IP addresses are unique identification numbers that are required by ISPs and websites to provide you service for your request. Government authorities usually monitor IP address to find suspicious illegal activities. There are two types of versions for IP addresses that is IPv4 and IPv6, IPv4 is a 32-bit numeric address written in decimal as four numbers separated by periods where each number can be zero to 255 whereas Pv6 addresses are 128-bit IP address written in hexadecimal and separated by colons. An IPv4 address looks like: 1.160.10.240 and an IPv6 address looks like: 3ffe:1900:4545:3:200:f8ff:fe21:67cf. It is pretty evident that the number of unique IPv4 identifiers were not enough to serve the internet users globally, therefore, IPv6 was brought to life but as of now, only a few users can avail IPv6 addresses.
What are Dynamic IP addresses and how they are allotted?
Dynamic IP addresses are randomly generated IP addresses for users, these IP addresses are by default allotted by network providers to its subscribers. For businesses, network providers offer a range of IPs for example, 192.168.0.55 to 192.168.0. 155 within this range that business can allow IP addresses to its employees. The business can use static IP address allotment as well as dynamic IP address allotment within the bounded range. For dynamic IP address allotment to systems connected in the network DHCP (Dynamic host control protocol) is used where the user has to put in a range and submit it, this protocol runs every time when a user connected to the network switch on their system. The network and sharing settings section house the options for allotting static and dynamic IP addresses.
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Why Dynamic IP addresses are used?
All the users on the network will not be always active so restricting an IP address for a user is not beneficial for network providers. If they use dynamic IP addresses then every user who connects to the network will avail a random IP from their available pool, this does not affect a normal user but for network providers, dynamic IP addresses are boon which enables them to provide service to more users with the same available pool.
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What are Static IP addresses and how they are allotted?
Static IP addresses are fixed IP addresses and they are usually provided to businesses, network providers charge a premium to allow static IP addresses. Static IP addresses should be manually added to systems so if the operating system is reinstalled on a system then the user will have to manually add their static IP to it.
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Why Static IP addresses are used?
Static IP addresses are used by businesses for hosting
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FTP servers.
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Email servers.
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VPN servers.
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Web hosting services.
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Remote desktop service
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Tracking user activities
Should I use static IP addresses or dynamic IP addresses?
Large scale companies and software companies require static IP addresses because they need all the services that can be easily availed with static IP addresses. All the other companies and users who don’t use these services should use dynamic IP addresses.
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