Networks and IP addresses - Basics (CCNA Training)

What is an IP address?

IP address stands for Internet Protocol Address.

What is it?

Like humans are given names – Kumar, Paul, Mr. Smith and so on, devices like laptops and computers are also given names called an ‘IP address.’ It is used to identify a device like a computer or a laptop in a network. An IP address is a unique string of numbers separated by periods or colons that identifies each device connected to a network.

A simple example of a network can be 2 computers connected to the internet via a router. That makes 1 network with 3 devices. (2 computers & 1 router)

What is a network?

Networks can be physical or virtual. They are interconnected computers and devices that share resources and information/data. Examples include local area networks (LANs), wide area networks (WANs), and the internet.

Please refer to the illustrations below.

Let us go back to IP addresses.

Maybe you got an idea of what is an IP address. Now, let’s figure out how to find an IP address of your own laptop/computer.

I’ll keep it crisp. Press the windows logo key on your keyboard together along with the R key.

Post that, you will see a dialogue box like this. Type cmd in the run dialog box as shown above and press enter. Once you do that, you will find the below command prompt window open up. Type ipconfig as shown below and hit the Enter key.

After pressing the Enter key, you will find the IP address of your computer/laptop. Refer to the image below. You’ll can clearly see the highlighted portions.

In the first row, you are seeing an alphanumeric set with colons in between. In the 3rd and last row, you are able to see some numbers separated by dots. Now, the name of your computer in your network is the IPv4 and IPv6 addresses as show above. Ta daaa!

The Default gateway in simpler terms, is the name of the exit door/route from your network to the internet. (Or another network)

In the next article, we shall see about the IPv4 and IPv6 addresses in detail!

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