About IP address ranges
An IP address is a numerical label assigned to each device on a network. IPv4 uses 32-bit addresses (four octets, e.g. 192.168.1.1), while IPv6 uses 128-bit addresses (eight groups of hexadecimal digits, e.g. 2001:0db8:85a3::8a2e:0370:7334).
Address ranges explained
- Public IPs — Globally routable addresses visible on the internet. This generator avoids reserved blocks (10.x, 127.x, 172.16–31.x, 192.168.x) to produce genuine public addresses.
- Private IPs (RFC 1918) — Used in internal networks:
10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, and 192.168.0.0/16. Common for local area network testing.
- Loopback — The
127.0.0.0/8 range, used for local machine communication. 127.0.0.1 is the most common loopback address (localhost).
Common uses
- Populating test databases with IP address fields
- Testing IP-based filtering, rate limiting, and geolocation logic
- Generating realistic network logs for security testing
- Testing firewall rule configurations with diverse IP ranges
API access
Public IPv4: GET /api/v1/network/ip?type=public&version=4&count=50
Private IPv4: GET /api/v1/network/ip?type=private&count=20
IPv6: GET /api/v1/network/ip?version=6&count=10
What is the difference between IPv4 and IPv6? +
IPv4 uses 32-bit addresses (about 4.3 billion unique addresses) while IPv6 uses 128-bit addresses (about 340 undecillion unique addresses). IPv6 was developed to address IPv4 exhaustion. IPv4 is still most common in practice, but IPv6 adoption is growing.
Why avoid certain ranges for public IPs? +
Some IP ranges are reserved by IANA and cannot appear as public internet addresses. These include loopback (127.x), private networks (10.x, 172.16–31.x, 192.168.x), link-local (169.254.x), and multicast (224.x). This generator excludes these to produce addresses that look genuinely public.