In Internet networking, a private network is a computer network that uses a private address space of IP addresses. These addresses are commonly used for local area networks (LANs) in residential, office, and enterprise environments. Both the IPv4 and the IPv6 specifications define private IP address ranges.[1][2]
Most Internet service providers (ISPs) allocate only a single publicly routable IPv4 address to each residential customer, but many homes have more than one computer, smartphone, or other Internet-connected device. In this situation, a network address translator (NAT/PAT) gateway is usually used to provide Internet connectivity to multiple hosts. Private addresses are also commonly used in corporate networks which, for security reasons, are not connected directly to the Internet. Often a proxy, SOCKS gateway, or similar devices are used to provide restricted Internet access to network-internal users.
Private network addresses are not allocated to any specific organization. Anyone may use these addresses without approval from regional or local Internet registries. Private IP address spaces were originally defined to assist in delaying IPv4 address exhaustion. IP packets originating from or addressed to a private IP address cannot be routed through the public Internet.
Private addresses are often seen as enhancing network security for the internal network, since use of private addresses internally makes it difficult for an external host to initiate a connection to an internal system.
^Y. Rekhter; B. Moskowitz; D. Karrenberg; G. J. de Groot; E. Lear (February 1996). Address Allocation for Private Internets. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC1918. BCP 5. RFC 1918. Best Common Practice. Obsoletes RFC 1627 and 1597. Updated by RFC 6761.
^R. Hinden; B. Haberman (October 2005). Unique Local IPv6 Unicast Addresses. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC4193. RFC 4193. Proposed Standard.
In Internet networking, a privatenetwork is a computer network that uses a private address space of IP addresses. These addresses are commonly used for...
virtual privatenetwork (VPN) is a mechanism for creating a secure connection between a computing device and a computer network, or between two networks, using...
customers, suppliers, or other approved parties. Extranets extend a privatenetwork onto the Internet with special provisions for authentication, authorization...
computer network and its network-accessible resources. Network security is used on a variety of computer networks, both public and private, to secure...
Internet-routable IP address of a NAT gateway can be used for an entire privatenetwork. As network address translation modifies the IP address information in packets...
A content delivery network or content distribution network (CDN) is a geographically distributed network of proxy servers and their data centers. The...
A virtual privatenetwork (VPN) service provides a proxy server to help users bypass Internet censorship such as geoblocking and users who want to protect...
A mobile virtual privatenetwork (mobile VPN or mVPN) is a VPN which is capable of persisting during sessions across changes in physical connectivity...
of private browsing modes due to differences in behavior. This is usually why some people mistake private browsing for a virtual privatenetwork. Apple's...
organization and are private. WANs can be separated from local area networks (LANs) in that the latter refers to physically proximal networks. The textbook definition...
reserved for privatenetworks and are not globally unique. Network administrators assign an IP address to each device connected to a network. Such assignments...
dedicated networks. The privatenetworks were often connected via gateways to the public network to reach locations not on the privatenetwork. Tymnet was...
Internet via a virtual privatenetwork (VPN) or an IP tunnel, which encapsulates packets, including their headers containing the private addresses, in a protocol...
providing isolation within the cloud, is accompanied with a virtual privatenetwork (VPN) function (again, allocated per VPC user) that secures, by means...
J. de Groot; E. Lear (February 1996). Address Allocation for Private Internets. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC1918. BCP 5. RFC 1918. Best Common...
The Digital PrivateNetwork Signalling System (DPNSS) is a network protocol used on digital trunk lines for connecting to PABX. It supports a defined set...
Mozilla VPN is an open-source virtual privatenetwork developed by Mozilla. It launched in beta as Firefox PrivateNetwork on September 10, 2019, and officially...
Dynamic Multipoint Virtual PrivateNetwork (DMVPN) is a dynamic tunneling form of a virtual privatenetwork (VPN) supported on Cisco IOS-based routers...
to offer "less capacity" than private peering, but to a larger number of networks. Many smaller networks, or networks which are just beginning to peer...
connection to go through. Users may establish communication through virtual privatenetwork (VPN) technologies to ease usage over the Internet, or as a LAN connection...
influencing search results. A private blog network (PBN) is a group of blogs that are owned by the same entity. A blog network can either be a group of loosely...
buri /yellowtail commonly used in sushi Hamachi (software), a virtual privatenetwork (VPN) application Hamachi, a fictional character in the manga Yōkaiden...
across metropolitan, regional, or national boundaries, using private or public network transports. Hosted in the cloud by a managed services provider...
telephone network or PSTN. A wireless network where the telephones are mobile and can move around anywhere within the coverage area. A privatenetwork where...
A Private Shared Wireless Network (PSWN) is a wide area wireless radio telecommunications network developed and provided by different entities specifically...
constitute the World Wide Web. There are also private websites that can only be accessed on a privatenetwork, such as a company's internal website for its...