Ethernet technologies and Ethernet/IP protocols are an integral part of today’s industrial automation systems. In this, IP Addressing Fundamentals video, I explain in explicit detail, what an IP Address is and how it functions, what a Subnet Mask is and what it’s used for, and finally the role of the Default Gateway.
An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label assigned to each device connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. An IP address or IP Addressing serves two principal functions: host or network interface identification and location addressing.
IP addresses are usually written and displayed in human-readable notations, such as 172.16.254.1 in IPv4, and 2001:db8:0:1234:0:567:8:1 in IPv6.

IP addressing serves two principal functions. It identifies the host, or more specifically its network interface, and it provides the location of the host in the network, and thus the capability of addressing that host. Its role has been characterized as follows: “A name indicates what we seek. An address indicates where it is. A route indicates how to get there.
The header of each IP packet contains the IP address of the sending host, and that of the destination host. A host may use geolocation software to deduce the geolocation of its communicating peer.
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