BlogJune 18, 2025 | 2 min read

What is IPv4 and IPv6 and how does it work?

Alisher Togayev

IPv4

IP stands for Internet Protocol and v4 stands for Version Four. IPv4 was the primary version brought into action for production within the ARPANET in 1983 IP version four addresses are 32-bit integers which will be expressed in decimal notation. IPv4 address structure:

Its a 32-bit long value
In binary, its a 32-bit long string of onez and zeros

It has 4 octets, each octet 8-bit long string Example: 11111111.11111111.11111111.00000000

In decimal format, it consits of 4 decimal numbers separated by a dot. Example: 192.134.34.11

Class A -> start from| 0 = 0
Class B -> start from| 0 + 128 = 128
Class C -> start from| 0 + 128 + 64 = 192
Class D -> start from| 0 + 128 + 64 + 32 = 224
Class E -> start from| 0 + 128 + 64 + 32 + 16 = 240
Class A -> ends at| 127
Class B -> ends at| 191
Class C -> ends at| 223
Class D -> ends at| 239
Cladd E -> ends at| 255

First Octet in Decimal

IP range

x.255.255.255 - Where x is the octet value Screenshot 2024-06-26 at 2 47 18 PM

Subnet Mask

Class D and E dont have a subnet. Screenshot 2024-06-26 at 2 48 22 PM

# Of hosts per Network ID ^ # Of networks

Java

h = 2^x-2

h is the no. of hosts
x is the number of zeros in the binary representation of the IP address

Java

n = 2^y

n is the no. of networks, and y is the no. of ones in the binary representation of the IP address. Thus, we get: Screenshot 2024-06-26 at 2 50 30 PM

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Alisher TogayevBackend & Cloud Engineer

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