The way that a computer or other digital device sees an IPv4 address and the way humans see an IPv4 address are different. A digital device sees an IPv4 address as a 32-bit number. But humans have devised a way to convert this 32-bit number into something easier to look at and work with. For humans, an IPv4 address is a 32-bit number that is broken down in four groups of 8 bits each. Each group of 8 bits is called an octet (or a byte), and the four octets format are separated by periods:
11000000.10101000.00000001.00000001
Because we are more comfortable working with the decimal number system, these binary octets are then converted into decimal format for ease of use:
192.168.1.1
