RFC 1918 (IETF) PRIVATE NETWORK RANGES

RFC 1918 is a request for comments document published by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). It defines a set of IP (Internet Protocol) address ranges that are reserved for private network use. These address ranges are not routable on the public internet, which means they are meant for use within private networks like homes, businesses, and organizations.

The three IP address ranges defined in RFC 1918 are:

1. 10.0.0.0 to 10.255.255.255 (a single class A network)
2. 172.16.0.0 to 172.31.255.255 (16 contiguous class B networks)
3. 192.168.0.0 to 192.168.255.255 (256 contiguous class C networks)

These reserved IP address ranges are used to create local or private networks that don’t conflict with public internet IP addresses. This helps prevent IP address collisions and enables organizations to use their own internal addressing schemes.