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The Internet Protocol
Every computer attached to the internet must have a unique address.
An IP address is requested from, assigned, and tracked by InterNIC.
Each IP address is composed of 32 bits, arranged as 4 8-bit octects.
192.168.1.1
Internet messages can vary in length from several hundred bytes to 65.565 bytes.
A long message will be broken into multiple smaller packets.
Each packet contains a header reflecting the 32-bit source and 32-bit destination
address.
IP does not guarantee source or destination address, or that a packet was delivered,
delivered only once, or in the correct order.
Authentication, sequencing, and security is provided by higher layer protocols.