Private IP Addressing
Private IP addresses are used within a private network such as a home or corporate network and are not routable on the global internet. A set of designated IP address ranges has been reserved for private use by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), and they are not used in the public space:
– 10.0.0.0 to 10.255.255.255 (10.0.0.0/8)
– 172.16.0.0 to 172.31.255.255 (172.16.0.0/12)
– 192.168.0.0 to 192.168.255.255 (192.168.0.0/16)
Devices within the same private network can communicate with each other through these addresses, but they must go through a network device like a router that implements Network Address Translation (NAT) to communicate with the internet.
Public IP Addressing
Public IP addresses are assigned to devices that are directly accessible over the internet. These are globally unique IP addresses under the management of the IANA and its regional registries. Public IP addresses must be unique to prevent overlap and ensure proper routing across the entire internet. Public IPs are used by web servers, email servers, and any other services that need to be accessible from different locations around the world.
With the amount of connected devices in the world IPv4 address space has been exhausted. IPv6 was introduced to significantly expand the address space with its 128-bit address length.