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read the transcript!
there are two kinds of IP addresses: IPv4 and IPv6
Every website needs an IPv4 address.
IPv6 addresses are optional.
panel 2:
A stands for IPv4 Address
Example: 93.184.216.34
AAAA stands for IPv6 AAAAddress (joke, but kinda true)
Example: 2606:2800:220:1:248:1893:25c8:1946
it’s called AAAA (4 As) because IPv6 addresses have 4x as many bytes
in theory, the Internet is moving from IPv4 to IPv6
This is because there are only 4 billion IPv4 addresses (the internet has grown a LOT since the 1980s when IPv4 was designed!)
happy eyeballs*
If your domain has both an A and an AAAA record, clients will use an algorithm called “happy eyeballs” to decide whether IPv4 or IPv6 will be faster.
* yes that is the real name
using IPv6 isn’t always easy
- not all web hosts give you an IPv6 address
- lots of ISPs don’t support IPv6 (mine doesn’t!)
IP addresses have owners
You can find any IP’s owner by looking up its ASN (“Autonomous System Number”).
(except local IPs like 192.168.x.x, 127.x.X.X, 10.x.x.x, 172.16.x.x)
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