Private IP vs Public IP Address? What is the Difference?

An IP address is what your Internet-connected device uses in order to send and receive data from other devices. There are two kinds of Internet protocol (IP) addresses: Private IP address and public IP address. If you are wondering what the difference between Private IP vs Public IP is, read the following help guide for more information. You can also find instructions on how to change both your public IP address and your private IP address.

Public IP Address – Private IP vs Public IP

When you sign up with an Internet service provider, you are assigned a public IP address. This IP address allows you to surf the web, stream videos, and play online games. A public IP address is also known as your external IP address. Any website you visit or app you use can see your public IP address.

A public IP address can be static or dynamic. A static IP address remains constant i.e. does not change whereas a dynamic IP address changes from time to time.

Public IP addresses are assigned by regions i.e. if you live in USA you get an American public IP address. People using the Internet in France get a French IP address and so on. In other words, a public IP address determines your geolocation online. You can find your IP address by visiting www.whatismyip.network.

How Can I change my Public IP Address?

There are several ways to change your public IP address.

1. The simplest method to change your public IP address is by restarting your router. Note that this only works if you are assigned a dynamic IP address.
2. You can also contact your ISP and ask them to provide you with a new public IP address.
3. Use VPN (virtual private network).  A VPN allows you to temporarily hide your IP address and appear to be connected to the Internet using an IP address from virtually any country in the world. Here’s how:
   1. Sign up with a VPN provider.
   2. Download and install the VPN application on Android, iOS, PC, or Mac.
   3. Sign in and connect to a server.
   4. Check if you got your new IP here.
   5. You have successfully changed your IP address.

Make sure that the VPN provider that you use does not keep logs of your browsing activity. If you want to use VPN, to watch a certain geo-restricted channel, verify that the VPN service does have VPN servers in the same country as that streaming channel. ExpressVPN is a good example. They have over 130 different VPN locations around the world. Setting up a VPN connection should not be much of a hassle, even for newbies. There are VPN apps which can be installed on PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Android. Again, VPN services like ExpressVPN provide their users with these VPN applications.

Benefits of Having a VPN

There are many benefits of using a VPN.

• All your traffic is encrypted. Nobody will be able to spy on what you are doing online.
• Your private data such as your online banking transactions benefit from an additional layer of privacy and security.
• If you download torrents, using a VPN is a must. Otherwise, anybody can see which files you are downloading.
• You can obtain a UK, US, Canadian, Australian IP address which in turn allows you to bypass regional restrictions and unblock geo-blocked streaming channels like Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, HBO GO, or BBC iPlayer.

Private IP Address – Private IP vs Public IP

A private IP address is your device’s local or internal IP address. It is not issued to you by your ISP. Instead, your router hands out private IP addresses to all the devices you connect to it. If the router’s IP address is 192.168.0.1, for instance, all devices connected to it will have a private IP address within the range of 192.168.0.xxx. Again, this is not the computer’s public IP address. A private IP address mainly helps all your household devices to communicate with each other on your Local Area Network (LAN).

How Can I Change My Private IP Address?

Changing your devices private IP address can usually be done by restarting the router or the device itself. You can also manually assign a private IP address to your PC, Mac, PS3, PS4, Xbox, Android, or iOS devices. Make sure that the IP address you choose is in the same range of your router’s IP address i.e. if your router’s IP address is 10.0.0.1, your PC’s IP address should be 10.0.0.11. Also, verify that no other device connected to the same router is using that private IP address. Otherwise, there will be a conflict between these IP address and you will lose your Internet connectivity.

In general, there should be no need to change private IP addresses. Manually configuring a wrong private IP address on one of your devices will cause connectivity issues.

Private IP vs Public IP – Round Up

In conclusion, your public IP address is the address the Internet uses to communicate with you whereas your private IP address helps your local devices to communicate with each other. Feel free to post a comment below if there is any point about private IP vs public IP you would do get more info about.