IPv4 Address (Internet Protocol Address) | Range of IPv4 Address

IPv4 Address (Internet Protocol version 4)

IPv4 Address is a 32-bit address. It is divided into various classes namely Class A,?Class B,?Class C,?Class D and?Class E. TCP/IP defines Class D for multicasting and Class E for experimental purpose. At the end of this post, I will explain about the ranges of IPv4 Address. IP Addresses contain two addresses: Network Address and Host Address as shown in the figure below.

For example, IP Address is 11000000.10101000.00101010.00000001 in binary format but generally we denote in dotted decimal format i.e. 192.168.42.1, the first octet is 192, the second octet is 168 and so on. The range of decimal number in each octet varies from 0 to 255.

Important Note:

• IP Address?start from 127.x.x.x is basically reserved for the?loopback address. for example, 127.0.0.1 is a loopback address. It is basically used to check whether your NIC?(Network Interface Card)?is functioning properly or not. For checking, whether your NIC Card is functioning or not, go to command prompt and ping the IP address?127.0.0.1. If you are getting reply means your NIC Card is functioning properly.

• IP Address starts from 255.x.x.x?is a?broadcast address. For Example, 255.255.255.255 is a broadcast address.
• Ipconfig?command is used to check the IP address of a system.
• Ipconfig/all?command is used to check the IP Address of a system and the server.
• Ping?command is used to check the network connectivity.