However, in the industry, these terms are sometimes used interchangeably. Addresses For reliable communications, each Internet host is assigned at least one unique Internet address. Each network interface to the Internet network is assigned its own unique address. The machine specified as the gateway host between two or more networks may have more than one interface address. When a packet is transported over the network, the packet includes the Internet address of the source host as well as the destination host.
Internet addresses identify both the network address and the local host address.
Names Each computer, or host, on an Internet network is assigned at least one Internet host name and may have several aliases. Routing Routing allows information to be directed from a source host to a destination host. Static routes can be defined on each Internet host for common destinations. Routes can be defined dynamically by routing daemons , which find routes to destinations that have not been defined in the routing tables. If you want two networks to communicate with each other, you can connect them through one machine, called a gateway machine.