What is an IP address?

An IP (Internet Protocol) address is a globally unique address assigned to a device connected to the Internet. Every device on the Internet has an individual IP address, under which it can be reached worldwide via the Internet.

There are 2 types of IP addresses, the IPv4 addresses and the IPv6 addresses. IPv6 addresses were introduced because the originally introduced IPv4 addresses were no longer sufficient to provide all worldwide devices on the Internet with a unique IP address. There are technical differences between the different IP types, but the principle is the same: 1 device - 1 IP address.

Neither IPv4 nor IPv6 IP addresses are easy to remember or reproduce. Therefore, the Domain Name System has been introduced, by means of which an easy-to-remember name (domain name) can be assigned to each IP address.

Examples of IP addresses:

IPv4 address: 192.0.2.1
IPv6 address: 2001:db8:0:1234:0:567:8:1

See also:
Wikipedia: IP Adress