Most home devices have an address used inside the local network and communicate with the wider internet through one or more addresses routed by the ISP. The two roles are easy to confuse because both are called “IP addresses.”

Private IPv4 space

The commonly used private ranges are 10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, and 192.168.0.0/16. They are intentionally reusable on separate private networks and are not globally routed on the public internet.

Public IP

A public address is routable outside your local network. In IPv4, the router often translates traffic for many private devices through a public connection. In IPv6, addressing and routing work differently and devices can have globally scoped IPv6 addresses while a firewall still controls unsolicited traffic.

Why 192.168.1.1 cannot identify your house?

Millions of unrelated networks can use the same private address at the same time. That is why an IP page should never imply that a common private gateway uniquely identifies a router model, owner, or physical location.

Use What Is My IP for the internet-facing address and the router-IP guide for your local gateway.

RFC 1918 private IPv4

10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12 and 192.168.0.0/16 are reusable private ranges. Millions of homes can use 192.168.1.1 simultaneously because the address is not globally routed.

Public and CGNAT

Your router can have a public IPv4, a provider-private/CGNAT address, IPv6, or combinations. The address a website sees can differ from the router WAN value under CGNAT/VPN.

Privacy

A public IP can identify an ISP/block and approximate region but does not reliably identify a person or street address.

Video walkthrough for Private IP vs. Public IP: The Addresses Inside and Outside Your Home Network

Visual explanation of private/public addressing and translation, useful before working on port forwards, double NAT or inbound-access problems.