$re = '/^([0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9]{2}|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?<!172\.(16|17|18|19|20|21|22|23|24|25|26|27|28|29|30|31))(?<!127)(?<!^10)(?<!^0)\.([0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9]{2}|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?<!192\.168)(?<!172\.(16|17|18|19|20|21|22|23|24|25|26|27|28|29|30|31))\.([0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9]{2}|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])\.([0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9]{2}|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?<!\.255$)$/m';
$str = '# Invalid IPs:
999.999.999.999.
108.0.0.01
0.1.2.3
00.0000.00.00
192.168.l.1
912.456.123.123
.3.3.3.0
192.168.o.0
# Local IPs:
172.16.0.9
172.16.4.1
172.17.1.1
127.0.0.2
10.0.1.5
10.0.0.1
10.155.155.155
10.255.255.254
172.16.0.4
172.16.0.1
172.17.1.1
172.31.254.254
192.168.1.2
192.168.254.0
169.254.2.2
# Broadcast IPs:
60.123.247.255
196.168.255.255
10.255.255.255
192.168.255.255
# Public IPs:
8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4';
preg_match_all($re, $str, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER, 0);
// Print the entire match result
var_dump($matches);
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php