How are IP addresses assigned? What do the parts mean? [duplicate]

Solution 1:

They don't really mean anything. There are certain reserved blocks, which are good to know

The following are reserved for "private" networks. These only ever apply in LAN/WAN environments.

• 10.0.0.0 – 10.255.255.255
• 172.16.0.0 – 172.31.255.255
• 192.168.0.0 – 192.168.255.255

The following addresses only ever apply to the local machine (the Loopback addresses):

• 127.0.0.0-127.255.255.255 (addresses other than 127.0.0.1 are seldom used).

The 0.0.0.0 block is reserved for the "default route", for routing purposes.

Inversely 1.1.1.1 and 255.255.255.255 is used to signify broadcasting on all routes.

The 169.254.0.0 -169.254.255.255 block is reserved for Automatic Private IP Addressing

There are a number of other addresses that are reserved for INCAN, ARIN, etc. A partial list can be found here.