The standard defining how devices on a network communicate with each other using numerical addresses.
- IPv4 is the original version of the Internet Protocol, first developed in the 1970s. It uses 32-bit addresses, which allows for a total of approximately 4.3 billion unique addresses. IPv4 is still widely used today, but it is running out of available addresses due to the rapid growth of the internet.
- IPv6 is a newer Internet Protocol version developed to address the shortage of available IPv4 addresses. It uses 128-bit addresses, allowing a virtually unlimited number of unique addresses. IPv6 is gradually being adopted as more devices are connected to the internet and the demand for unique addresses increases.
Both IPv4 and IPv6 are used to route data packets over the internet, but they are not compatible with each other. Some devices may support both versions of the protocol, while others may only support one or the other.
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