IPv4 addresses are 32 bits long, which gives only about 4.3 billion possible addresses, far fewer than the number of devices online. To stretch that supply, RFC 1918 set aside three ranges as private addresses. Anyone may use them inside their own network without asking permission, and many organizations reuse the same ranges. Internet routers do not route private addresses, so traffic from them must be translated (NAT) to a public address before it reaches the internet.
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