networking Berkeley Unix notation for an Internetaddress, consisting of one to four numbers (a "dotted quad")

in hexadecimal (leading 0x), octal (leading 0), or

(usually) decimal. It represents a 32-bit address. Each

leading number represents eight bits of the address (high byte

first) and the last number represents the rest. E.g. address

0x25.32.0xab represents 0x252000ab. By far the most common

form is four decimal numbers, e.g. 146.169.22.42.