Private IP address and Special addresses

What Private IP address Should I Use?

Ø  Should you use Class A, Class B, or even Class C private addressing when setting up your network?

Ø  The rule of thumb in the consulting world is, when you’re setting up a corporate network— regardless of how small it is—

Ø  you should use a Class A network address because it gives you the most flexibility and growth options.

Ø  But if you’re setting up a home network, you’d opt for a Class C address because it is the easiest for people to understand and configure. Using the default Class C mask gives you one network with 254 hosts—plenty for a home network.

Special addresses

•      When the host-id is cancelled, i.e. when the bits reserved for the machines on the network are replaced by zeros (for example 194.28.12.0), something called a network address is obtained. This address cannot be allocated to any of the computers on the network.

•      When the net id is cancelled, i.e. when the bits reserved for the network are replaced by zeros, a machine address is obtained. This address represents the machine specified by the host-ID which is found on the current network.

•      When all the bits of the host-id are at 1, the address obtained is called the broadcast address. This a specific address, enabling a message to be sent to all the machines on the network specified by the net id . Example: 73.255.255.255

•      Conversely, all the addresses of class D are multicast address.

•       A multicast address is a logical identifier for a group of hosts in a computer network.

•      A message sent to a broadcast address is typically received by all network-attached hosts, rather than by a specific host.