Your computer likely has public and private IP addresses. And you’ll need to know that computer’s private IP address so you can configure your router to direct that kind of traffic to the right computer on your local network. You’ll need to know your network’s public IP address that people can type into their client software. Maybe you’re playing a multiplayer game, maybe you need to access a home-hosted media server, or maybe you just want to get r emote access to one of your PCs. Say you’re hosting some kind of server software on a computer on your network and you need people on the Internet to be able to connect to it. Sometimes, you might need to know the private IP address of a device or your network’s public IP address-or maybe both. RELATED: How to Hide Your IP Address: The 5 Best Ways Note that if your computer is connected directly to the Internet with no router sitting in between-something we really don’t recommend-your computer’s IP address is a public IP address. From an outside perspective, all devices on the home network are communicating with the Internet from a single public IP address. The router acts as an intermediary, forwarding traffic to the local IP addresses that request it. The computers, smartphones, game consoles, and other devices behind the router each have a unique private IP address on the home network. In a typical home network, a router has a public IP address on the Internet. The answer to all this IP address wizardry is that your router-whether it’s a standalone device or a modem/router combo unit-essentially serves as a bridge between two networks. RELATED: What's the Difference Between a Modem and a Router?

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