Wi fi security / Hotspot

[licquorice]

Don't worry about it.

The hub has an address range of 192.168.1.1 - 192.168.1.255

192.168.1.1 - 192.168.1.63 are available by default for you to allocate static addresses to devices.

192.168.1.64 - 192.168.1.253 are allocated by the hub via DHCP to devices on your network

192.168.1.254 is the address of the hub itself

192.168.1.255 is a broadcast address that all devices on your network would receive

[leeb100]

I’m more curious. I thought BT would have a few hundred thousand IP addresses. I thought every customer had a different IP address. How does that work with just a range of a couple of hundred.

[jac_95]

As below the CIDR block is for internal addressing and not the CIDR that is used for the public subnet.

NetRange:       192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255
CIDR:           192.168.0.0/16
NetName:        PRIVATE-ADDRESS-CBLK-RFC1918-IANA-RESERVED
NetHandle:      NET-192-168-0-0-1
Parent:         NET192 (NET-192-0-0-0-0)
NetType:        IANA Special Use
OriginAS:
Organization:   Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA)
RegDate:        1994-03-15
Updated:        2013-08-30
Comment:        These addresses are in use by many millions of independently operated networks, which might be as small as a single computer connected to a home gateway, and are automatically configured in hundreds of millions of devices.  They are only intended for use within a private context  and traffic that needs to cross the Internet will need to use a different, unique address.
Comment:
Comment:        These addresses can be used by anyone without any need to coordinate with IANA or an Internet registry.  The traffic from these addresses does not come from ICANN or IANA.  We are not the source of activity you may see on logs or in e-mail records.  Please refer to http://www.iana.org/abuse/answers
Comment:
Comment:        These addresses were assigned by the IETF, the organization that develops Internet protocols, in the Best Current Practice document, RFC 1918 which can be found at:
Comment:        http://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc1918
Ref:            https://rdap.arin.net/registry/ip/192.168.0.0

BTWifi operates over a different Virtual Network to your own BT Broadband Residential connection. Even though the same customer hardware is used (router) the different networks are separated and isolated and routed differently. 

[rbz5416]

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@leeb100wrote:
I’m more curious. I thought BT would have a few hundred thousand IP addresses.

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Millions.

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@leeb100wrote:
 I thought every customer had a different IP address.

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They do.

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@leeb100wrote:
How does that work with just a range of a couple of hundred.

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The "couple of hundred" are private addresses visible only within your (or anyone else's) network.

Think of your router as your front door. What happens on your side of it is private & not visible outside. Whereas the street & wider world outside is public & potentially visible to everyone.

[leeb100]

I appreciate your answers. A lot of these go right over my head if I’m honest. The part I still don’t get is - if the last three digits are unique to each BT customer - how can each number be unique ? With only 3 digits

[licquorice]

As others have said, you need to diffentiate between public (internet routable) and private IP addresses.

You have a single public IP address that is unique in the world, but because the number of IPv4 addresses are limited, your home network addresses are what is known as private addresses and are not routable on the internet.

Every BT customer (and many millions of customers across the world) all have the same private IP addresses.

To be able to communicate across the internet, your private IP address is converted to your public IP address by a device known as NAT, network address translation that your home hub does.

[imjolly]

The !ast 3 digits are given to device connecting to your hub not a customer no 2 device on your hub can have the same address 192.168.1.xxx

This address has nothing to do with your public IP address

[leeb100]

I thought that was my public IP address. When I go to what is my IP address it shows that number 

[licquorice]

https://www.whatismyip.com/

Will show you your public IP address.

Your device private IP address will be 192.168.1.nnn

[leeb100]

Yes. That’s right. So if that’s the case are there only nnn. Possible 999 private ip addresses.