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IP Addresses

An IP address uses a sequence of numbers to uniquely identify a particular computer on the Internet.

  • When discussing IP addresses or referring to a specific IP address, don't use IP only; use IP address. You don't need to spell out IP on first use.

  • When referring to a specific version of the IP, use IPv4 address or IPv6 address as appropriate.

Address Type
Notation
Separator
IPv4
four groups of one to three decimal digits
periods (.)
IPv6
eight groups of four hexadecimal digits
colons (:)
Examples

If your website is hosted in the us_east_1 region, you can use the following primary and secondary IP addresses:

  • Primary: 74.205.61.228

  • Secondary: 74.205.61.229

  • Additional: 72.32.36.144/28 (72.32.36.145 - 72.32.36.158)

Each Atlas cluster is assigned one public IPv4 address.
If you're using IPv6 on your host, you might need to add the IPv6 addresses of your name servers to the resolv.conf file.

If you need to show an example IP address, don't use one that is or might be assigned to an actual host. Use an address that's globally defined for documentation.

RFC 5737 lists three valid IPv4 address CIDR blocks for documentation:

Range
TEST-NET-1
TEST-NET-2
TEST-NET-3
CIDR Block
192.0.2.0/24
198.51.100.0/24
203.0.113.0/24
First IP
192.0.2.0
198.51.100.0
203.0.113.0
Last IP
192.0.2.255
198.51.100.255
203.0.113.255

RFC 3849 lists one valid IPv6 address prefix:

IP Prefix
2001:DB8::/32
First IP
2001:0DB8:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000
Last IP
2001:0DB8:FFFF:FFFF:FFFF:FFFF:FFFF:FFFF

One IP address in the IPv4 and IPv6 address ranges allow a host to communicate with itself. Use these IP addresses only when the text requires you to specify the localhost or loopback address.

IPv4
127.0.0.1
IPv6
::1/128

Two other reserved IP address CIDR blocks exist for private networks not attached to the Internet. Hosts with IP addresses within these CIDR blocks cannot be accessed over the Internet.

Warning

Don't include these addresses in documentation. The user may be using an IP address in these ranges. This could result in an accidental copy and paste from the documentation to a user's environment. This section is provided for writers to identify these addresses as different from public IP addresses.

RFC 1918 lists three valid IPv4 address CIDR blocks for private networks:

CIDR Block
10.0.0.0/8
172.16.0.0/12
192.168.0.0/16
First IP
10.0.0.0
172.16.0.0
192.168.0.0
Last IP
10.255.255.255
172.31.255.255
192.168.255.255

RFC 4193 lists one valid IPv6 address prefix for private networks:

IP Prefix
fc00::/7
First IP
FC00:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000
Last IP
FDFF:FFFF:FFFF:FFFF:FFFF:FFFF:FFFF:FFFF
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