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Software Engineering vocabulary · APIs, Networking and Security

IP address

Meaning in software engineering, with examples

/ˌaɪ piː əˈdres/nounCore term

In software engineering, IP address means: A unique numerical label given to every device on an IP network so that data can be sent to it, for example 192.168.1.20 in IPv4.

In Turkish: IP adresi

How it is used

One of the first things checked in any troubleshooting. Devices get, release and renew IP addresses, and engineers assign them; they also distinguish public and private, static and dynamic addresses. People often just say 'IP': 'What's the IP of the printer?'

Example sentences

  1. The laptop has an IP address from the wrong subnet, so it can't reach the file server.

  2. Can you send me the IP address of the camera? I'll add it to the firewall rule.

Common collocations

  • assign an IP address
  • public IP address
  • IP address conflict
  • get an IP address
  • renew an IP address
  • IPv4Version 4 of the Internet Protocol, which uses 32-bit addresses written as four numbers from 0 to 255 separated by dots, such as 192.168.10.5; it allows about 4.3 billion addresses.
  • IPv6Version 6 of the Internet Protocol, which uses 128-bit addresses written as groups of hexadecimal digits separated by colons, such as 2001:db8::1, giving an almost unlimited number of addresses.
  • subnetA smaller range of IP addresses inside a larger network such as a VPC, used to group resources and control which of them can reach the internet.
  • DHCPShort for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol: a protocol that automatically gives devices an IP address, subnet mask, default gateway and DNS servers when they join a network.
  • static IP addressAn IP address that is set by hand or permanently reserved for one device, so that it does not change, unlike a dynamic address handed out by DHCP.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: APIs, Networking and Security

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