Other Private IP Addresses
Ranges for private IP addresses
There are essentially four private ranges which range from:
10.0.0.0 through 10.255.255.255
169.254.0.0 through 169.254.255.255 (APIPA only)
172.16.0.0 through 172.31.255.255
192.168.0.0 through 192.168.255.255
Popular IP addresses include 192.168.1.1 for 3Com router manufacturer, 10.0.1.1 for Apple, 192.168.1.1 for Dell and 192.168.2.1 for Microsoft. The address 192.168.1.1 is actually a common address used largely over a large number of networks, which while decreasing consumer difficulties on one hand, conversely, increases security risks exponentially. Netgear and D-Link routers are pretty popular networking devices. These use 192.168.0.1 as their default IP address. Similarly, several SMC and Belkin router models come with their factory set IP address of 192.168.2.1. Network engineers generally memorize these common IP addresses as they have to deal with equipment manufactured by the above mentioned networking device manufacturers quite often.
The advantages of having a private IP address, other than the ones already mentioned, are that one does not need to register of pay for them in any way. Also when you connect to the Internet via a Firewall and NAT, you will not block any other address ranges yourself. You will possibly be facilitating greater access of information by the economical use of unique IP addresses. Finally, depending on your Firewall, there is little or no performance degradation, which along with the security benefits ensures a better browsing experience by far.
Using a private IP address on your computer can help reduce network security risks, thereby ensuring a relatively safer browsing experience free from malware and spyware attacks and it can also simultaneously conserve public addressing space. A private IP address would be inaccessible from outside your network and therefore it would not be a problem if different networks use the same address. This in turn would aid the conservation of IP addresses and stall the problem of their exhaustion at least for a few more years. After the connection of several computers to a particular network, a Network Address Translator would be required to help you connect to the internet, but more about that after we define the ranges between which IP addresses are considered private. An IP address is considered private if it falls within one of the ranges reserved for private use by Internet standard groups.