'''[http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc0791.txt%|%Internet Protocol], or '''IP''', is a
communication protocol for packet-switched networks.



** See Also **

   [Handling internet addresses]:   

   [DNS]:   

   [A Little CIDR Calculator]:   

   [http://code.google.com/p/netaddr-tcl/%|%netaddr-tcl]:   a package that does almost the smae thing, but with some additional functionality

   [Internet Checksum]:   The currently-used checksum in IPV4 as described in [RFC] [http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc0791.txt%|%791]



** Documentation **

   [RFC] [http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc0791.txt%|%791, Internet Protocol]:   

   [RFC] [https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1726%|%1726, Technical Criteria for Choosing IP the Next Generation (IPng)]:   


** Description **

'''Internet Protocol''' describes a how interconnected computer systems
address and talk to each other.  Usually you have [TCP] or [UDP] layered over
the top to provide port-based addressing and checksums...

The most common version of IP at the moment is version 4, though you may well
also see version 6 about from time to time (mostly at very large ISPs though.)



<<categories>> Glossary | Internet | Networking