Complete List of IP Ranges Masks

If you have ever dabbled with network devices or managed a network, you have surely heard about the TCP/IP; directly or indirectly. Well, TCP/IP is a suite of protocols used for communicating and connecting devices. Any device or hardware, say a router, switch, or a computer, connected to a TCP/IP-based network is assigned a unique IP address.

IP address

The IP address uniquely identifies the device in a network while communicating. This IP address can be configured manually (in case of a static IP) or automatically by a DHCP server. A DHCP Server is a network server that automatically provides and assigns IP addresses, default gateways, and other network parameters to client devices. It relies on the standard protocol known as Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol or DHCP to respond to broadcast queries by clients.

The IP address consists of 4 bytes of data. A single byte consists of 8 bits, hence there is a total of 32 bits in the IP address. As you can express up to 256 different numbers using a byte, each of these 4 chunks can vary from 0 to 255. While writing the IP address, each of these bytes is represented as a numeric value, and usually, a dot separates each byte.

Consider the IP address 192.168.0.132 which is written in the usual dot-decimal notation. Each of the bytes is separated by a dot. The same IP address can be written in binary notation. For example, 11000000.10101000.00000000.10000100 is the equivalent of the earlier, but it is simply more cumbersome.

Subnet Mask

Subnetting is a slightly advanced topic and needs some familiarity with how IP addresses are used to identify a device (often called a node in a network). In short, it is the process of breaking a bigger network into smaller ones. Technically, it is the process of logical subdivision of a network (logical because you are not ‘physically’ dividing the network). There are several important reasons for doing so – decreased broadcast traffic and easier troubleshooting are two of them.

A subnet mask is, in general, a 4-byte number (just like IP address) that is paired with the IP. An IP address and subnet mask pair uniquely identify the network address and host address. The subnet mask tells whether the host is on the local subnet or a remote network. The subnet mask divides the IP address into 2 parts – the network address and the host address.

The biggest issue of the current approach is that you cannot determine what part of the IP is the network address and what part of it is the host address. Given the IP address and the corresponding subnet mask, one can easily determine the network address of a host.

Use of Subnets

Subnets give a method of securing and managing the network to decrease network blockage. When there is a lot of movement going between critical parts of the network, it can support those parts in a separate segment, so the traffic doesn’t have to move over the complete network to get from point to point. Leaving out unimportant segments of the network into subnets enables traffic to move more swiftly and to evade using redundant routes, uniting traffic where it isn’t required.

In addition, subnetting benefits in effectively allotting IP addresses and blocks numerous IP addresses from getting untouched. Subnets are normally configured dynamically for special departments, or for special groups within a company to enable their network traffic to stay within the area.

IP addresses can be distributed with one other machine or show to the public. Furthermore, IP addresses can be dynamic or static. A static IP address indicates a special machine has an IP address allotted to it, which doesn’t alter. A dynamic IP address indicates when a machine enters a network it’s assigned an open IP address, which could vary each time the machine connects.

IP Subnet Calculator

As mentioned earlier, the idea of IP addressing and subnetting are obtained from a huge network to build limited networks for connection of different network machines. They are located far distant from each other and selecting the single IP address and subnet mask for them to interact with each other.

The IP Subnet Calculator gives subnet calculations for the assigned network address block, subnet mask. One of the most efficient techniques to resolve the network blockage issue is to split the TCP/IP network into short, more flexible sections. The method of distributing the network is called subnetting.

A subnet calculator is a helpful tool for determining the number of potential subnets for any assigned network address block. You can select the sequence of subnets and the hosts per subnet that befits the network Splitting a big network and allotting IP address ranges to various units is a job that can be determined intellectually, but it’s safer to have an alternative to check the subnet before calculating them in the router.

How does the subnet mask work?

