Public IP vs. Private IP – Outlining the difference between public and private IP addresses.

Ethernet network switchYou might have been playing around with your internet/mobile device in the past and came around an IP related term like 168.192.0 etc. The first thing to know about IP addresses which that they come in two different types. Public and Private. On your router, you will find two types of network interfaces, categorized as an internal interface and an external interface.

The first IP address came about as a result of the fathers of the Internet, Bob Kahn and Vinton Cerf, the founders of TCP/IP during the 70s and 80s through US military-funded research, specifically DARPA, the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency. It wasn’t until 1982 that the US Department of Defense decided to make TCP/IP the standard for military IT networking. By January 1st, 1983, new protocols were permanently activated. In 1984 further research and adoption took place with companies such as IBM and AT&T.

Public VS Private IP addresses


For the best understanding of Public or Private IP address and their difference, we have to go through the concept of IP address is and what its role entails.

IP Address:


When we want to communicate with other computers or devices in the whole world through the Internet, then we need an address to send or receive files, resources, or any kind of data to the specific device or computer. This address is called “Internet Protocol address” in short, IP address. The IP address is the number that is used to identify every single device in a network for the means of communication and other general purposes. In common words, it is just like a street address tells where a letter should be delivered. Internet Service Provider (ISP) assigned unique/distinct IP addresses to every single device that is connected to the Internet all over the world. An IP address is nothing but a string of numbers written in a proper format. These addresses are described to the world in two different versions (IPV4 and IPV6). The version we are using is IPV4. It has four sets of numbers having range 0-255. These four sets are separated from each other by a dot.

Below are examples of 1PV4 in dotted-decimal notations.

192.168.10.1 or 39.38.240.212

You might be curious about why these numbers are chosen. You might have added 64mb of RAM to your 128mb of RAM in 2002 to speed up your computer, 128+64=192. You might have wondered, why do these square-like numbers show up in random places. Maybe these numbers are familiar in the past when you have looked at your settings. Or from mathematics playing with multiples of 2, where 2 x 2 =4, 4 x 2 =8, 8 x 2 =16, 16 x 2 – 32, 32 x 2= 64, 64 x 2 = 128 or 2^7 = 2x2x2x2x2x2x2 =128 . So you probably recall that binary is made up of 0’s and 1’s. A bit is a 0 or a 1. A byte is a set of 1 and 0’s, 8 different numbers. A set of 8 of these digits is also called an octet. An octet is a byte.

Something in the form of 01101010 equates to a byte, 8 digits in size. It takes up a byte of data.

You can get a feel for these common binary numbers by looking at the arrangements of binary representations below:

  • 0 = 00000000
  • 1 = 00000001 2^0
  • 2 = 00000010 2^1
  • 3 = 00000011
  • 4 = 00000100 2^2
  • 5 = 00000101
  • 7 = 00000111
  • 8 = 00001000 2^3
  • 9 = 00001001
  • 10 = 00001001
  • 11 = 00001011
  • 15 = 00001111
  • 16 = 00010000 2^4
  • 17 = 00010001
  • 31 = 00011111
  • 32 = 00100000 2^5
  • 33 = 00100001
  • 34 = 00100010
  • 35 = 00010011
  • 63 = 00111111
  • 64 = 01000000 2^6
  • 65 = 01000001
  • 127 = 01111111
  • 128 = 10000000 2^7
  • 128 + 64 = 192
  • 64 = 01000000
  • 128 = 10000000
  • 192 = 11000000

The representation of 255 is or = 111111111.

128 + 64 + 32 + 16 + 8 + 4 + 2 + 1 = 255

  • 1 = 00000001
  • 2 = 00000010
  • 4 = 00000100
  • 8 = 00001000
  • 16 = 00010000
  • 32 = 00100000
  • 64 = 01000000
  • 128 = 10000000
  • 255 = 111111111

By referencing the binary numbers above you will see how each number exists in each separate array.

192.168.0.1 – Dotted decimal form

192 .168 .0 .1
11000000 .10101000 .00000000 .00000001
First octet Second octet Third octet Fourth octet

In general, an IP address may be “Static” or “Dynamic” in specific scenarios. Note that both the public and private IP may be static or dynamic.

When you start learning about computer networking, you will start to see the terms ‘static IP’ and ‘dynamic IP’ a lot. If you manually go into the operating system on each device, you can choose what IP and subnet address will be used. This is known as Static IP manual assignment. For practical purposes, these ways of running a network can be done, but at the scale it has limitations, so manual assignment is useful but only in cases of small to medium-sized networks.

In a large network with thousands of devices, trying to randomly assign addresses to each device likely causes issues, using the same IP on multiple devices will be a problem. If you are running a network with thousands of devices, it isn’t practical for you to log-on to every single device and assign a unique IP address. Beyond it being time-consuming, the chances of accidentally assigning the same IP address to two or more devices go up which causes problems. And if a device is no longer being used, it is difficult to track when the IP address becomes available.

Now to overcome this sort of issue a Dynamic IP (DHCP Server Assignment) is used. What DHCP Server Assignment does is, it used subnet masks and gives its users an IP address to choose from.

Static IP address:


Static means are the same or Stable. Once a static IP address is assigned to your device, then it does not change. A string of numbers typically stays the same until the device is deactivated or your network architecture changes. In simple words, the static IP address can’t be changed automatically. These IP addresses are mainly used by servers or some important equipment.

