Find Your Home's IP Address in Your Router

A home broadband router has two IP addresses—one is its own private address on the local network and the other is the external, public IP address that's used for communicating with outside networks on the internet.

The external facing address managed by a router is set when it connects to the internet service provider with a broadband modem. This address can be seen from web-based IP lookup services such as IP Chicken and also from within the router itself.

It's a similar process with other manufacturers, but on Linksys routers, you can see the public IP address on the Status page in the Internet section. NETGEAR routers might call this address the Internet Port IP Address and have it listed in the Maintenance > Router Status screen.

Home routers have their local address set to a default, private IP address number. It's usually the same address for the other models from that manufacturer, and it can be seen in the manufacturer's documentation. 

You can also check this IP address in the router's settings. For example, most Linksys routers list the private address, called the Local IP Address in the Setup > Basic Setup screen. A NETGEAR router might call it a Gateway IP Address on the Maintenance > Router Status page.

Here are the default local IP addresses for some of the most popular brands of routers:

• Linksys routers usually use 192.168.1.1 for their default internal address
• D-Link and NETGEAR routers are most commonly set to 192.168.0.1
• Cisco routers are often 192.168.10.2, 192.168.1.254, or 192.168.1.1
• Some Belkin and SMC routers use 192.168.2.1
• U.S. Robotics routers use 192.168.123.254

Administrators have the option to change this IP address during router setup or at any time later in the router's administrative console.

Unlike other IP addresses on home networks that usually change periodically, the router's private IP address remains static (fixed) unless someone manually changes it.

Tip: There are a number of ways to find the local IP address of the router in Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems if you'd rather not look at the router itself. You can do that by finding the default gateway address.

The public IP address of a home network will probably change periodically because the ISP assigns dynamic addresses to most customers. These change over time as they're reallocated from the company's address pool.

These numbers apply to the traditional IPv4 addressing most commonly used on networks. The new IPv6 uses a different numbering system for its IP addresses although similar concepts apply.

On corporate networks, network discovery services based on Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) can automatically determine the IP addresses of routers and many other network devices.