HostIP

HostIP is a term used in computer networking to refer to the IP address assigned to a host—any device that participates in an IP network, such as a computer, server, mobile device, or IoT device. The HostIP serves to identify the device on the network and to route traffic to it. A host can have multiple IP addresses on different interfaces or networks.

IP addresses may be private (RFC 1918) used inside local networks, or public, routable on the wider Internet. Common private ranges include 10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, and 192.168.0.0/16. IPv6 hosts use global, unique addresses or link-local addresses (fe80::/10) for local communications. A host's addresses are typically configured automatically via DHCP, or set manually as static addresses. In many networks, Network Address Translation (NAT) maps several private HostIPs to a single public address, allowing multiple devices to share one external endpoint.

A host may also possess special addresses: the loopback address 127.0.0.1 (IPv4) or ::1 (IPv6) for internal testing; and link-local addresses used for auto-configuration on small networks without a DHCP server.

In practice, a host's IP is linked to a hostname via the Domain Name System (DNS). When users resolve a domain, the resulting IP address is the HostIP that messages are addressed to. Managing HostIP involves considerations of security, address management, and privacy, such as keeping IPs current, using DHCP reservations, or employing VPNs to mask public addresses.