What is Private IP Addresses: Understanding & Uses

If you were searching for information on an IP address such as 192.168.1.1 or 10.0.0.1, you’re most likely looking for a private IP address, not a public one. Because — and you may not realize this — you have both a public and a private IP address for your home network. This is part of basics of IP address . Sounds confusing — how can an IP address be both public and private? That’s what this guide is for. This guide covers what private IP addresses are, the difference between public IP addresses and private ones, and how to find your home router’s public and private IP addresses. Jump to the section you’re looking for: The IP address you see on our homepage — that looks like this: 24.156.99.202 — is an example of a public IP address. When you get a router for your home network, it’s the job of your internet service provider (ISP) to assign it a public IP address. This address can be accessed directly from the rest of the internet. Think of it this way: having a public IP address is like having a P.O. box number instead of using your home address. It’s a little bit safer and keeps people from knowing your real address. So, if you’ve ever wondered what a public IP address is, now you know. It’s that simple. Now, about that other kind of IP address… Home routers have a public IP address, but the ISP also assigns a private IP address number. It’s also referred to as a local IP address. It’s usually the same address for the other models from that manufacturer, and it can be seen in the manufacturer’s documentation. To better understand how these work, an IP address definition includes both public and private addresses, as well as specialized types like a virtual IP address , which is used by multiple devices or servers to share the same IP for specific purposes. Who knew? Your public IP address is the IP address that someone on the other end of your internet activity would see (should they bother to look for it). That’s the only reason it’s known as a public IP address. With traditional snail mail, when you send a letter, you have to know the address to send it to — such as “1234 Main Street,” — so that the postal worker knows which street and house to take it to. The internet works similarly, except it directs your personal activity (emails, answers to Google inquiries, etc.), and forwards the electronic messages to your computer’s IP address. You couldn’t do much without a public IP address. It’s your passport to the internet. [Insert youtube video: What is a Private IP Address? The Difference between Public IP & Private IP Addresses Explained ] In theory, your computer must have its own unique IP address so that it will only receive the information that is meant for you. However, that’s not how it works out because of one major exception — network computers that are linked to a router and share the same public IP address. Remember: if you have a router, you have a private IP address. And here’s how your router works … The organizations that distribute IP addresses to the world reserve a range of IP addresses for private networks . Your simple home network, with its router at the center and computers connected to it — wired or wireless — counts as just one of those networks. Once your router makes its internet connection through your internet service provider, it sends internet activity to any computer connected to your router and is the basis of a networking innovation called a Network Address Translation (NAT). Your private address is just for your router, your network, and you. Each of the devices connected to your home network has a private IP that your router keeps track of for you. So when you hit search on amazon.com on your smartphone, it sends a request to your router, which pushes it out to the internet, and when the response comes (all in a fraction of a second), your router knows to send it to your smartphone and not your PS5. Your network has a range of (private) IP addresses that your router can assign to your devices at a given time, as the devices connect or disconnect to the web. And this is fine: the private address ranges in a network don’t have to be synchronized with the rest of the world and the internet. As a matter of fact, the private address range can be used by more than one router because they’re being used by a private network. Even if your neighbor is using the exact same addresses, it won’t cause a problem, because that’s their network, not yours. Don’t let that confuse you. These private addresses are known as non-routable addresses . The networking on the internet routes internet activity connected to your public IP address only, not your private IP. So there’s no chance that the data your neighbor requested from the internet will get to your network, even if their computer has the same private IP as your smartphone at the time. Here’s a look at the default private (also called “local”) IP addresses for popular brands of routers: Finding a private IP address isn’t as easy as going to whatismyipaddress.com, but it’s still pretty straightforward. You can usually find it in your device or operating system settings. The steps vary slightly whether you’re on Windows, macOS, iPhone, or Android. We have instructions for how to find your private IP for each operating system below. BTW: If you’re looking for the public IP address, that’s what Whatismyipaddress is for! To find your local IP address on a Windows machine, follow these steps: To find it even more quickly on Windows, you can use the command prompt. Here’s how: To find your private IP address on a Mac, follow these steps: Here’s how to find your local IP address on an iPhone or iPad: Find your local IP address on an Android device by following these steps: Here are answers to commonly asked questions about private IP addresses. You can check an IP address against the ranges for public vs private IP addresses to determine if it is public or private. All private IP addresses begin with 10, 172, or 192, though some public IP addresses may also begin with 172 and 192. Windows: Search for “cmd” in the Windows search bar, then in the command line prompt, type ipconfig to view the private IP address. Mac: Select “System Preferences,” then click on “Network” to view the private IP address.