TCP/IP addressing

TCP/IP is a communications protocol used by computers connected to the Internet to communicate.

TCP/IP refers to Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol.

TCP/IP defines a standard for how electronic devices, such as computers, are connected to the Internet and how data is transferred between them.

TCP/IP addressing syntax

TCP/IP uses 32 bits, or 4 groups of numbers between 0 and 255, to address computers.

Each computer must have an IP address to connect to the Internet.

Each IP packet must have an address before it can be sent to another computer.

TCP/IP addressing example

IP address contains 4 sets of numbers:
TCP/IP uses 4 sets of numbers to address computers. Each computer must have a unique 4-digit address.
Each set of numbers must be between 0 and 255, separated by periods, for example: 192.168.1.60.
32 bits = 4 bytes
TCP/IP uses 32 bits for addressing. A computer byte is 8 bits. So TCP/IP uses 4 bytes.
One computer byte can contain 256 different values:
00000000, 00000001, 00000010, 00000011, 00000100, 00000101, 00000110, 00000111, 00001000... until 11111111.
Now, you should know why TCP/IP addresses are 4 sets of numbers between 0 and 255.