Private-use IP addresses

Private Use IP addresses are in these ranges:

• 10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255
• 172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255
• 192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255

These address blocks are reserved for use on private networks, and should never appear in the public Internet. There are millions of private networks (for example home firewalls often use them). People can use these address blocks without informing us, so we have no record of who uses which of these addresses.

The point of private address space is to allow many organizations in different places to use the same addresses, and as long as these disconnected or self-contained islands of IP-speaking computers (private networks) are not connected, there is no problem. If you see an apparent attack, or spam, coming from one of these address ranges, then either it is coming from your local environment, your ISP, or the address has been "spoofed".

The Private addresses are documented in RFC 1918. If you have further questions about RFC 1918 usage, please contact your ISP.