An IP address, or Internet Protocol address, is a numerical label assigned to each device connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. IP addresses serve two main functions: host or network interface identification and location addressing. An IP address is a unique identifier for a host or network interface and serves the same purpose as a physical address for a physical location.
IP addresses are generally assigned to devices by a DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) server, which assigns IP addresses from a pool of available addresses. However, in some cases, an IP address may be statically assigned to a device, meaning that the IP address is manually configured and does not change.