19216811.liveOxyGEN
mini
Office
Administrator’s Guide
The class can be determined easily from field1:
–
field1 = 1-126: Class A
–
field1 = 128-191: Class B
–
field1 = 192-223: Class C
(field1 values not shown are reserved for special uses)
A host ID can have any value except all fields set to 0 or all fields set to 255, as those values are
reserved for special uses.
Subnet Masks
A mask looks like a regular IP address, but contains a pattern of bits that tells what parts of an IP address
are the network ID and what parts are the host ID: bits set to 1 mean "this bit is part of the network ID"
and bits set to 0 mean "this bit is part of the host ID".
Subnet masks are used to define subnets (what you get after dividing a network into smaller pieces).
A subnet’s network ID is created by "borrowing" one or more bits from the host ID portion of the address.
The subnet mask identifies these host ID bits.
For example, consider a class C network 192.168.1. To split this into two subnets, you would use the
subnet mask:
255.255.255.128
It’s easier to see what’s happening if we write this in binary form:
11111111. 11111111. 11111111.10000000
As with any class C address, all of the bits in field1 through field3 are part of the network ID, but note
how the mask specifies that the first bit in field4 is also included. Since this extra bit has only two values (0
and 1), this means there are two subnets. Each subnet uses the remaining 7 bits in field4 for its host IDs,
which range from 1 to 126 hosts (instead of the usual 0 to 255 for a class C address).
Similarly, to split a class C network into four subnets, the mask is:
255.255.255.192 or 11111111.11111111.11111111.11000000
The two extra bits in field4 can have four values (00, 01, 10, 11), so there are four subnets. Each
subnet uses the remaining six bits in field4 for its host IDs, ranging from 1 to 62.
Gennet s.a.
191