#5 Jun 2024 Q2(a)(i) 2 marks 1.3.2 IPv4 + IPv6 valid examples

Question

Lead-in: An airport has computers that are connected together on a LAN. Each computer has an IP address and a MAC address.

(a)(i) Give one valid example of an IPv4 address and one valid example of an IPv6 address.

IPv4 ....................................................................
IPv6 ....................................................................

[2]

Why this question is tricky

Many candidates found this question challenging with few candidates giving valid IP addresses. IPv4 was more commonly accurate, although a common error was giving numbers greater than 255. Few candidates were able to give an IPv6 address. Common errors including giving 6 groups of numbers and separating each group with a full stop.— J277_01_ER_Jun2024.txt lines 146-150

MS complexity 3/10: Low structurally but a high-frequency trap — IPv6 format almost universally wrong. Cross-paper recurrence of Jun22 octet range trap.

Full-marks model answer

IPv4: 192.168.0.1 (4 groups of denary numbers between 0 and 255 separated by full stops)

IPv6: 2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334 (8 groups of hex numbers between 0 and FFFF separated by colons)

Mark allocation (2 marks)
  • IPv4 mark: 4 groups of denary numbers, each between 0 and 255, separated by full stops.
  • IPv6 mark: 8 groups of hex digits (0–F), each group 1–4 digits long, separated by colons. A double colon (::) may appear once and replaces consecutive zero groups.

Watch out for...

IPv6 has 8 groups (not 6), uses colons (not full stops), and digits are hex 0–F (not decimal). For IPv4, every octet must be 0–255. Memorise one valid example of each so you don't fudge under pressure.