Why does my Linksys WRT54G use 192.168.1.1 as its default address?
Name: JR Simpson
Why is it that my Linksys routers all use 192.168.1.1 as their default address? I had a Motorola WR850G router before this and it used 192.168.10.1. What is so special about the 192.168 prefix? Why doesn’t my router use my internet IP address?
The reason that your router uses the 192.168.x.x address range is simple: It’s reserved. Based on RFC1918 Address Allocation for Private Internets the 192.168 subnet has been reserved for private use. Most routers by default will ignore requests to the following IP blocks from the WAN (Internet) side:
10.0.0.0 – 10.255.255.255
172.16.0.0 – 172.31.255.255
192.168.0.0 – 192.168.255.255
The main benefit of the reserved address space is that it eliminates address conflicts between private networks. I, you, and your pet monkey can all be running the same IP address, say 192.168.1.50 on our computers and so long as we’re not connected to the same private network there won’t be a conflict.
The reason that we can both use the same IP address for each of our computers is because your router, well, ‘routes’ the information. Any request that you send to the internet goes through NAT (Network Address Translation). Basically, you send the request to your router, and the router sends the request to the internet for you. Once it gets a response from the internet the router then sends that response to the requesting machine.
This is why multiple computers all can use the router at once. Computer A requests Amazon.com and computer B requests Google. The router knows that it was computer A that requested Amazon, and so when Amazon’s servers respond to said request then the information is sent to the appropriate computer. That is, of course, a gross oversimplification of the process, but it explains the general concept.
You wouldn’t want your internal (LAN) address to correspond with your external (WAN) address because first, you want to avoid IP address conflicts. While your router should treat everything on the LAN as totally separate from the outside world, there is the possibility that routing table conflicts could arise. Second, any unsolicited requests that come to the router generally get ignored unless you’ve set up a DMZ host (a computer to where all of the unsolicited incoming traffic goes).
Your router offers your computer a great deal of protection due to the fact that it bears the brunt of the unsolicited internet traffic. You only get the packets that you request, so any random port-scanning malware won’t be able to connect to you.
So, don’t bother with the internal IP settings. There’s really no point unless you’re trying to set up a VPN; and that’s a whole other can of worms.
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Your router does not use your internet address because that address is reserved for your modem/ Gateway. I understand what your says and getting at but your router needs to be separate from your gateway because you are dishing out many different Ip’s to other computers. Is this the answer you want probably not, but it’s the simplest explanation.
OE attachments ( exe, wmv ) not coming through.
thanks a lot for your help. just a simple google and ther you were with the answer.
I have lost my password to my wireless network. I have the orginal disc but without the passsword to my network I am unable to add a new computer.
There will be an option to reset to factory dfaults, choose this and start again and set new admin pw.
http://www.datumit.com.au
wow……….its uses the 192.168 prefix cuz and also as computer repair man said its reserved for your modem/ Gateway he right but its also the defualt to all routers thats how u get into the routers bios
I want use my computer as a server and my IP address as a URL where people can visit my site so what I should do on the WRT54G for make this happen?
I’m having problems connecting to the internet at times.Like know I canget on it then 5 minutes from now it might go off.Had error678 one time then says it cant find the domainh30155.www.3.hp.com using DNS.Then it will say cant connectbecause the windows have failed to find the well known host http://www.microsoft.com. I put in this number 192.168.1.1 but it still messing up. Please help.
There’s a couple things you might try initially:
The first and most simple step is to unplug your cable/DSL modem and your router, leave them off for about a minute, and then power them back up. Your broadband modem should re-train and the router will reacquire its TCP/IP settings via DHCP.
If that doesn’t work, then you’re going to want to see if you can set your DNS servers manually. A lot of routers will use themselves as the primary DNS server, which doesn’t always work out that well. Open up a command prompt, and type ipconfig /all . If you see an address like 192.168.0.1 or ending in .1.1, .2.1, .10.1, or whatever in the DNS section, then trying to set the DNS servers to what your ISP dishes out may be beneficial.
You should be able to obtain the server IP addresses from your ISP, or you can log into your router and see if you can acquire them from there. For instance, my Linksys (Cisco) WRT54G2 Wireless-G Broadband Router has a status page (Screenshot below) that shows all the information needed:
Yours will more than likely have something similar.
Open up your network connections and edit the TCP/IPv4 settings for your network interface card (NIC).
If that doesn’t work, then post back with more details.