Network entities
Before proceeding, we will introduce a few network-related concepts that will be used throughout this book. Having prior knowledge of them is essential so that you have a complete understanding of this book.
Private IP address
An internet protocol (IP) address is a unique identifier that identifies a device in a network. An IP address is a 32-bit number. Whenever you connect to a new network, you are either assigned a new IP address by a Dynamic Host Control Protocol (DHCP) server or you get an IP address stored in your system configuration if it is available. This is usually called a local/private IP address. More often than not, you will see this address in the form 192.168.1.x
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Important Note about IP Addresses
IP addresses are 32-bit, which means that there are only 2^32 = 4,294,967,295 internet addresses available. The IP address is an old protocol and when it was developed, there were not many internet-connected devices. At the time, 4 billion devices...