Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Your Visit To 192.168.1.1 Will Put You On Information Highway

By Iftikhar Tirmizi

Many network devices have a default IP address " 192.168.1.1 " including home broadband routers from LinkSys. By using the network routers administrative console, you can change the default address at your home.

RFC 1918 has defined 3 private address ranges: 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. A distinctive quality of Private IP addresses is that they can be used on many different networks. This means in effect that any network router, or computer on a local network, can be set to use this address.

However, the drawback of this is that as with any IP addresses, only one component on a network can utilize this IP address, in order to avoid address conflicts. In this way, private IP addresses are said to be non-routable. In other words, you cannot use this IP address to connect to the internet, without the use of Network Address Translation (NAT). In other words, whilst you and I can both have a component on our different networks with the IP address 192.168.1.1, we will not be able to connect these two different networks because of the address conflict that will ensue.

Thus be sure, whenever you connect a new device to your existing network that its default IP address (which will most probably be in one of the Private IP ranges as set out by RFC 1918), isn't already in use on your network. If you find that there are address conflicts on your network, you must contact your system administrator immediately to change one or more of the IPs to another suitable address.

There is a lot of information on the IP address 192.168.1.1 in the LinkSys user manual. It will explain the pros of having a default IP address when playing networked games or when using DSL and cable connections.

Using a private IP address has great advantages and one of them is that is it very useful when troubleshooting. You can troubleshoot easily by going to the main controls and connecting to the different components enclosed there if there is a problem with your router or network. Network components, usernames and passwords can be found there. DCP and LAN settings can easily be changed here for better suitability.

The private IP address 192.168.1.1 can also be used as a gateway. Information accessibility will be quicker, and more effective on your network by this. What are gateways? They are traffic controllers and rout-indicators of dataflow in a network. The speed of dataflow in your network can be increased considerably by using this method competently.

This article has shown that by utilizing a private IP address you can quickly find problems on your network, increase dataflow and make administrative changes. It should however be emphasized that making changes to any of the IP settings can be disastrous if you are not an expert in this field. Thus, should there be any problems on your network, or with your route directory, it is encouraged that you call for the help of your system administrator or a networking expert.

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