In article , I'm Ted Jones Dammit!!! wrote: :I've been told, and it certainly seems to be convention, to assign the :internal interface on the firewall (or router) an address that is low :in the range. In a class C situation, the gateway address is often :*.*.*.1 .
:Why is this? What difference does it make if you use a different :address in your private address range, such as 192.168.1.130, or :192.168.1.254 ?
:Does it really matter
The only way in which it matters is that if one has a number of subnets, it is easier to remember a convention about the address than to remember an arbitrary address. Now, multiply that by the number of people who might need to configure a system for use on one of those subnets.
Also, if you might subnet later, you will probably have less work to do if the IP addresses of the infrastructure are close together rather than scattered at random. If your router or firewall is low in the address range and you subnet, then you probably only have to change its netmask, but if your router or firewall is at an IP address that would fall into a new subnet, then you would have to change its gateway address and its netmask both.