When you use a router to connect to the internet, you will almost always notice that all the devices, computers or tablets or smartphones that connect to the internet via that router have an internal IP address of 192.168.XX Because in all the houses and offices in the world the IP addresses assigned by the router almost always start with 192.168 and not with other numbers "> How do we connect to the internet and why with the same Public IP address?
192.168 is the range of private IP addresses that has been decided to be dedicated to internal use.
This means that these IP addresses can only be assigned to devices connected within closed networks and that they are not available to identify devices that come out on the internet.
The main reason for this arbitrary and standardized assignment of internal addresses is the fact that IP v4 addresses are limited and, precisely, they are 4, 294, 967, 296.
If all the devices connected on the internet had their own unique IP address, the availability would have long since ended.
For this reason the IP addresses have been divided into various classes dedicated only to internal or private networks :
10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255 (Class A)
172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255 (Class B)
192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255 (Class C)
Depending on how large the network is, you could choose from one of these classes: Class A gives 16, 777, 216 IP addresses, Class B 1, 048, 576 while Class C 65, 536.
Class A networks are used by large companies to maintain a good overview of all devices connected to the company's intranet.
The class C of addresses, on the other hand, is the one used in home LAN networks but also in larger or smaller companies or offices.
To make things even easier and make networks more reliable, most broadband routers have an even smaller range of IP addresses: between 192.168.0.0 and 192.168.0.255 or 192.168.1.0 and 192.168.1.255.
This means that up to 254 devices can be connected to the network (254 + 1 router), which should be sufficient for most people.
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If 255 private IP addresses were not sufficient, nothing would prevent the use of other classes of addresses, which were however created for private use and which can be used by anyone.
For example, the owner of a large hotel, consisting of two buildings, each with 254 floors and 254 rooms on each floor, could create an IP structure such that a computer on floor 120 of the first building would have address 10.1.120.x while a computer on the 223 floor of the second building would have 10.2.223.x.
Computers within an internal network see each other and are connected to each other via the router that assigns these addresses.
In conclusion, in any home network the IP address of the computers will be 192.168.xx because this is the practice
Of the IP ranges created and reserved for private networks, class C, being the smallest and easiest to control and maintain, is the most used.
However, you are free to use any of the three network classes according to your needs.
READ ALSO: Difference between public IP and private IP
