NetWare were the one of the biggest competitors of the time for IP , they were designed to provide services very similar to IP. But still, due to the fall of NetWare as an operating system, the IPX / SPX protocol was forgotten.

What are the types of IP addresses in a computer network?

IP addresses are grouped into two types, one public and one private , below we will show you what are the characteristics of one and the other:

Public IP address

When we talk about public IP address, we are referring to all these addresses that are visible all over the Internet and which can be used to we identifier en as users of this large network. These are assigned to servers that are active 24 hours a day and we can hire as many as we need.

They are usually provided by the router or modem, so it is used to create a private network. To put it a little bit, this are the number that identifies each interface of devices in a network specific and an Internet connection point.

The public IP address can be divided into two subtypes, such as fixed or dynamic IP addresses. Fixed IP addresses are those sent by the device (modem) and which never change, they can be domestic or professional.

Which is characterized by the offer:

• Faster data upload and download speed.
• A more reliable connection
• Higher cost, but worth it, for what it offers.
• Great control over IP addresses because no one else can use them.

On the other hand, dynamic IP addresses remain constantly evolving, so it tries to maintain the stability of the devices. Whose characteristics are:

• More security than fixed ones.
• Connection a little variant, in terms of speed.
• They make it difficult to track the Internet.

Private IP address

On the other hand, private IP addresses are the number that identifies each device within the network, in general, the most devices share the same public IP .

Private IP addresses can be divided into three subtypes:

• Class A: which are used for large networks, 10.0.0.0 to 10.255.255.255.
• Class B: whose use is mainly intended for SMEs or study centers, 172.16.0.0 to 172.31.255.255.
• Class C: Used for small places, like a home or small business, 192.168.0.0 to 192.168.255.255.

Steps to Find My IP Address on All My Devices Quickly and Easily

Knowing that the IP is the identifier of our computer or our network, it never hurts to know what it is. Therefore , here , we will show you several methods to find out the IP address of your network and that of the device. Follow the list we provide:

From a website

This is the easiest method because just by visiting a web page that gives us the option of knowing what our IP address is, we can do it, and the best thing is that the method is quite fast.

Take a step-by-step look:

• Step 1: First of all, we enter vermiip.es or also quemiip.com
• Step 2: In both cases, as soon as the page loads, it will give us all the information about our IP adress and whether or not we use Proxy.

With Windows

This method is simple, but it only works for Windows users:

• Step 1: We go to the network icon or to the option "Settings".
• Step 2: Then we look for the option "Network and Internet"
• Step 3: We go in "Network properties" , or let's just look for the option "Status".
• Step 4: We will see an image that we click on "Details". There is a list of all information of the selected network.

On Android.

Finally, we leave this method to you, which shows you how to know what is the IP via an Android. To do this, we follow the following steps:

• Step 1: Go to "Parameters or Configuration"
• Step 2: There we are looking for the option "About device or About phone"
• Step 3 : We are going in "Status" and we will see the phone IP address , in addition we can also see the IMEI number and WiFi MAC address.

If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments, we will get back to you as soon as possible, and it will be a great help for more community members as well. Thank you!