IP - Internet Protocol

Definition: IP (Internet Protocol) is the primary network protocol used on the Internet, developed in the 1970s. On the Internet and many other networks, IP is often used together with the Transport Control Protocol (TCP) and referred to interchangeably asTCP/IP.

IP supports unique addressing for computers on a network. Most networks use the Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) standard that features IP addresses four bytes (32 bits) in length. The newer Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) standard features addresses 16 bytes (128 bits) in length.

Data on an Internet Protocol network is organized into packets. Each IP packet includes both a header (that specifies source, destination, and other information about the data) and the message data itself.

IP functions at layer 3 of the OSI model. It can therefore run on top of different data link interfaces including Ethernet and Wi-Fi.

Also Known As: Internet Protocol

To check the IP address in system :

Just go to Start and type cmd.exe inRun... box to open command prompt, then just type ipconfig /all to show configured IP address, netmask, gateway and DNS servers information.