To store an IP-address in MySQL:
Use an INT - UNSIGNED field
INET_ATON()
mysql> SELECT INET_ATON('127.0.0.1');
-> 2130706433
INET_NTOA()
mysql> SELECT INET_NTOA(2130706433);
-> '127.0.0.1'
If you want to convert these with PHP then do:
ip2long() and long2ip()
