What is a network address

A network address refers to an identifier used to identify and locate a device or service in a computer network. It is a unique string of numbers or letters, consisting of an IP address and a port number, which can accurately Identifies the location of a resource on the network. In an Internet environment, each device requires a unique network address to be able to communicate with other devices.

# Operating system for this tutorial: Windows 10 system, Dell G3 computer.

A network address refers to an identifier used to identify and locate a device or service on a computer network. It is a unique string composed of a string of numbers or letters, used to represent the location of a specific resource on the network.

In an Internet environment, each device requires a unique network address to be able to communicate with other devices. A network usually consists of an IP address and a port number.

An IP address is a network address composed of 32-bit or 128-bit binary numbers. It is divided into two parts: network address and host address. A network address is used to uniquely identify a network, while a host address is used to identify a specific device on the network. An IP address acts similarly to a postal address in the real world, allowing data packets to reach their intended device exactly.

IP addresses can be divided into two types: IPv4 and IPv6. IPv4 is the currently widely used version of IP addresses. It is represented by four decimal numbers separated by periods. The value range of each number is 0-255. IPv6 is the next generation IP address version. It is represented by eight groups of hexadecimal numbers separated by colons. The value range of each number is 0-FFFF.

In addition to the IP address, the network address also includes the port number. A port number is a number that identifies a specific service on a device, which allows different applications on your computer to use a network connection at the same time. The port number range is from 0 to 65535, of which 0-1023 are reserved ports for common services, such as HTTP (port number 80), FTP (port number 21), etc. Other port numbers are chosen by the application itself.

The use of network addresses allows devices to accurately locate and access services on other devices. It is the basis of computer network communication. Whether it is web browsing, email sending on the Internet, or file sharing, printing and other operations on a local area network, it is inseparable from the support of network addresses.

As a programmer, it is crucial to understand and use network addresses. We need to understand how to allocate and manage IP addresses, how to use port numbers for network communication, and how to deal with network address conflicts and other issues. At the same time, we also need to learn knowledge related to network programming, such as Socket programming, to develop and debug network applications.

In short, a network address is an identifier in a computer network that is used to identify and locate a device or service. It consists of an IP address and a port number and can accurately identify the location of resources on the network. It is very important for programmers to master the concept and usage of network addresses. It is the basis for realizing network communication and developing network applications.

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