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About the Internet
How computers are identified on the Internet
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A typical subnet mask looks like this: 255.255.255.0. The 255s indicate
parts of the IP address that are the same for all computers within the
subnet, while the 0 indicates a part of the IP address that is different.
Subnet masks are always used in conjunction with base IP addresses. The
base IP address is an IP address that, when processed using the subnet
mask, can indicate all of the IP addresses in a subnet.
A typical base IP address/subnet pair looks like this:
In this example, the range of IP addresses that the base IP address and
subnet mask identify range from 10.0.0.1 to 10.0.0.255. The most common
subnet mask used is 255.255.255.0 because it identifies a relatively small
group of IP addresses, up to 254 computers. It is commonly used for very
small groups of computers, including groups as small as two computers.
Base IP address: 10.0.0.1
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0