I know that private IP addresses fall into to one of the following ranges:
(a) 10.0.0.0 – 10.255.255.255
(b) 172.16.0.0 – 172.31.255.255
(c) 192.168.0.0 – 192.168.255.255
But when I checked my phone's IP address, this is what I saw:
IPv4 address in my phone is
25.139.3.190
Why has my Internet Service Provider given me this IP address when this is not even a valid private IP address?
I asked this question assuming that ISP gives its customers only private IP addresses. Which is not true. ISPs own a range of public IP addresses which they hand over to their customers dynamically.
In my case, 25.139.3.190
was the public IP address which my ISP had given me at that moment. Although my phone had the public IP address using which, theoretically, I could go out on to the internet, yet this IP address 25.139.3.190
is not what the websites I visit see. The websites I visit see the public IP address of the router of my ISP. The ISP's router is using NAT(Network Address Translation) to forward me the packets that belong to me.