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About the Internet
How computers are identified on the Internet
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:
Base IP address: | 10.0.0.1 |
Subnet mask: | 255.255.255.0 |
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.
