Reference Manual for the Model RP614 Web Safe Router
Network and Routing Basics B-7
NETGEAR stronglyrecommends that you configure all hosts on a LAN segment to use the same
netmask forthe following reasons:
• So that hosts recognizelocal IP broadcast packets
When a devicebroadcasts to its segment neighbors, it uses a destination address of the local
networkaddress with all ones for the host address. In order for this scheme to work, all devices
on the segment must agreeon which bits comprise the host address.
• So that a local routeror bridge recognizes which addresses are local and which are remote
Private IP Addresses
If yourlocal network is isolated from the Internet (for example, when using NAT),you can assign
any IP addressesto the hosts without problems. However, the IANA has reserved the following
three blocksof IP addresses specifically for private networks:
10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255
172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255
192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255
NETGEAR recommends thatyou choose your private network number from this range. The
DHCP server of the Model RP614 routeris preconfigured to automatically assign private
addresses.
Regardlessof your particular situation, do not create an arbitrary IP address; always follow the
guidelinesexplained here. For more information about address assignment, refer to RFC 1597,
AddressAllocation for Private Internets, and RFC 1466, Guidelines for Management of IP
AddressSpace. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) publishesRFCs on its Web site at
www.ietf.org.
255.255.255.252 /30
255.255.255.254 /31
255.255.255.255 /32
TableB-2. Netmask Formats