Subnetting
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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 the 0s.
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 Class B IP Address
11111111.11111111.00000000.00000000 255.255.000.000 Default Class B Subnet Mask
--------------------------------------------------------
10001100.10110011.00000000.00000000 140.179.000.000 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
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Updated
January 29, 2007
Copyright © 1996-2007 by Ralph
Becker <
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