What data type should I use and what storage engine?

[Randell Benavidez]

I want to store IP addresses in a table in a database. What's the optimal design for searching if a given IP address already exists? Would char/varchar (with the dots between bytes) containing the complete ip address be enough? Or use should I separate the bytes in columns and assign those columns as indeces for the table? And this case only applies for IPv4. How should it be designed for IPv6?

And for that matter, which storage engine should I use?