An IP address is a unique identifier for devices connected to an IP network. It is represented as a 32-bit binary number that is usually written in dotted decimal notation with four numbers between 0-255 separated by periods. IP addresses have two parts - the network portion and the node portion. The class of the address and subnet mask determine which parts are which. There are five address classes that are determined by the high order bits of the address. Subnetting an IP network divides it into multiple logical subnets using subnet masks to separate the network and node portions of the address. This allows better management and security of network traffic.
An IP address is a unique identifier for devices connected to an IP network. It is represented as a 32-bit binary number that is usually written in dotted decimal notation with four numbers between 0-255 separated by periods. IP addresses have two parts - the network portion and the node portion. The class of the address and subnet mask determine which parts are which. There are five address classes that are determined by the high order bits of the address. Subnetting an IP network divides it into multiple logical subnets using subnet masks to separate the network and node portions of the address. This allows better management and security of network traffic.
An IP address is a unique identifier for devices connected to an IP network. It is represented as a 32-bit binary number that is usually written in dotted decimal notation with four numbers between 0-255 separated by periods. IP addresses have two parts - the network portion and the node portion. The class of the address and subnet mask determine which parts are which. There are five address classes that are determined by the high order bits of the address. Subnetting an IP network divides it into multiple logical subnets using subnet masks to separate the network and node portions of the address. This allows better management and security of network traffic.
An IP address is a unique identifier for devices connected to an IP network. It is represented as a 32-bit binary number that is usually written in dotted decimal notation with four numbers between 0-255 separated by periods. IP addresses have two parts - the network portion and the node portion. The class of the address and subnet mask determine which parts are which. There are five address classes that are determined by the high order bits of the address. Subnetting an IP network divides it into multiple logical subnets using subnet masks to separate the network and node portions of the address. This allows better management and security of network traffic.
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IP
An IP (Internet Protocol) address is a unique identifier for a node or host connection on an IP network. An IP address is a 32 bit binary number usually represented as 4 decimal values, each representing 8 bits, in the range 0 to 255 (known as octets) separated by decimal points. This is known as "dotted decimal" notation. Example: 140.179.220.200 It is sometimes useful to view the values in their binary form. 140 .179 .220 .200 10001100.10110011.11011100.11001000
Every IP address consists of two parts, one identifying the network and one identifying the node. The Class of the address and the subnet mask determine which part belongs to the network address and which part belongs to the node address.
Address Classes There are 5 different address classes. You can determine which class any IP address is in by examining the first 4 bits of the IP address. Class A addresses begin with 0xxx, or 1 to 126 decimal. Class B addresses begin with 10xx, or 128 to 191 decimal. Class C addresses begin with 110x, or 192 to 223 decimal. Class D addresses begin with 1110, or 224 to 239 decimal. Class E addresses begin with 1111, or 240 to 254 decimal. Addresses beginning with 01111111, or 127 decimal, are reserved for loopback and for internal testing on a local machine; [You can test this: you should always be able to ping 127.0.0.1, which points to yourself] Class D addresses are reserved for multicasting; Class E addresses are reserved for future use. They should not be used for host addresses. Now we can see how the Class determines, by default, which part of the IP address belongs to the network (N, in blue) and which part belongs to the node (n, in red). Class A -- NNNNNNNN.nnnnnnnn.nnnnnnnn.nnnnnnnn Class B -- NNNNNNNN.NNNNNNNN.nnnnnnnn.nnnnnnnn
Class C -- NNNNNNNN.NNNNNNNN.NNNNNNNN.nnnnnnnn In the example, 140.179.220.200 is a Class B address so by default the Network part of the address (also known as the Network Address) is defined by the first two octets (140.179.x.x) and the node part is defined by the last 2 octets (x.x.220.200). In order to specify the network address for a given IP address, the node section is set to all "0"s. In our example, 140.179.0.0 specifies the network address for 140.179.220.200. When the node section is set to all "1"s, it specifies a broadcast that is sent to all hosts on the network. 140.179.255.255 specifies the example broadcast address. Note that this is true regardless of the length of the node section. Private Subnets There are three IP network addresses reserved for private networks. The addresses are 10.0.0.0, Subnet Mask 255.0.0.0, 172.16.0.0, Subnet Mask 255.240.0.0, and 192.168.0.0, Subnet Mask 255.255.0.0. These addresses are also notated 10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, and 192.168.0.0/16; this notation will be explained later in this tutorial. They can be used by anyone setting up internal IP networks, such as a lab or home LAN behind a NAT or proxy server or a router. It is always safe to use these because routers on the Internet by default will never forward packets coming from these addresses. These addresses are defined in RFC 1918.