Dynamic IP address:


Dynamic means “constant change”. An IP address that changes from time to time. Dynamic IP addresses are assigned by DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol). We mostly use dynamic IP addresses because IPV4 does not provide enough static IP addresses to go around. Let’s take a look at the process of dynamic IP address quoted from the “Avast website” your home router or business may be assigned a dynamic IP address by ISP.

All your devices including pc, tablet, smartphones, or any other audio/video streaming media are possibly assigned dynamic IP addresses by your network router. Dynamic IP is commonly used by and for consumer equipment.

What is Public IP Address?


A public IP address is external or global or wan address and valid on the Internet.

ISP assigned public IP addresses for direct access over the Internet to any computing device. In simple words, by using this IP address we make a connection to the world. These addresses are globally unique and assigned to unique devices. You can’t do much without a public IP address. To many, an IP is considered to be our passport to the Internet – some people have multiple.

Where it is used:


Servers and sites across the Internet make use of public IP addresses (for example, google.com — 172.217.22.14, Google’s DNS server — 8.8.8.8). All of the public IP-addresses across the Internet are unique to their host or server without duplicate assignments.

How could I locate my Public IP Address?


You can visit sites like www.supportally.com, and finding your router’s panel.

Step 1. Login to your router

Step 2. Choose Wan option

Step 3. Find out the ipv4 address on that page

What is a Private IP Address?


Private IP is an internal or local address and valid on LAN. LAN operators generate the private IP address through network OS (like Router) and assigned them to connected devices Let’s grab its concept from an example, our home or business network is LAN, and all devices connected to are assigned private IP addresses from the network router. This IP address cannot be accessed from devices outside of your home or business network.

Reserved for private networks.


These three IP address blocks (1 class A, 1 class B, and 1 class C) are reserved for private use by Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA).

192.168.0.0 – 192.168.255.255 (65,536 IP addresses)

172.16.0.0 – 172.31.255.255 (1,048,576 IP addresses)

10.0.0.0 – 10.255.255.255 (16,777,216 IP addresses)

Here’s a look at the default private (also called “local”) IP addresses for popular brands of routers:

Linksys routers use 192.168.1.1

D-Link and NETGEAR routers are set to 192.168.0.1

Cisco routers use either 192.168.10.2, 192.168.1.254 or 192.168.1.1

Belkin and SMC routers often use 192.168.2.1

How can I locate my Private IP Address?


1. Using CMD is a direct option to find private IP address

Step 1. Open Command prompt

Step 2. Type Ipconfig or ipconfig/all and enter

Step 3. Find out Ivp4 on that CMD panel

Difference between Public IP and Private IP address
# Private IP address Public IP address
1 Internal or Local IP address External or Global IP address
2 May be static or dynamic May be static or dynamic
3 There may be the same private IP address of different devices on two or more different local networks. Globally unique means only one throughout the Internet.
4 The Access range is local. Not routable on the Internet. Only valid on LAN Access range is the Internet. Routable on the Internet. Valid on all over the Internet
5 Direct communication within local networks (internal networks). Direct communication outside the network (Globally).
6 Local area operator creates private IP by using a network operating system. ISP (Internet Service Provider) issues these addresses to public entities.
7 We can locate this IP by this process Enter the keyword “ipconfig” in CMD We can find this IP by visiting this site www.supportally.com
8 Private IP Address range: 10.0.0.0 – 10.255.255.255, 172.16.0.0 – 172.31.255.255, 192.168.0.0 – 192.168.255.255 Except private IP Addresses, rest IP addresses are public.
9 Private IP Address is like 192.168.11.50. Public IP Address is like 17.5.7.8.
10 Private IP cannot traverse the Internet. Public IP address can traverse the Internet.

Which IP addresses do we use in our home or in our personal office?


We use private IP addresses for a few reasons. We use private IP addresses in our home or private office for instance. The reason behind this is that buy enough public IP addresses for everyone in your company is a difficult task, not only because of the high cost but also have a limited availability of these public IP addresses. Most companies purchase a few public IP addresses for the public entities (e.g. external routers). And they use private IP addresses for internal devices. We need a private range of network IP addresses that no-one else knows for the sake of safety and privacy.

How Do The UK’s Best Online Slots Use My IP Address?


After discussing which is IP addresses do we use it is time to see how it is being used? The UK’s best online slots have diverse options of using IP addresses. For one, they are tracking your IP to see where you are geologically located. Secondly, if you leave the country, some casinos will not let you access it until you return to your country of origin in this case, the UK. Another law in the UK states that there could be only one user/ customer in an online casino per one IP address. This is made to prevent money laundering. Not so dark usage is the one for marketing purposes. They are gathering the data from your IP and all your details, just to make monthly or quarterly statistics and base new goals depending on their progress. There is also dispute that some of the best slots sites use your IP to control the winnings and losses, but it was never proved, therefore it exists only as hearsay. It is also important to know the difference between Private IP and a Public one, because that could affect your gameplay.

Public and Private IP working together to get you connected, How?


Home computer setupLet’s run a brief overview of the basic process… Firstly, your router makes internet connection through ISP (internet service provider) and then sends internet activity to any computing device connected to your router. And here is the basis of a networking modernization named Network Address Translation (NAT). NAT is the process in which your router changes your private IP address into a public IP address so that it can send your traffic over the network system (Internet). A time comes when the information comes back to your router, it reverses the change (from the public to private IP) and send the traffic back to your computing device. In short, your private address is only for your router, your own network, and yourself.