Private network

In the Internet addressing architecture, a private network is a network that uses private IP address space. Both, the IPv4 and the IPv6 specifications define private addressing ranges. These addresses are commonly used for local area networks (LANs) in residential, office, and enterprise environments. Private IP address spaces were originally defined in an effort to delay IPv4 address exhaustion. In the Internet addressing architecture, a private network is a network that uses private IP address space. Both, the IPv4 and the IPv6 specifications define private addressing ranges. These addresses are commonly used for local area networks (LANs) in residential, office, and enterprise environments. Private IP address spaces were originally defined in an effort to delay IPv4 address exhaustion. Private network addresses are not allocated to any specific organization and anyone may use these addresses without approval from a regional Internet registry. However, IP packets addressed from them cannot be routed through the public Internet. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has directed the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) to reserve the following IPv4 address ranges for private networks:(p4)