Internet Protocol Address is a means of providing unique identification to all devices within the network, so that the other computers can identify your computer. Anyways no two computers connected to a particular network can have same IP Addresses at any instant; just like no two houses have the same address. In this article we help you understand the difference between the private and public IP Address. Also there is a brief explanation on how the dynamic and static IP address, differ as well.

Public and Private IP Address:

There actually are two different types of IP Addresses: Public and Private IP Address and both of these have a dot decimal format. So lets’ run down to what each of them mean and if there is any interconnection between them.

Public IP Address:

A public IP Address is provided to your computer by the Internet Service Provider (ISP) as soon as you connect to the internet. Through it your computer can be uniquely identified throughout the internet. The user has absolutely no control over this IP Address and it isn’t fixed. Each time you freshly connect to the internet the same loop occurs and a new IP Address is assigned. This ‘are called the dynamic IP Addresses and are the most common ones. There are also the static IP Address which wouldn’t change at all, but are mostly confined to web hosting purposes.

The process that happens on the backstage is that once you typed in onlinecmag.com, this domain name will first be converted by the Domain Name Server (DNS) into the IP Address of the server hosting this website. Now the server has the exact address to which all the information in this website should be sent to. This is much similar to the postal services.

Private IP Address:

Private IP Addresses are the reserved set of IP Addresses among the 2.4 million IP Addresses which are allotted to the private networks (say Local Area Networks) by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). Here are they:

Any network takes up a set of these IP Addresses and assigns them to the computers in that particular network, just like the LAN. For clearer understanding, say a network contains 20 computers then their IP Addresses can be between 192.168.0.0 and 192.168.0.20 . All these 20 computers can communicate with each other but not with a computer from the other network. So, for these computers to connect to the internet, a router or other device which can perform Network Address Translation is required.

A Private IP Address though is extra-secure it doesn’t mean you can indulge in any unauthorized affairs and escape. There actually isn’t any IP Address that can go untraced, because this entire system is designed for transparency and better and uninterrupted information exchange.

This is some important information you need to have about the Public and Private IP Address. Do write in if you have any more of such questions and we will be happy to help.