Understanding the components of an IP address

Jul 10, 2001

Todd Lammle
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© 2001 TechRepublic, Inc.

No matter what your job description in networking includes, you must have a good understanding of TCP/IP and
working with IP addresses. This article will explain what makes up an IP address, how to understand subnet masks,
and how to recognize Class A, B, and C IP addresses. Whether you need to refresh your memory or you’re getting
ready to take a certification exam, this article will provide you with a solid understanding of IP addressing.

Internet Protocol
The Internet Protocol (IP) was developed in the 1960s to provide packet fragmentation and reassembly across a
packet-switched network. This packet-switched network became what we now call the Internet.

IP addressing is used to uniquely identify hosts on an internetwork. An internetwork is made of LANs and WANs
that are connected with a router or routers. To send data from a host on network A to a host on network B, a logical
network addressing protocol must be used. IP is the most popular one. However, IPX in the Novell stack and
Datagram Delivery Protocol (DDP) in the AppleTalk stack can also be used. Although you can find many other
types of routed protocols that provide the same functionality as IP, they aren’t as efficient as IP in larger networks.

The dreaded IP address

Before we conquer IP addresses, I want to define some of the terminology used in this Daily Drill Down:

 Bit: One digit; either 1 or 0.

 Byte: Eight bits. This term is interchangeable with octet.
 Octet: Eight bits. This term is interchangeable with byte.
 Network address: Address with all host bits turned off.
 Broadcast address: Address with all host bits turned on.

To fully understand IP addressing, you must be familiar with binary-to-decimal conversion. To find the decimal
equivalent of a binary number, you add the binary values. Binary numbers use eight bits to create a byte. Each bit in
the byte has a certain value, and if a bit is turned on (assigned a value of 1), the byte takes on that decimal value.
Each bit has a value that starts at 1 and doubles in value from right to left. Table A shows an example of converting
a byte to a decimal value.

Table A
128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1 Decimal value
0 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 Binary number

In the above example, three bits are turned on (1s). Add each of these values to get the byte’s decimal value
(16+8+2=26). Table B shows another example.

Table B
128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1 Decimal value
0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 Binary number