in full Internet Protocol address
Number that uniquely identifies each computer on the Internet .
A computer's IP address may be permanently assigned or supplied each time that it connects to the Internet by an Internet service provider . In order to accommodate the extraordinary growth in the number of devices connected to the Internet, a 32-bit protocol standard, known as IPv4, began to be replaced by a 128-bit protocol, IPv6, in 2000. See also TCP/IP ; domain name ; URL .