Knowledge base
IPWhois Wiki
Short entries on the terms you meet in an IP or DNS lookup: addresses, registries, protocols and the people who built them. Every entry can be edited by signed-in members.
Contents
Welcome to the IPWhois Knowledge Base - a free reference for networking concepts, IP address standards, protocols and internet infrastructure. Articles are written for both beginners and experienced network professionals.
For live tools, visit IPWhois.net - free IP lookup, DNS checker, VPN leak tests and more.
Core IP Concepts
- IP Address - What an IP address is and how it works
- IPv4 - The 32-bit addressing system and its exhaustion
- IPv6 - The 128-bit successor and its growing adoption
- ASN - Autonomous System Numbers and BGP routing
- CIDR - Classless Inter-Domain Routing and subnetting
- NAT - Network Address Translation explained
- DHCP - Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
- Dynamic IP - How ISPs assign temporary addresses
- Static IP - Fixed addresses and when to use them
- MAC Address - Hardware-level network identifiers
Protocols & Technologies
- DNS - How domain names resolve to IP addresses
- Nameserver - The authoritative sources for DNS records
- TCP/IP - The protocol stack the internet runs on
- Ping - Network reachability testing with ICMP
- LAN - Local Area Networks and private addressing
- Wi-Fi - Wireless networking standards and security
- WebRTC - Browser real-time communication and IP privacy
- IPSec - IP-layer encryption and VPN tunnelling
- 5G - Fifth-generation mobile network architecture
- IoT - Internet of Things and network implications
IP Registries
- IANA - Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
- RIPE NCC - Europe, Middle East & Central Asia
- ARIN - North America
- APNIC - Asia-Pacific
- LACNIC - Latin America & Caribbean
- AFRINIC - Africa
- IEEE - MAC address OUI assignments
Security & Privacy
- VPN - Virtual Private Networks: protocols, uses and limits
- Proxy - Proxy servers, anonymity and caching
- DDoS - Distributed Denial of Service attacks
- Cybersecurity - IP-layer threats and defences
History & People
- ARPANET - The predecessor to the modern internet
- Vint Cerf - Co-designer of TCP/IP, “Father of the Internet”
- Tim Berners-Lee - Inventor of the World Wide Web
- Jon Postel - Ran IANA for 30 years, authored the core internet RFCs
- Paul Mockapetris - Inventor of DNS
- Radia Perlman - Inventor of STP, “Mother of the Internet”
- Mike Muuss - Creator of the ping utility