Bruce writes:
>Joe Geiser writes:
>>If you are going to connect to the net (you WILL someday - you can bank on
>>it), you
>>should obtain a Registered IP Address space from InterNIC.
 
>This is actually not the best idea,[snip]
 
Another reason for using one of the non-routed 'private use' network
numbers is that when you do actually connect to the net, you may want to
use some sort of firewall system.  Most of these work by completely
hiding the addresses on your internal network from the outside, and
making it look as though you are using your official IP Address.  So the
only system that actually uses your assigned IP address is the firewall
itself.  All the systems on your internal network *must* use a
*different* network number, and this almost always means one of the
public, non-routed ones.  If you get a real IP network number assigned
now, and configure all your systems to use it, when you want to connect
to the Net and install a firewall, you will just have to change the
address on every system from your assigned address to one of the public
ones anyway.
 
G.