Inasmuch as the Internet has become a huge virtual hub of billions of people worldwide the Internet address system has been expanded with additional four suffixes. According to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the oversight agency for Internet addresses, these four new suffixes are the first out of hundreds more that are projected to be introduced in the years to come. This recent development was announced Wednesday.
Biggest expansion
The adding of more suffixes in the Internet address system is said to be the largest growth in all the years that the World Wide Web has existed. The first four suffixes recently added use foreign languages to support the expanding population of Internet users in the global scale.
Confusion in words
Incidentally, many websites are still not using Latin characters in their addresses, hence creating some confusion with other languages. For instance, some website addresses use “Chinese” for the word “game,” “Arabic” for “network,” and “Cyrillic” to represent “online” and “site.” Internet experts say that regular and business users must already start using Internet addresses using the new suffixes. The master database now has the added suffixes for ready use by the public.
Current number
At present, there are over 300 suffixes in Internet address systems mainly consisting of codes designated for particular countries. The continued use of English and introduction of new languages in the system is being proposed by the ICANN.
Identifying tool
The Internet address system is a distinct identifying tool for every machine that joins the network. It is much like an address that is written on a letter envelope to be sent to a particular person. Computers utilize this identifier when giving out information to other members of the network system. Today many networks use the TCP/IP standard set up in communicating. The identification code of a particular machine is called its IP address.
Two standards
Internet address systems use two standards. One is the IP Version 4 (IPv4) and the other is the IP Version 6 (IPv6). Every computer using IP addresses are equipped with IPv4 addresses although many are now using the IPv6 system. There are 32 binary digits in the IPv4 system that makes one unique address in the network. This is seen through four numbers and dots. The numbers are decimal representations for 8-digit binary numbers. On the other hand there are 128 binary segments in IPv6 that are represented by eight groups of hexadecimal numbers and are set apart by colons. Zeros are usually taken out to economize on space with just the colon to indicate the spaces and gaps.
Useful feature
The practice of applying a unique Internet address system to every computer is an effective way of identifying the origin and source of information and data being fed to the network. In a way, this serves as a police structure in the World Wide Web to discourage complete anonymity among Internet users. With the emergence of unscrupulous individuals who attempt to hack websites, Internet specialists see the significant function of every unique Internet address system.
Photo Credit: The Internet address system
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