Programming Challenge: IP Address Validator (Jan 9, 2025)

[Jessica Brown]

Today, I think it will be an easy one. Write a program that validates IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.

Basic Requirements:

1. Accept a string input from the user.
2. Check if the input is a valid IPv4 address (e.g., 192.168.1.1).
3. Check if the input is a valid IPv6 address (e.g., 2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334).
4. Print whether the address is valid, and if so, specify the type (IPv4 or IPv6).

Bonus Features:

• Detect private IP ranges for IPv4.
• Handle CIDR notation (e.g., 192.168.1.0/24).
• Identify loopback addresses (e.g., 127.0.0.1 for IPv4, ::1 for IPv6).

Example Output:

Enter an IP address: 192.168.1.1
Valid IPv4 address (Private)

Enter an IP address: 2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334
Valid IPv6 address

Enter an IP address: 256.256.256.256
Invalid IP address