IPv4 and IPv6 basics
Read and recognize IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, the special ranges you meet every day, and what an address tells you when something is broken.
- Level
- Beginner
- Length
- About 40 minutes
- Contents
- 3 lessons · 1 video · final exam
- Status
- Published · updated 1 Oct 2026
Skills you'll practise
- Recognize private, link-local, loopback and documentation address ranges in IPv4 and IPv6
- Write IPv6 addresses correctly using the compression rules
- Explain what a 169.254.x.x address or a missing IPv6 global address tells you about a client
- Check whether a client's default gateway is reachable on its own subnet
Course outline
- 1.IPv4 and IPv6 in five minutesVideo · 2 min
- 2.Reading IPv4 addressesLesson · 12 min
- 3.Reading IPv6 addressesLesson · 12 min
- 4.Checking a host's IP settings step by stepLesson · 15 min
- 5.IPv4 and IPv6 basics: knowledge checkKnowledge check · 16 questions
- 6.IPv4 and IPv6 basics: practical exerciseKnowledge check · 1 question
- 7.New hires can't get on the networkScenario
- 8.Final exam7 questions · passing it completes the course, so people who already know the material can test out
Sources it draws on
The lessons and questions are written from these references, so learners can go back to the original.
- RFC 1918: Address Allocation for Private Internets
- RFC 4291: IP Version 6 Addressing Architecture
- RFC 5952: A Recommendation for IPv6 Address Text Representation
- RFC 3927: Dynamic Configuration of IPv4 Link-Local Addresses
- RFC 5737: IPv4 Address Blocks Reserved for Documentation
- RFC 3849: IPv6 Address Prefix Reserved for Documentation
See it with your own jobs and topics
Tell us about your team and we'll walk you through setup, from choosing jobs to your first skills check.