IP Addresses: Basic identifiers of a digitally connected world

Ever wondered how computers and devices communicate over the internet over vast distances across the world? This article will give some highlights to the interesting world of IP (Internet Protocol) addresses. We’ve gone over basics of IP addresses exploring the categories, versions and types of addresses and touching upon the importance of managed IT services, IP monitoring and how providers such us Quadrang Systems can aid in your case.

An IP address is the most basic addressing unit and an identifier at the network layer (layer-3) of the OSI/TCP-IP model. Since it is an identifier, it has to be unique within a connected or contiguous network. This means that the IP address assigned to a node/port has to either be unique within a network or an exact or non-unique IP address can be used in different non-connected networks

Tips/N.B: IP pool: A contiguous range of IP addresses is called as an IP pool
IP addresses are also called IPs in short by network engineers for faster communication in daily life on calls, emails and chats

PRIVATE:

Private IP addresses the most common addresses used across planet Earth because anyone is free to use them within their network and not too difficult to setup for a small network. Private IP addresses are also used in private, on-premise servers (physical or virtual), which can then be accessed via a DMZ zone or a VPN through a firewall. All the PCs and devices within a campus network of any entity like a company, college, school, library, hospital all use private IP addresses by default unless they need to be externally accessed. Also all the IoT and smart devices within a premise use private IPs. It is also important to note that whether the connection is wired/cabled or wireless/Wifi, they all can be using private addresses. These are usually connected to a network switch directly via CAT cables or indirectly from WIFI router and then to the switch which in turn forms a Local Area Network (LAN). Infact the term LAN and Private IP address go hand in hand. An advantage of private IP addresses is that it is a bit protected from hackers trying to target the machine from outside the organization.

Classification of Private IP addresses

Class A    10.0.0.0 – 10.255.255.255
Class B    172.16.0.0 – 172.31.255.255
Class C    192.168.0.0 – 192.168.255.255

Multicast
Class D 224.0.0.0 – 239.255.255.255

PUBLIC
Except for the above private and multicast range, all other IP addresses are mostly public

Public IP addresses are globally unique and globally routable and reachable IP addresses availed from internet providers or internet registries. There is not much choice while availing public IP pools and availing entities have to stick with the limited options from what is being provided as per the region where it is to be used. You may have guessed already that there is a yearly/monthly cost for leasing public IP pools/addresses.

It is not advisable to use Public IPv4 addresses within a production LAN due to the scarcity of IPv4 addresses. IPv6 however can be used. Hence, IPv4 private addresses are encouraged and widely used within a production and “private” LAN. Private IPs are also mostly behind a router which is responsible to route the respective sub-network or respective IP pool to the rest of the network or internet. For it to be routed to internet, the router mostly does something called as NATing/NAT-int (Network address translation) or more realistically speaking, it does PATing/PAT-ing (Port address translation) to enable inside machines/IPs to translate with the outside machines/IPs and for that to work, it is mandatory to have a Public static IP on the edge of the router or the firewall.

Public IPv4 addresses are however used in a virtualized environment, container-cluster, in a data centre with physical machines, multi-homing and multi-tenant colocation, LAN of multiple internet-facing servers of the same or different autonomous entities

Since public static IPs are “registered” by the regional internet registries, they are allocated to customers and internet service providers only after validating the entity/customer and their location and usage. This ensures that the registered IP is being used at a certain given geographical location.

Based on above explanation, there can be different types – Public Static, Public Dynamic, Private Static, Private Dynamic addresses.

Public Static: It is publicly routable and reachable, static/fixed IP address. This type has the most significance in most scenarios. Best use case is for Web servers, firewall edge ports, Router WAN port, Websites, VPN tunnels, etc. IPv4 type of public static IP addresses are the most scarce

Public Dynamic: It is publicly routable and reachable, but not fixated to one device or customer. The ISP assigns this dynamically. Best use case is for PPPoE type of internet links whereby this IP remains fixed for certain time or until a trigger such as customer’s modem/router reboot or changes in the ISP’s core network.

Private Static: It is a private IP type and static/fixed for a particular device. This is usually manually assigned by a user or a network admin, after which the same IP cannot be reused by other device within the private network. Best use case is for devices like printers, router gateway port, servers, CCTV-NVRs, IoT devices like Coffee machines or any other smart device.

Private Dynamic: It is a private IP type, but assigned dynamically by your router or a server. Assignment is automatic through the protocol DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) and is used for all the devices in a LAN. Best use case is everyday use in a customer’s office network or where huge number of devices or machines are connected by a network switch. It is easy to setup and use

Significance of Managed IT Services: When such LAN and WAN networks are laid out and functioning properly, everything works flawlessly, but systems, networks and devices are known to bound to fail and more often, fail unexpectedly no matter of which brand or make they are from. It is therefore essential to have an in house IT team to manage these systems and perform network monitoring and incident management. If there’s no in house IT team or no IT expertise, enterprises can leverage our services of network device monitoring and managed IT services which includes full monitoring of all parameters of all your IT assets. We at Quadrang Systems as a managed service provider have plethora of network monitoring softwares and a team of network engineers who can help in managing your IT network, LAN and WAN side and remotely monitor your critical resources behind these IP addresses.

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