To provide an IP address or range to OpenAthens, e.g. for self registration, you should enter an external address in standard IPV4 format. However, if you ask your IT team for your IP address or range, they might give you something more complex, such as 123.123.123.0/24 or 2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:::7334. This page briefly describes IP address formats that aren’t suitable for OpenAthens and what to use instead.
If it starts with 192.168.x.x or with 10.x.x.x or any of 172.16.x.x through 172.31.x.x
These are called private address spaces and they're reserved for internal network traffic. They're not the IP address at which the rest of the internet can see you. You'll need to go back to your IT team and clarify that you need the externally facing IP address or range at which your organisation would appear to a service.
If it looks something like 123.123.123.0/24
This format containing a slash is called CIDR notation, which we don’t support. The ‘/24’ part describes how much of the address is fixed. Each chunk is called an ‘octet', referring to eight bits of data (numbers 0 though 255). In this case, the '/24’ means the first 24 bits are fixed (24 / 8 = 3 chunks) and the whole of the last chunk could be anything. This would be entered as either:
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123.123.123.*
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123.123.123.0-255
If the address ended with ‘/16’, then the first two chunks (16 bits) would be fixed and the last two would be wild:
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123.123.*.*
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123.123.0-255.0-255
Should these numbers come up, there are tools online that translate CIDR notation to an IP range.
If it has lots of colons
For example, 2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:::7334.
This is an IPV6 address, which we don’t currently support. If the IT department hasn’t also given you an alternative address in IPV4 format (four chunks separated by dots, e.g. 18.100.92.XX), go back to them and ask for the IPV4 address.