What’s an IP Address, Difference Between Static & Dynamic IP Address?

If you are a regular internet user, I’m sure you have visited pages that show warnings that they are tracking your IP address and therefore you need to be a little more careful with what you do etc.

No, it’s not that the FBI or CIA track you (well, I won’t always add), just some secured websites like banks and corporate companies that keep track of users’ device IP addresses.

For example, the current IP address of the device on which you are browsing this article is:

(polite: What is my ip address)

Let’s have a brief look at what an IP address is and what its 2 main types are.

What is an IP address?

An Internet Protocol address (IP address) in layman’s terms is basically the address given to your computer when it is connected to a network. Technically, an IP address is a 32-bit number that represents the addresses of both the sender and receiver of packets on the network.

Let’s take an example: let’s say you want to email your friend. While your email can be broken down into millions of data packets before it is transmitted, for now, for the sake of simplicity, think of it as a single packet of information. The embedded IP addresses on each packet are transmitted over the network and used for machine identification.

If you want to visualize these things in your daily life, you can view emails as domestic letters (Yes, those handwritten letters we used to use in the old days), data packets as envelopes, IP addresses as recipients and senders on envelopes, and network as postmen.

You’re probably thinking that I didn’t use the word Internet but the word network when talking about IP addresses. That’s because, it’s not only when you connect over the internet that you’re assigned an IP address for your system. Even if you are connected to a local network via LAN or Wi-Fi, your computer is still assigned an IP address. IP addresses are broken down into different classes for the same purpose.

Note: It is entirely possible that your computer has two IP addresses at the same time. One could be for the Internet and another for the local network.

These IP addresses are divided into two main categories: Static and Dynamic IP Addresses. Let’s have a good look at both for better understanding.

Static IP address

As the name suggests, static IP addresses are types of IP addresses that never change once they are assigned to a device on the network. Undoubtedly, this type of address is cost effective but can present a high security risk. Static IP addresses are mainly used by web, email and game servers who don’t care much about hiding their location.

Dynamic IP address

On the other hand, the dynamic IP address changes every time the device logs on to the network. This type of IP address is difficult to track and is therefore used by companies and businesses.

You must be thinking who or what will allocate this Dynamic IP address every time the device logs in. Well, these IP addresses are allocated using DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol). Talking about DHCP in detail is beyond the scope of this article and we will cover it in a future post.

Which is better, Static or Dynamic?

Perhaps you are wondering which type of IP address is better, Static or Dynamic? Static IP addresses, as I mentioned above, are used in places where security is not a major concern such as web servers, FTP and dedicated VOIP services. Dynamic IP addresses, on the other hand, are used when you browse the Internet, receive mail, download files, etc.

That is a basic overview of IP addresses and the difference between static and dynamic IP addresses. Of course, these concepts are much more than what we talked about above but for a beginner’s guide, this article will be suitable.

Still in doubt? You can always delete them via the comments section.

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Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/