192.168.1.1: Understanding this IP address (and all others)

All websites, all computers and all routers have an IP address, it is the way they can identify themselves within a network or the Internet. IP addresses can change constantly, so if we have to compare them with something could be with the direction of our house, which changes if we move. If someone wants to send us something, they need our address, and if a device wants to communicate with another and send you data, you need your IP.

In the case of 192.168.1.1, it is an address well known by users, and should be familiar to anyone who has ever used to access the configuration of your router. This IP is a private address used by most router manufacturers from which the device settings can be accessed. If you want to know why it is used specifically and not another, understand how IP addresses work and know something else just as famous, read on.

Private IP addresses and why 192.168.1.1

In the home network is your router that assigns an IP address to your computer and the rest of your devices. If you ask yourself how you make sure that your PC’s IP is not the same as another’s on the Internet, it’s because there is a list of numbers that are reserved for private use, whether at home, in the office, or in a company. 192.168.1.1 is one of those private addresses that are never used for a public website.

The private IP addresses are not of anyone, any organization can use it without approval or registration, but these addresses can not pass through the public Internet.

Understanding how the numbers of each IP are used is quite intricate, but the ranges they cover are somewhat simpler. There are three types of private IP addresses and they cover about 18 million IP address numbers in total:

• Class A: range from 10.0.0.0 to 10.255.255.255
• Class B: range from 172.16.0.0 to 172.31.255.255
• Class C: range from 192.0.0.1 to 192.168.255.255

Class A is the class for very large networks, such as those of an international company. Class B is for medium-sized networks, such as a university network. Class C IP addresses are typically used for smaller networks. 192.168.1.1 falls within the space of smaller private addresses (between 192.168.0.0 and 192.168.255.255). Note that the range of Class C IPs starts at 192.0.0.1 and that the IP address of your router is a number very close to this, a very low number in that special range.

Use this address as a standard is quite convenient although not a rule . It makes it easy to access a router’s configuration whether at home or elsewhere. Depending on the brand of the device the page that appears will be different, in some cases request a username and password that are usually quite generic and you can find out in the manual of your computer or the Internet. You can always change them later.

Not all manufacturers use this address , but usually 192.168.0.1, 192.168.1.1 and 192.168.1.2 are the most common. However, you may find that some computers use numbers in the ranges of Class A and Class B, as 172.xxx or 10.xxx Here you can find a list of addresses common IPs used by different manufacturers routers.

IPs ran out and we multiplied them like bread and wine

Although all IP addresses are a number that identifies a device and all do so logically and hierarchically, not all are the same. Initially the IP Protocol IP addresses defined as a 32 – bit number : the IPv4 known that is still in use but should go out : With the huge growth of the Internet and the depletion of available addresses created a new protocol IPv6 uses 128 – bit addresses, many, many more millions of IPs available.

Each IPv4 address consists of 4 octets of 8 bits each. For example, Class A addresses have a first octet from 0 to 127 and the other three octets are used to identify the host. That means there are 126 Class A networks with 16,777,214 possible hosts for a total of 2,147,483,648 unique IP addresses. IPv4 has a total of 4,294,967,296 encoded in 32 -bit addresses and as we know a portion dedicated to private networks. Or whatever, my head has started to hurt.

IPv6 addresses have 16 octets instead of 4, are composed of 128 bits and are expressed in a 32-digit hexadecimal notation. IPv6 now allows each person on Earth has allocated several million IP . In total it covers 40,282,366,920,938,463,463,374.607.431.768.211.456 of available IP addresses. My head hurts again.

127.0.0.1

No place like home. Another very interesting address is 127.0.0.1, the address of the local loop or loopback . It is the IP you use your computer to talk to himself .

The IP 127.0.0.1 refers to the localhost , ie the local host, ie the PC you’re using. It can be used to locate a malfunction, to test the network, or to access a web service that has been installed on the computer itself.

Networking standards IPv4 mainly used the address 127.0.0.1 as loopback , so the addresses 127.xxx are reserved to designate the machine itself. In 1981, 0 and 127 were the only reserved class A networks. 0 was used to point the local guest and that left 127 for the local loop.

The logic behind this is that 127 is the last number in a class A network 127.0.0.1 is the first assignable number in the subnet. In binary 127 is is 01111111, which makes the address a “very easy to remember”. IPv6 uses instead :: 1 or 0: 0: 0: 0: 0: 0: 0: 1, a direction for many makes more sense because it is far easier to remember .