Router IP Address

A frequently ask question when building a simple wireless network environment at home or at the small office to share the cable or DSL Internet connection is how to setup the router IP address.

In large corporate networks a simple question about the router IP address is not a big deal. They have lots of expert resources to take care of information services detail including the network administrators who take care of the networking details, the system administrators who take care of logical and or physical infrastructure, security experts who take care of information security management and or risk security management and so on. The main goal is the reliability, the integrity, and the availability of system resources.

However, for home users that might be lack of networking experience and expertise – setting up the router IP address can be a problem. The home network commonly consists of Cable or DSL modem, a multi function wireless router, and two or more computers that share home network resources such as Internet connection, files / documents, printer, music, and other HD multimedia files. See also how to share the printer.

Router IP Address - Wireless Router Diagram

The following is the simple diagram of home wireless network using cable or DSL modem connected to the wireless router. You can connect the RJ-45 modem LAN port to the RJ-45 router WAN port using Cat5 UTP cable (that comes with the modem or router).

The WAN port of the wireless router needs a public IP address provided by the Internet service provider. It depends on the ISP, the router IP address either dynamically assigned by the ISP (the router WAN port would be configured as DHCP client) or manually setup using a static IP address provided by the ISP. Usually the ISP will manage the WAN router IP address.

What about the client computers on the local network? The client computers on the network will depend how you configure the DHCP services of the router. No worries, mostly the wireless router appliances come with the default DHCP services enabled. If you know nothing about the DHCP server, just leave the DHCP feature default. It means that all the computers on the network will receive the IP configuration from the DHCP services automatically. You just need to make sure the properties of the TCP/IP protocol of the computers are set to obtain the IP address automatically. The IP Private addressing scheme is not routed to the internet. The following table is the private addressing scheme as defined in RFC 1918 addressing.

Mostly all the DHCP services configured on the portable wireless routers are designed with one subnet Class C private IP address in the range 192.168.0.0 and 192.168.255.254. Check related article how to find the IP addressing.


Unlike simple home network, in a large corporate network, the router IP address is little bit different. This is a pure network router with security policy access-list properly configured. Both ends usually configured with the public IP address with following common diagram. See also computer networking diagram.

Router IP Address - In a corporate network diagram

The router with secured access-list policy is the first defense against any kinds of internet threats such as malware or any other network threats. The router IP address both ends of router interfaces (the serial that face to the internet and the Ethernet that face to the firewall) and the external Ethernet port of the firewall use registered public IP addresses supplied by the ISP. And the corporate network behind the firewall is the private network – a trusted network where the information assets must be securely protected from the un-trusted network.

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By Ki Grinsing