IP Address

IP address, in fullInternet Protocol address, number that uniquely identifies each computer on the Internet. A computer’s IP address may be permanently assigned or supplied each time that it connects to the Internet by an Internet service provider. In order to accommodate the extraordinary growth in the number of devices connected to the Internet, a 32-bit protocol standard, known as IPv4 and which could handle 2³² (over 4 billion) addresses, began to be replaced by a 128-bit protocol, IPv6, which could handle 2¹²⁸ (over 3.4 × 10³⁸) addresses, in 1999. See also TCP/IP; domain name; URL.