IP Address

IP stands for Internet Protocol and is the protocol or set of rules that define how information travels across networks including the Internet. An IP Address is a unique string of numbers that identify a particular computer or domain on any network including a local network, a wireless network and a wide area network such as the Internet.

The numbers are organized into four sets called octets with each octet separated by a period ( . ). An example of an IP Address is 192.168.0.1. Any IP address on any network must be assigned to only one network device such as a computer, server, or router. If you try and give the same IP Address to more than one machine on the same network, you will cause a conflict resulting in at least one of those machines being unable to connect to the network. IP Addresses are usually part of a range of addresses that define a network. For example, the IP Address of the LAN Port of the IT-100 is 10.9.8.7 with a Subnet Mask of 255.255.255.0 (see Subnet Mask in this Glossary for more information).

This means the range of usable addresses on the IT-100's LAN port is from 10.9.8.1 to 10.9.8.254. Minus the address assigned to the IT-100, that gives you 252 individual IP Addresses that you can use for wired computers on your network. The wireless port on the IT-100 uses a default IP Address of 10.9.9.1 and has a range of usable addresses from 10.9.9.2 to 10.9.9.254. The WAN or Wide Area Network port does not have a default address assigned. Typically, the IT-100 is connected to the Internet using the WAN port and it will receive an IP Address from your ISP.