IP address

An IP address is the logical address of a network adapter. The IP address uniquely identifies computers on a network. An IP address can be private, for use on a LAN, or public, for use on the Internet or other WAN. IP addresses can be determined statically (assigned to a computer by a system administrator) or dynamically (assigned by another device on the network on demand).
IP addresses consist of four bytes (32 bits). Each byte of an IP address is known as an octet. Octets can take any value between 0 and 255, but various rules exist for ensuring IP addresses are valid.
Also Known As: network address