Floating IPs & External Gateways

This guide explains how networking works on Patrii Cloud: how your servers reach the Internet, how the Internet reaches them, and how you keep them secure. Read the overview below, then dive into each topic.

The big picture

Every VPS (virtual machine) you create lives on a private network inside your project. Private networks are isolated and use private IP addresses (e.g. 10.0.0.x, 192.168.x.x) that the Internet cannot reach directly.

From there, you choose how to connect:

• IPv4 connectivity goes through a router with a Public External Gateway, using NAT. Public IPv4 is scarce, so this path is a paid resource.
• IPv6 connectivity is much simpler: attach your VPS to the public6 network and it gets a globally-routable IPv6 address directly — at no extra cost.
• Security groups wrap every VPS like a firewall, controlling exactly which traffic is allowed in and out — for both IPv4 and IPv6.

Choosing your connectivity at a glance

Give a VPS a public IPv4 address reachable from the Internet

• Use: Router + Public External Gateway + Floating IP (IPv4)
• Cost: Paid

Let several private VPS reach the Internet outbound over IPv4

• Use: Router + Public External Gateway (shared SNAT)
• Cost: Paid — one gateway, many VPS

Give a VPS a public IPv6 address

• Use: Attach to the public6 network
• Cost: Free

Control which ports / sources can talk to a VPS

• Use: Security Groups
• Cost: Free

In this guide

1. Private Networks & Routers — the foundation every VPS sits on
2. Public External Gateways — your router's door to the IPv4 Internet (and why it's paid)
3. Floating IPs — assignable public IPv4 addresses for your servers
4. IPv6 with public6 — free public addressing, the modern way
5. Security Groups — the firewall around every VPS

💡 New here? If you just want a public website or game server reachable over the modern Internet, the cheapest path is often: attach the VPS to public6 (free IPv6) and open the right ports in your security group. Add an IPv4 Floating IP only if you also need legacy IPv4 reachability.