On a home private network, the router would have a private IP address something like this 192.168.0.1. On the home network there are 5 computers. Each has a local IP address 192.168.0.xx e.g. 192.168.0.2 – 192.168.0.6. But the computers themselves do not have a public IP, only the router does. So would it be possible for someone from an outside network to send a file to one specific computer in my home network? Like if they know the MAC address of the device.
And how is it that emails can reach e.g. outlook application installed on one computer with one IP address, but still be accessed from another computer with a completely different IP address.
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*So would it be possible for someone from an outside network to send a file to one specific computer in my home network?*
No. Not unless you’ve configured your router ahead of time to allow this to happen. Depending on your router, your ISP, and some other details, it is possible to allow it to happen, but it is not the default.
*And how is it that emails can reach e.g. outlook application installed on one computer with one IP address, but still be accessed from another computer with a completely different IP address.*
Very generally speaking, Email isn’t being pushed from the internet onto your laptop. Outlook (and most email clients) work by constantly pulling any new email from the server. Outlook, running on your laptop, is constantly reaching out to the internet to your mail server, which has a public IP address. The data for that email is on the server, so many different computers, with different IP addresses, can access it.
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