✳️ NETWORKING BASICS: part-1 ✳️
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🔴 IP Addresses
💠 Internet Protocol address is the abbreviation of IP address.
💠 Each digital device (computer, laptop, phone, tablet, etc.) is assigned an IP address, and this is what enables us to communicate and connect with devices. Imagine an IP address as similar to your house address. Without that address, no one could find you or send you snail mail.
💠 The IP address system we are presently using is known as IP version 4, or IPv4. It is made up of 32 bits of four octets, or four groups of 8 bits (on/off switches).
💠For instance,
192.168.1.101. Each of the numbers between the periods (.) is the decimal equivalent of 8 bits. This means that we calculate the base 2 number that computers use represented by the 8 bits and convert them to decimal numbers that humans are more accustomed to working with. Each one of the octets (8 bits) is capable of representing numbers within the range 0 through 255 (2 to the 8th power).
✳️ Classes of IP Addresses:
💠 IP addresses are generally put into three classes, and the ranges are:
🔹Class A:
0.0.0.0 -
127.255.255.255
🔹 Class B:
128.0.0.0 -
191.255.255.255
🔹 Class C:
192.0.0.0 -
223.255.255.255
💠 Later, we will address subnetting and subnet masks that vary with these different IP classes.
✳️ Public vs. Private IP Addresses
💠 It's important to note that our IP address system has its limitations. The biggest limitation is that there are not enough IP addresses to cover all of the devices that need to connect to the internet. The IPv4 system that we are working with now has only 4.3 billion IP addresses. With 7.3 billion people on the planet and far more devices, that certainly is not enough.
💠 As a result, a system was developed to reuse a group of IP addresses to be used within a LAN—and are not usable over the internet. These addresses can be used over and over again within each local area network, but not over the internet, thereby conserving the number of IP addresses necessary to keep the world going 'round.
✅ These private addresses include:
🔹192.168.0.0 -
192.168.255.255
🔹10.0.0.0 -
10.255.255.255
🔹172.16-.0.0 -
172.16.255.255
✅ You have probably seen the private IP addresses beginning with
192.168.xxx.xxx or
10.xxx.xxx.xxx on your Kali system when you type ifconfig.
💠 This is your private IP that is only usable on the local area network. To communicate over the internet, it must be translated to a public IP by a NAT device (will see NAT in the next post.. stay tuned).
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