Netgear wgt624v3 User Manual

Page of 92
Reference Manual for the 108 Mbps Wireless Firewall Router WGR624v3
Network, Routing, Firewall, and Basics
B-7
July 2004 202-10036-01
So that hosts recognize local IP broadcast packets
When a device broadcasts to its segment neighbors, it uses a destination address of the local 
network address with all ones for the host address. In order for this scheme to work, all devices 
on the segment must agree on which bits comprise the host address. 
So that a local router or bridge recognizes which addresses are local and which are remote
Private IP Addresses
If your local network is isolated from the Internet (for example, when using NAT), you can assign 
any IP addresses to the hosts without problems. However, the IANA has reserved the following 
three blocks of IP addresses specifically for private networks:
10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255
172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255
192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255
Choose your private network number from this range. The DHCP server of the WGR624v3 router 
is preconfigured to automatically assign private addresses.
Regardless of your particular situation, do not create an arbitrary IP address; always follow the 
guidelines explained here. For more information about address assignment, refer to RFC 1597, 
Address Allocation for Private Internets, and RFC 1466, Guidelines for Management of IP 
Address Space
. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) publishes RFCs on its Web site at 
www.ietf.org.
Single IP Address Operation Using NAT
In the past, if multiple computers on a LAN needed to access the Internet simultaneously, you had 
to obtain a range of IP addresses from the ISP. This type of Internet account is more costly than a 
single-address account typically used by a single user with a modem, rather than a router. The 
WGR624v3 router employs an address-sharing method called Network Address Translation 
(NAT). This method allows several networked computers to share an Internet account using only a 
single IP address, which may be statically or dynamically assigned by your ISP.
The router accomplishes this address sharing by translating the internal LAN IP addresses to a 
single address that is globally unique on the Internet. The internal LAN IP addresses can be either 
private addresses or registered addresses. For more information about IP address translation, refer 
to RFC 1631, The IP Network Address Translator (NAT).