Posts Tagged ‘IP Address’

The potential dimension of the network dictates the classes of the IP address. Thus, these IP classes specify the kind of bits that were utilized for network identification, network ID. They are also utilized to check the bits that were used to check the host computer or the host ID. However, at present time, classless IP addressing has replaced these classes. A net mask can be linked to a specific range of IP address.

Conventionally speaking, these IP address classes were classified as class a, b, c, and d. The following paragraphs will further discuss these classifications.

The addresses that belong to class A are those with a huge number of hosts. Using the initial octet for the ID, 126 networks can be allowed by class A. The very first bit is present and is fixed to 0. The remaining bits are all one which then comprise the entire network ID. The host ID is completely represented by the 24 bits with a total of 24,000,000 hosts in a single host.

Medium sized network falls under class B. In this class, the initial two bits are pre-set to 10 whereas the remaining 6 bits in the octet comprise the host ID of 16,384 networks. The network number in this class starts at 128 and stops at 191. The addresses included in this group use the third’s and fourth’s octet in the 16 bits to function as the host ID which permits the functionality of the 65,000 hosts per network.

The third class addresses are primarily used in minor local area networks. It also allows a maximum of 2,000,000 networks for the ID.

The fourth group of the IP classes called class D is not utilized to host. These addresses are primarily used for multi-casting or they can also be used for future uses.