IP stands for internet protocol and refers to a data protocol that is used for communication of data across a network. A protocol is a standard that governs or enables the connection of communication or data transfer between two points on a network. In terms of two cans and a string serving as a child’s telephone, for example, the protocol would be the string between the two cans. Protocol can also refer to rules governing the aspects of the communication, such as the semantics and the syntax or order of the terms of communications across the network.

IP, then, is what is known as a network layer protocol and is housed and governed in a data linkage known as Ethernet. Ethernet refers to what are essentially a family of computer properties and technologies used across local area networks or LANs. Ethernet tends to provide unique global internet protocol addresses or IP addresses to users on the networks. IP is basically the tools of communication and the identity of a particular computer or network’s “global address.” IP is entirely concerned with where the data ends up whereas Ethernet references and is concerned with the actual next device in the next chain of communication. To use the aforementioned example regarding a child’s telephone, the Ethernet would be concerned with the two cans more than it would be with the string.

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