How the 192.168.2.1 IP Address Works - By: Musarrat Sheikh

Description : 192.168.2.1 is the default Internet Protocol or IP address for several router manufacturers, the main ones being SMC and Belkin. However, any router by any manufacturer can be set to use this Internet Protocol address. To avoid conflicts, you should only assign this Internet Protocol address to one device on a network. This is a Class C private Internet Protocol address and this means you cannot connect to routers from outside your home network using the address. To do so, you need the public Internet Protocol of the router.
In computer networking, a network is a collection of 2 or more computers that are interconnected and which communicate electronically. Each computer in a network is assigned a unique logical and numerical identifier, also called an Internet Protocol address. In fact, all devices that connect to a network, including computers, printers and routers, have Internet Protocol addresses. An Internet Protocol address is stored as a set of binary numbers. However, for humans to read them easily, they are displayed in a numerical form. Internet Protocol addresses are classified as 32-bit numbers under the IPv4 (Internet Protocol Version 4) system. The Internet Protocol has the added task of being responsible for routing data packets from one subnet to the other. The IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) has reserved everything from 192.168.0.0 to 192.168.255.255 as private networks. This could also be written as 172.16.0.0 to 172.31.255.255 (172.16/12 prefix) and 10.0.0.0 to 10.255.255.255 (10/8 prefix).
To access the administrator console of the attached router, type in http 192.168.2.1 in your internet browser. This console is basically the configuration page of your router and from here, you will be able to set up different router capabilities such as Point to Point Protocol over Ethernet (PPPoE), Point to Point Protocol over ATM (PPPoA), Mac Access Control, Firewall settings, WEP or Wired Equivalent Privacy, and Wi-Fi Protected Access or WPA, among others.
To designate Internet Protocol addresses to computers in a network, the router's DHCP or Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol is used. It is therefore not advisable to set any of the computers with this Internet Protocol address since it is static and it will lead to an Internet Protocol clash.
The most common of such networks is the local area network or LAN. This involves several computers connected via Ethernet cables in the same building. More and more people are also using wireless local area networks or WLANS which is convenient and clutter free. The most common LANs and WLANs are IEEE 802.11b networks, IEEE 802.11g networks and IEEE 802.11n networks. Another type of network that uses this IP address is WAN or wide area network. Note that although most such networks are connected to the Internet, most are not part of it. Such networks use routers as gates and route network data to computers on the network. Although this allows different computers to share an ISP connection, this has a downside in that they are not reachable from the net directly and this exposes you to Trojan horses and viruses.

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Author Resource : This article touched the basics of the topic. I have 2 more resources related to the above. They are 192.168.2.1 and 192.168.2.1. Do consider reading them.