There used to be a time when phone numbers and street addresses were among the most personal information that an individual possessed. But times have changed, and we now live in the era of the internet, and IP addresses have largely replaced phone numbers and street addresses.
Back in the day, hardly anyone imagined that there could one day be billions of Internet-connected devices in the world. The fact that there will be more than 24 billion internet-connected devices installed around the world by 2020 would be a huge surprise to the people behind Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4), which is 32-bits (232) in size and contains 4,294,967,296 IPv4 addresses.
To address the shortage of IPv4 addresses, a method of remapping one IP address space into another was proposed. Network address translation (NAT) makes it possible to use a single public IP address for an entire private network.
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), an open standards organization, which develops and promotes voluntary internet standards, dedicated several IPv4 ranges for private networks: 24-bit block (10.0.0.0–10.255.255.255), 20-bit block (172.16.0.0–172.31.255.255), and 16-bit block (192.168.0.0–192.168.255.255).
As you can see, the 192.168.1.0 IP address belongs to the 16-bit block of private IP address, but what exactly is its purpose? In most cases, this IP address is used by home broadband routers as their default address.
Yes, even routers have an IP address, called router IP address. In fact, routers that double as modems often have two IP address: one public and one private. The public IP address can be reached from the internet, while the private IP address is accessible only to devices that are connected to the same local network as the router.
As we’ve just said, it’s not possible to enter the 192.168.1.0 IP address unless you’re connected to the same local network as the router to which the IP address is assigned. That shouldn’t be a problem if you’re trying to connect to your own home router. In some cases, it’s necessary to connect directly via an Ethernet cable for security reasons.
If you don’t know the correct administrator login name and administrator password, you should flip your router around and look for a sticker on the bottom side. It’s very common for router manufacturers to print the default administrator login name and administrator password on a sticker, along with other useful information, such as the name of the router or the website of the manufacturer.
Alternatively, you could simply try a few common default passwords to see if any of them works:
Default Username | Default Password | |
---|---|---|
ASUS | admin | admin |
Airlink101 | admin | admin |
Aztech | admin | admin |
Billion | admin | admin |
CNet | admin | admin |
CyberTAN | – | admin |
D-Link | admin | – |
Dovado | admin | password |
DrayTek | admin | admin |
Edimax | admin | 1234 |
EnGenius | admin | admin |
Encore | admin | admin |
GlobalScale | root | nosoup4u |
JCG | admin | admin |
LevelOne | admin | password |
Linksys | – | admin |
MSI | admin | admin |
MikroTik | admin | – |
Netgear | admin | password |
Nexxt Solutions | admin | admin |
Open-Mesh | root | 0p3nm35h |
OvisLink | admin | airlive |
PRO-NETS | admin | 1234 |
Planex | admin | password |
Proxim | – | public |
Rosewill | admin | admin |
Ruckus Wireless | super | sp-admin |
SMC | admin | smcadmin |
Sitecom | admin | admin |
SmartRG | admin | admin |
TOTOLINK | admin | admin |
TP-LINK | admin | admin |
TRENDnet | admin | admin |
Tecom | admin | admin |
Ubiquiti Networks | ubnt | ubnt |
Western Digital | admin | password |
Winstars | admin | admin |
Corega | root | – |
192.168.1.0 is a private IP address used by many broadband routers to identify themselves to other devices on the same network. This IP address is not unique, any multiple routers can share it without any issues.