A link-local address is an Internet Protocol address that is intended only for communications within the segment of a local network (a link) or a point-to-point connection that a host is connected to. Routers do not forward packets with link-local addresses.
Link-local addresses may be assigned manually by an administrator or by operating system procedures. Most often they are assigned using stateless address autoconfiguration. In IPv4, they are normally only used to assign IP addresses to network interfaces when no external, stateful mechanism of address configuration exists, such as the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) or when another primary configuration method has failed. In IPv6, link-local addresses are mandatory and required for the internal functioning of various protocol components.
Link-local addresses for IPv4 are defined in the address block 169.254.0.0/16. In IPv6, they are assigned with the fe80::/64 prefix.
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