Subnets, netmasks, and CIDRs
Granular division of network segments is very useful when designing and maintaining networks. Dividing networks in to smaller subnets with a common prefix is a common practice. These subnets can be defined by bitmasks that represent the size of the subnet (how many hosts it can contain). For example, a netmask of 255.255.255.0 means that the first three octets are used for routing and only 256 (actually 254) individual hosts are available. The Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) notation is often used for this purpose because it is more concise, encodes more information, and also allows combining hosts from multiple legacy classes (A, B, C, D, E). For example, 172.27.15.0/24 means that the first 24 bits (three ...
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Read now
Unlock full access