
68 The ABCs of TCP/IP
facilitate this examination, Exhibit 10 summarizes the range of decimal values
for the first byte of each address class.
Dotted Decimal Notation
Only a brief examination of how to convert the binary value of a byte into
decimal has been given, with no discussion of the rationale for the use of
decimal numbers in IP addresses. Thus, the rationale is presented here.
Because humans do not like to work with strings of 32-bit binary addresses,
the developers of IP looked for a technique that would make it easier to
specify IPv4 addresses. The resulting technique is referred to as “dotted decimal
notation,” in recognition of the fact that ...