You probably know that every single device that’s connected to the internet has an IP address. What you probably don’t know, however, is that not all IP addresses are the same.
When you want to reach a destination in the real world, you ask for its address and put it in your GPS. When you want to reach a destination on the internet, you also ask for its address, and you type it into the URL bar of your favorite web browser.
The problem with the internet is that not every destination has a public address. Some destinations have only what’s called a private address, and the IP address 192.168.0.1 is one of them.
192.168.0.1 is a private IP address, similar to 192.168.1.1 or 10.0.0.1 used by many vendors as the default gateway — a sort of VIP entrance, if you will, leading you to the control room of your router, the admin interface.
This admin interface is where you can access various settings, adjust controls, and tweak configurations to suit your online needs. Unlike public IP addresses, the 192.168.0.1 private address isn’t unique — there are countless routers out there that use it. However, this address can always be accessed only from within each private network. Well, at least if you know the correct login credentials (more about them soon).
There are many routers that use 192.168.0.1 as the default IP address. Here’s a list of manufacturers that have released at least one router that uses 192.168.0.1 as the default IP address:
Aceex | Belkin | Card King |
Actiontec | Bountiful WiFi | CastleNet |
AmbiCom | BroadMax | Cisco |
Anker | Buffalo | CCNet |
Aperion Audio | Compex | |
Arris | Conceptronic | |
Arrowpoint | Contec | |
Askey | Corega | |
AT&T | CardlePoint | |
ATEL | Cyberguard | |
Axesstel | ||
AXIMcom |
D-LINK | EDUP | Freecom |
Diamond | Eero | Fry’s Electronics |
Dovado | EHome | |
DrayTek | Encore | |
EnGenius | ||
Ericsson |
GEmtek | Hiltron | |
HotBrick | ||
Huawei |
Kingston | Luxul | |
Konica | LevelOne | |
Kyocera | Linksys |
Maxon | NEC | OKI |
McAfee | Netgear | Open |
MediaLink | NexLand | Opengear |
Mitsumi Electric | Nexxt Solutions | OvisLink |
Monoprice | ||
Motorola |
Phicomm | QNAP | RCA |
Proxim | Rocketfish | |
Rosewill | ||
Ruckus Wireless |
Sagemcom | Technicolor | U-Media |
SAMSUNG | Teleadapt | UBEE |
Scientific | Tenda | UMAX |
SENAO | Thomson | |
SerComm | Totolink | |
Sitecom | TP-Link | |
Sky | TRENDnet | |
SMS | Troy Wireless | |
SnapGear | ||
SparkLAN | ||
Sprint | ||
Symbol |
Virgin Media | Winstars | |
Vodafone |
Zoom | 3COM | |
ZTE | ||
ZyXEL |
Examples of router manufacturers that use 192.168.0.1 as the default IP address very often include D-Link, Netgear, Asus, Belkin, Zyxel, Linksys, and TP-Link.
Routers that use 192.168.0.1 as the default IP address don’t let any random person connected to the same local network access the admin interface. That would be a horrible cybersecurity risk. Instead, they protect the admin interface with a login name and password.
Most manufacturers use very simple default login combinations, expecting users to change them to something more secure as soon as possible. Here are some of the default login combinations for routers using the 192.168.0.1 address (starting with the most common one):
admin/admin
admin/password
admin/1234
user/user
admin/blank
root/root
If you’ve tried all these combinations and none of them worked, then it’s likely you or someone else has already set up more secure login credentials. In that case, you can perform a factory reset of your router to restore it back to its original configuration.
Check the list below to see any router's default login name and password:
If you’ve ever tried to open http://192.168.0.1 or any other router IP address in a web browser, you probably know it’s impossible to get very far without the correct router password. The problem is that every router is different, and there are many default router login/password combinations to try.
However, what if you find yourself staring at an error message instead of the login screen? What if your router's IP address isn't 192.168.0.1? Well, don't worry, there’s a solution, and it involves the following steps:
Now that you've got your router's actual IP address, you can try to access the admin panel again. To log in to your router's admin interface, follow the steps below:
The most common router login names are admin, root, administrator, user.
The most common router passwords include: admin, password, 1234, unknown, epicrouter, user, root, smcadmin, motorola, zoomadsl, guest, conexant, vodafone, mysweex, airlive, telus, 3play, 12345, ubnt, sky, dsl, cciadmin, admintelecom, 123, zxdsl, speedstream, router, public, highspeed, gvt12345, 3bb, 1234567890, tmadmin, op3n, kpn-adsl, cisco, changeme, atlantis, administrator, 123456.
Some routers have the default router login/password combination printed on a sticker at the back or bottom, while others list it in the manual. There are also websites that list common passwords for different router manufacturers, such as RouterPasswords.com. Now that you know how to log into routers, it’s time to look at common router settings.
After a successful router login, you should be able to change router settings. There are many settings you can change, but the ones you’ll likely be interested in the most all revolve around wireless internet access and security.
The reason why there are certain destinations on the internet that don’t have public addresses has everything to do with the Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4), which defines an IP address as a 32-bit number. Because the IPv4 pool is 32-bits in size, it can contain only 4,294,967,296 addresses.
Out of these, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has directed the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) to reserve 17.9 million addresses for private networks, which are typically used for local area networks (LANs) in residential, office, and enterprise environments.
You might think that nearly 4.3 billion IP address would be enough, but you would be wrong. There are now around 23 billion connected devices, and the number is expected to double by 2023. To cope with the IP address shortage, a single public IP address is often used to hide an entire IP address space consisting of private IP addresses using network address translation (NAT), a method of remapping one IP address space into another.
A new version of the Internet Protocol has also been developed, called IPv6. Unlike its predecessor, IPv6 uses a 128-bit address, allowing for approximately 3.4×1038 addresses, which is enough to assign a unique IPv6 address to every single atom on the surface of the Earth.
Private IP addresses, like 192.168.0.1, are used for identifying devices within a local network, be it home, office, or school. They enable inter-device communication in a closed environment and are reusable across different networks.
In contrast, public IP addresses are globally unique identifiers assigned by Internet Service Providers (ISPs). They help your device communicate with the world wide web, ensuring the internet data you request finds its way back to you.
192.168.0.1 is one of many private IP addresses, which are used by routers to identify themselves on a network. If you have a router that uses this IP address and you know its login and password, you can type the address into the URL field of your web browser, log in, and change any router settings you want.
To access your router admin page, you need to enter its gateway IP address into your web browser's address bar. Then, you will be prompted to provide the correct login name and password.
To log in to your 192.168 0.1 router, follow these steps:
The 192.168.0.1 password is needed to access the administrative settings of a router via the 192.168.0.1 IP address. By default, it’s often set to “admin” or “password”.
Yes, 192.168.0.1 is a valid IP address. It's a private IP address used by many routers as their default gateway.