Find your IP address

IP addresses are 32bit addresses which computers and devices used to communicate in computer network.These IP addresses are divided into classes which are A,B,and C and each class has range.For Ex-Class A ip address starts with 1 to 126 .For more info on IP address classes click here.
IP addresses are allocated by Internet Assigned Numbers Authority(IANA)which manages the allocation of these addresses globally. IANA has five regional authorities which allocates these IP address locally.For ex-American Registry for Internet numbers(ARIN)for United States,Canada...

What is my IP address?

To find out what your ip address is,Press windows logo+r>type ncpa.cpl>see which connection is connected,right click it >Status>Details.

 

To change the IP address,Click properties >Double click "Internet Protocol Version 4(TCP/IPv4)>click "use the following IP address>type any IP address you want under Private IP address range like 192.168.10.1.Another thing to understand is Subnet mask which is also prefixed for every class which we will talk about later but for now when you type ip address ,computer will fill the subnet mask field for you.Also don't forget to fill in the Default-gateway which is your router's Ip address.

In the above screenshot,you can see that my default'gateway is 192.168.1.1.You can see your default-gateway under "Details"

Private and Public IP address :

Private IP addresses are those which are not meant to be routed on the Internet.These addresses can be used inside your Local Area Network(LAN)(owned by you) for ex-in your home,office but they can't be routed on the internet.Interesting thing is that two neighboring homes can have the same private IP address but it doesn't affect the functioning of the network.You can change the private IP address whatever you like as long as they are valid addresses. Each class has its own private IP address range means you can configure any IP address from these range and your computer will not bite you.

Valid Private IP address range :

Class A :  10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255

Class B :  172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255

Class C :  192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255.

Public IP address are those addresses which are (not owned by you) routed on the Internet and are accessible from anywhere in the world.You can't have just any public IP address on your computer.These IP addresses are purchased.For ex-Google DNS server has IP address 4.4.4.4 which is a public ip address.Public IP address ranges are :

Valid Public IP address range :

Class A : 1.0.0.0 - 9.255.255.255

                11.0.0.0 - 126.255.255.255

Class B : 128.0.0.0 - 172.16.255.255

                172.32.0.0 - 191.255.255.255

Class C :  192.0.0.0 - 192.167.255.255

                 192.169.0.0 -223.255.255.255