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What's the history behind 192.168.1.1?

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Re: What's the history behind 192.168.1.1?

#21
post #10

Something I never understood is why people choose 192.168.1.1 for private networks. Being all the other factors equal, isn't 10.1.1.1 easier to type and more "aesthetically pleasant"?

It depends. Some use 10.0.0.x, some use 192.168.1.x and some use 192.168.178.x

There's also 172.16.0.x, which I have never seen used by default on any networking devices.. which makes it perfect if you have a piece of network that you visibly want to separate from the rest of the LAN.

Re: What's the history behind 192.168.1.1?

#22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One possible reason is that a lot of corporate networks use 10.x.x.x. If you’re using a similar subnet at home, using a VPN can get awkward.

Yep. We use both 10.x.x.x and 192.168.x.x at my workplace (who knows why). I had to request a special change to our VPN settings so I could still access my home network while connected to it.

Wouldn't it have been easier to change your home network?

Re: What's the history behind 192.168.1.1?

#23
post #21
post #10

Something I never understood is why people choose 192.168.1.1 for private networks. Being all the other factors equal, isn't 10.1.1.1 easier to type and more "aesthetically pleasant"?

It depends. Some use 10.0.0.x, some use 192.168.1.x and some use 192.168.178.x There's also 172.16.0.x, which I have never seen used by default on any networking devices.. which makes it perfect if you have a piece of network that you visibly want to separate from the rest of the LAN.

I use 172.16.0.0/12 for that reason, to differentiate it from other subnets when using VPNs.

Re: What's the history behind 192.168.1.1?

#25
I wish there was a netblock reserved for packets that never leave a physical (or virtual) host, that could be used for the default internal network for things like Docker. In my case, Docker defaulted to 172.17.0.0/16, which happened to conflict with one of the IP ranges for my wing of the building at work.

I've resorted to using RFC 5737 (test-net-1 through 3) IP ranges for this purpose, even though that isn't what they are designed for.

Re: What's the history behind 192.168.1.1?

#27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. We use both 10.x.x.x and 192.168.x.x at my workplace (who knows why). I had to request a special change to our VPN settings so I could still access my home network while connected to it.

Wouldn't it have been easier to change your home network?

Easier to change address allocations and DNS entries of a dozen devices in my network to fix the problem for just me, than to make a request to corporate IT to fix the problem for everyone? No.

Re: What's the history behind 192.168.1.1?

#28
post #10

Something I never understood is why people choose 192.168.1.1 for private networks. Being all the other factors equal, isn't 10.1.1.1 easier to type and more "aesthetically pleasant"?

> Something I never understood is why people choose 192.168.1.1 for private networks

While interviewing someone for an entry-level job, I told the interviewee that there was a network using 10.0/16 (a 16-bit subnet mask, or more popularly 10.0.x.x). He corrected me and said that 10.0.0.0 networks should have an 8 bit subnet mask (10.x.x.x). On one hand, I definitely liked that he was willing to challenge me, even during an interview, and that he knew the spec (RFC 1918 does assign an 8-bit mask to the 10. private network). On the other hand, I wasn't sure he was technically correct that a 16-bit mask was wrong, even if 8-bits was 'correct', and I couldn't see what negative consequence the 16-bit subnet had - his thinking seemed a bit rigid. Anyway, maybe there are other purists who believe smaller networks should use 192.168/16, or maybe they instinctively use it because the RFC gives it the smaller network allocation. Or maybe they know something that I don't.

> isn't 10.1.1.1 easier to type and more "aesthetically pleasant"?

And it's much easier for non-technical people to understand and to remember without error. In fact, I recommend something even easier, such as 10.9.8.x. For people supporting the non-technical, those little details can save hours, even a day. I've seen cases where after hours of frustration, the support tech discovers that the user typed in something like 129.168, or 192.16.8. Great support reps are great humanitarians, able to handle those situations with grace, without humiliating the poor user, and without heavy drinking.

EDIT: clarifying edit

Re: What's the history behind 192.168.1.1?

#29
post #25

I wish there was a netblock reserved for packets that never leave a physical (or virtual) host, that could be used for the default internal network for things like Docker. In my case, Docker defaulted to 172.17.0.0/16, which happened to conflict with one of the IP ranges for my wing of the building at work. I've resorted to using RFC 5737 (test-net-1 through 3) IP ranges for this purpose, even though that isn't what…

Uuh, 127.0.0.1 never leaves the physical machine. It's also a full subnet, so 127.0.0.254 would work as well.

Dockers main usecase just isn't purely internal, do using that ip range wouldn't make any sense

Re: What's the history behind 192.168.1.1?

#30
post #10

Something I never understood is why people choose 192.168.1.1 for private networks. Being all the other factors equal, isn't 10.1.1.1 easier to type and more "aesthetically pleasant"?

> Something I never understood is why people choose 192.168.1.1 for private networks While interviewing someone for an entry-level job, I told the interviewee that there was a network using 10.0/16 (a 16-bit subnet mask, or more popularly 10.0.x.x). He corrected me and said that 10.0.0.0 networks should have an 8 bit subnet mask (10.x.x.x). On one hand, I definitely liked that he was willing to challenge me, even dur…

He was wrong. Subnets exits for two things. Physical segmentation of networks and consequently limiting the scope of broadcasts.

With a /8 (especially with desktop machines) the broadcast would definitely be a major bottleneck in the network.

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