Subnetting an IP Network can be done for a variety of reasons, including organization, use of different physical media (such as Ethernet, FDDI, WAN, etc.), preservation of address space, and security. The most common reason is to control network traffic. In an Ethernet network, all nodes on a segment see all the packets transmitted by all the other nodes on that segment. Performance can be adversely affected under heavy traffic loads, due to collisions and the resulting retransmissions. A router is used to connect IP networks to minimize the amount of traffic each segment must receive.
Subnet Masking Applying a subnet mask to an IP address allows you to identify the network and node parts of the address. The network bits are represented by the 1s in the mask, and the
node bits are represented by the0s. Performing a bitwise logical AND operation between the IP address and the subnet mask results in the Network Address or Number. For example, using our test IP address and the default Class B subnet mask, we get: 10001100.10110011.11110000.11001000 140.179.240.200 11111111.11111111.00000000.00000000 255.255.000.000 Subnet Mask -------------------------------------------------------10001100.10110011.00000000.00000000 140.179.000.000 Class B IP Address Default Class B Network Address
Default subnet masks: Class A - 255.0.0.0 - 11111111.00000000.00000000.00000000 Class B - 255.255.0.0 - 11111111.11111111.00000000.00000000 Class C - 255.255.255.0 - 11111111.11111111.11111111.00000000
Additional bits can be added to the default subnet mask for a given Class to further subnet, or break down, a network. When a bitwise logical AND operation is performed between the subnet mask and IP address, the result defines the Subnet Address (also called the Network Address or Network Number). There are some restrictions on the subnet address. Node addresses of all "0"s and all "1"s are reserved for specifying the local network (when a host does not know its network address) and all hosts on the network (broadcast address), respectively. This also applies to subnets. A subnet address cannot be all "0"s or all "1"s. This also implies that a 1 bit subnet mask is not allowed. This restriction is required because older standards enforced this restriction. Recent standards that allow use of these subnets have superseded these standards, but many "legacy" devices do not support the newer standards. If you are operating in a controlled environment, such as a lab, you can safely use these restricted subnets. To calculate the number of subnets or nodes, use the formula (2n-2) where n = number of bits in either field, and 2n represents 2 raised to the nth power. Multiplying the number of subnets by the number of nodes available per subnet gives you the total number of nodes available for your class and subnet mask. Also, note that although subnet masks with non-contiguous mask bits are allowed, they are not recommended. Example: 10001100.10110011.11011100.11001000 11111111.11111111.11100000.00000000 140.179.220.200 255.255.224.000 IP Address Subnet Mask
In this example a 3 bit subnet mask was used. There are 6 (23-2) subnets available with this size mask (remember that subnets with all 0's and all 1's are not allowed). Each subnet has 8190 (213-2) nodes. Each subnet can have nodes assigned to any address between the Subnet address and the Broadcast address. This gives a total of 49,140 nodes for the entire class B address subnetted this way. Notice that this is less than the 65,534 nodes an unsubnetted class B address would have. You can calculate the Subnet Address by performing a bitwise logical AND operation between the IP address and the subnet mask, then setting all the host bits to 0s. Similarly, you can calculate theBroadcast Address for a subnet by performing the same logical AND between the IP address and the subnet mask, then setting all the host bits to 1s. That is how these numbers are derived in the example above. Subnetting always reduces the number of possible nodes for a given network. There are complete subnet tables available here for Class A, Class B and Class C. These tables list all the possible subnet masks for each class, along with calculations of the number of networks, nodes and total hosts for each subnet.
