How do I know if an IP address is public or private within 1 minute？

You may have known that IP addresses are classified into three types: public IP, private IP, and reserved IP addresses. Click to read What are public IP addresses, private IP addresses, and reserved IP addresses? Actually, the private IP is also part of the reserved IP address. We use public IP from the very beginning, but with the popularization of computers, ISP allocates private IP to users instead because of the lack of public IPv4 addresses. It also brings a lot of impact on the user experience.

Recently, many users have asked whether their IP is a public IP. Today, I will teach you two ways to quickly determine it. Just take 1 minute. Super easy! And both two ways are applicable for determining anyone's IP address.

Total Time: 1 minute

Supply & Tools:

• Mobile phone, or;
• Computer

From the definition of IP addresses, the public IP provides communication for large-scale networks such as countries and cities, and the Private IP provides communication for smaller networks such as a home, a school, and a company. The private IP address has 3 fixed IP segments. Generally speaking, if an IP address is not a private IP, it is likely a public IP in our daily communication. Therefore, we can easily tell whether an IP is a private IP or a public IP from the IP address range.

1. Get to know the range of private IP address. The 3 IP address segments include 10.0.0.0~10.255.255.255, 172.16.0.0~172.31.255.255, and 192.168.0.0~192.168.255.255. Each one corresponds to a network class A, B, and C. The number of IP addresses is also different. You can view it as follows.

2. Check your IP address if it belongs to any one of the above 3 ranges. If it belongs, it means it is a private IP; if it does not, it is a public IP. For example, IP 172.16.12.1 is within the IP segment 172.16.0.0~172.31.255.255, which means that IP 172.16.12.1 is a private IP, not a public IP.

In addition, a user's IP may be 100.64.X.X, for example, 100.64.0.1. The IP address block of IP 100.64.X.X is 100.64.0.0/10, and the range is 100.64.0.0 ~ 100.127.255.255, including a total of 4,194,304 IP addresses which are called reserved addresses. However, the reserved address is also used for the private network. More specifically, a Carrier-grade NAT used for ISPs.

At present, it is a common existence. There is even telecom ISP who directly assign private IP addresses starting with 172 or 10 to users. However, this allocation method is prone to conflict with the user's router IP address. It is better to assign an IP address like 100.64.X.X. After all, the newly established reserved address for ISP is less likely to be occupied by personal network devices.

If you do not remember the range of private IP addresses, you can also search and query directly from the IPSHU website, and it will directly tell you whether the IP address is a public IP or a private IP.

1. Go to IPSHU. Open the browser of your mobile phone or computer, enter ipshu.com in the browser's address bar, and press Enter or click here http://ipshu.com to enter the site.

2. Query the IP address. Enter the IP address you want to query in the search box on the homepage of IPSHU, such as 220.181.17.146, and then click Search.

3. Check the results. IPSHU will directly tell you whether the IP address is a public IP or a private IP, and it provides the location information and rich pictures and text to explain. For example, IP 220.181.17.146 is a public IP address, which comes from Beijing, China.

1. Better download experience
If you have a public network IP, you can find other nodes faster, and get more download data with faster speed when performing P2P downloads. If using a private IP, you may not accessible to some "unpopular" resources.

2. More secure interconnection experience
With the rapid development of IoT, many devices support connecting to the network, such as smart TVs, smart cameras, etc. If a smart camera is connected via a public network IP, it will eliminate the risk of leaking privacy without going through any third-party server.

3. Better gaming experience
The public network IP does not need to be forwarded by a router or switch, and the connection efficiency is higher, and some games require a public network IP to connect.

If you have a necessary need for a public IP address, you can contact your ISP to ask them to assign a public IP. However, since the public IPv4 address has been exhausted, your request will be less likely to be met. IPv6 will completely solve the problem if it could be popularized as soon as possible.

The above is how to quickly determine whether an IP address is a public IP or a private IP. Is it super easy? Now, the question comes. Do you know whether IP 10.122.0.17 and IP 209.85.218.47 are public IPs or private IPs? Tell me your answer in the comments.