What is the difference between "Public LAN" and "Private LAN"?

I have a Westell 327W DSL modem/router and its DHCP config section has
two types of LAN: Public and Private.

For the life of me I couldn't figure out what it means. At first I
thought that this means that "Public LAN" refers to DHCP clients that
are not protected by the firewall, but then in the Westell 327W manual
it reads:

"The Public LAN feature, if available from your service provider,
allows VersaLink to use LAN IP addresses that are accessible from the
WAN. Public LAN allows your computer to have global address ability.
To utilize the Public LAN feature on VersaLink, your ISP must support
Public LAN and Static IP. Contact your ISP for details."

I contacted my ISP (Verizon) for details but they were clueless.

Can someone help?

Thanks,
Alex

I speak without authority on this subject. I conjecture only.

It seems that most of us use "private IP" network addressing, within our
firewalled SOHO environments. e.g., 192.168.1.0.
http://winhlp.com/node/65

A "public LAN" address then, should be one that is registered with InterNIC.
(?) As such, it is unique in all the world. Your router should allow
pass-through, so that viewers can access your host so addressed.

"Accessible from the WAN" implies "accessible from the internet at large."
The WAN side of any firewall router is the uplink side, while the LAN side
is the protected side. It is irrelevant whether one side or the other is
"wired" or "wireless."

--
Sent via OE by John, from MERCURY
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:271f663c-f4dc-4bc9-8fc8-(E-Mail Removed)...
> I have a Westell 327W DSL modem/router and its DHCP config section has
> two types of LAN: Public and Private.
>
> For the life of me I couldn't figure out what it means. At first I
> thought that this means that "Public LAN" refers to DHCP clients that
> are not protected by the firewall, but then in the Westell 327W manual
> it reads:
>
> "The Public LAN feature, if available from your service provider,
> allows VersaLink to use LAN IP addresses that are accessible from the
> WAN. Public LAN allows your computer to have global address ability.
> To utilize the Public LAN feature on VersaLink, your ISP must support
> Public LAN and Static IP. Contact your ISP for details."
>
> I contacted my ISP (Verizon) for details but they were clueless.
>
> Can someone help?
>
> Thanks,
> Alex
>
>
>