Public IP addresses sometimes called 'routable' addresses are addresses that are used when communicating with or connecting to the Internet. These addresses are designated by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority for use in web servers, e-mail servers, firewalls and other devices that are directly connected to the Internet.
All addresses are managed by ICANN and allocated to organizations by IANA, so you cannot arbitrarilly add the IP addresses to your computers and connect them to the Internet as they may be in use elsewhere on the Internet.
If you need IP addresses to communicate with the Internet, see my tutorial on obtaining IP addresses.
I have extracted the public addresses by mapping around the addresses listed in RFC 3330 which was published in 2002. No additional RFC's have been issued as of the date this tutorial was written, but this is subject to change over time.
Public Addresses
| 1.0.0.0 - 9.255.255.255 |
| 11.x.x.x - 126.255.255.255 |
| 129.0.0.0 - 169.253.255.255 |
| 169.255.0.0 - 172.15.255.255 |
| 172.32.0.0 - 191.0.1.255 |
| 192.0.3.0 - 192.88.98.255 |
| 192.88.100.0 - 192.167.255.255 |
| 192.169.0.0 - 198.17.255.255 |
| 198.20.0.0 - 223.255.255.255 |