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Computer networks use numeric [[network address]]es to identify communications endpoints in a network of participating devices. This is similar to the [[Plain old telephone service|telephone network]] which assigns a string of digits to identify each telephone. In modern [[networking protocol]]s, information to be transmitted is divided into a series of [[network packet]]s. Every packet contains the source and destination addresses for the transmission. [[Network router]]s examine these addresses to determine the best network path in [[Packet forwarding|forwarding the data packet]] at each step toward its destination.
Similarly to telephones being labeled with their telephone number, it was a common practice in early networks to attach an address label to networked devices. The dynamic nature of modern networks, especially residential networks in which devices are powered up only when needed, desire dynamic address assignment mechanisms that do not require user involvement for initialization and management. These systems automatically give themselves common names chosen either by the equipment manufacturer, such as a brand and model number, or chosen by users for identifying their equipment. The names and addresses are then automatically entered into a [[directory service]].
Early computer networking was built upon technologies of the telecommunications networks and thus protocols tended to fall into two groups: those intended to connect local devices into a [[local area network]] (LAN), and those intended primarily for long-distance communications. The latter [[wide area network]] (WAN) systems tended to have centralized setup, where a [[network administrator]] would manually assign addresses and names. LAN systems tended to provide more automation of these tasks so that new equipment could be added to a LAN with a minimum of operator and administrator intervention.
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