Well, it should be clear by now that you need some additional information in the form of a subnet mask. For example, say we have an IP address 192.168.0.132 and a subnet mask 255.255.255.0. Writing them in the binary form we get the following:

11000000 . 10101000 . 00000000 . 10000100 <– IP address

11111111 . 11111111 . 11111111 . 00000000 <– Subnet mask

——————————————————————————————–

11000000 . 10101000 . 00000000 . 00000000 <– Network address

Performing bitwise AND operation on these 2, 4-byte numbers we get the network address. Similarly, if we consider the negation of the subnet mask (i.e. the result we get after performing the bitwise NOT operation on the subnet mask) what we end up with is the host address.

11000000 . 10101000 . 00000000 . 10000100 <– IP address

00000000 . 00000000 . 00000000 . 11111111 <– The negation of the Subnet mask

——————————————————————————————————————

00000000 . 00000000 . 00000000 . 10000100 <– Host address

So we end up with the deciphered network address 192.168.0.0 and the host address 0.0.0.132. So, essentially when a packet has 192.168.0.132 as the destination address it goes to the subnetwork designated the network address 192.168.0.0 and then searches for the host address 0.0.0.132.

Network classes

All the IP addresses are allocated by the Network Information Center (NIC or InterNIC), an organization founded in 1972 that is in charge of administering the internet. From its birth in 1972 until October 1, 1991, it was run by the Stanford Research Institute, now known as SRI International, and led by Jake Feinler. The IP addresses can be broadly categorized into many classes depending on their value.

The addresses are divided into 5 classes – A, B, C, D, and E. Among these classes, A, B, and C are the most popular and widely used. Class D and E are not officially released for public use yet. Each of these classes has different default subnet masks.

You can identify the class of your IP address by checking out the value of the first octet. In other words, the value before the first dot dictates what would be the class of the IP. Following are the rules for determining the class:

1. Class A: The first octet has a value between 0 and 127 (both inclusive). The corresponding subnet mask for the IP addresses from this class is 255.0.0.0. Consider the IP address 77.111.247.180, for example. The first byte has a value of 10, which lies in the range 0-127.
2. Class B: The first octet has a value between 128 and 191 (both inclusive). The corresponding subnet mask for the IP addresses from this class is 255.255.0.0. Consider the IP address 172.8.52.32, for example. The first byte has a value of 172, which lies in the range 128-191.
3. Class C: The first octet has a value between 192 and 223 (both inclusive). The corresponding subnet mask for the IP addresses from this class is 255.255.255.0. Consider the IP address 192.168.0.132, for example. The first byte has a value of 192, which lies in the range 192-223.

In many cases, organizations decide to divide the IP addresses. The default subnet mask is unable to deal with such needs. In many situations, it becomes necessary: say the very physical topology is not of much utility for the organization, or the number of hosts or networks may not fit within the bracket that the subnet mask provides.

In any case, a network administrator might decide to further logically divide (or technically, ‘subnet’) the network.

In the following section, we have compiled several tables with important IP address ranges.

/30 — 64 Subnets — 2 Hosts/Subnet

/25 — 2 Subnets — 126 Hosts/Subnet

/26 — 4 Subnets — 62 Hosts/Subnet

/29 — 32 Subnets — 6 Hosts/Subnet

Selecting an IP Address for a Router

Routers are usually allocated the number 1 within a specified subnet. There is no technical need for all of this; it is merely a procedure. The router will nearly always be delegated 192.168.1.1 on the 192.168.1.x subnet. Likewise, on the 192.168.200.x subnet, the modem is most commonly 192.168.200.1. This configuration, even so, makes it simpler for malware to find the router, so if your modem is not the top machine, you are somewhat perfectly safe. In fact, it is recommended to bypass allocating the number 1 to anything.

A subnet is the range of permitted LAN-side Ips (as in sub-network, as in, only use these few numbers of all the billions of possible numbers). The counts that start with 192.168.1 and only vary in the 4th number are a really widely accepted subnet (scope of numbers). This is commonly written as 192.168.1.x, where the x stands in for all possible values in the 4th spot (0 to 255).

A LAN-side IP address is allocated to appliances attached to the network in one of three major routes.

• The most widely accepted is that they seek an IP address from the router when they first attach to it. This is recognized as DHCP, where the D holds for dynamic, as in the IP address is allotted interactively when demanded. A machine generally includes an IP address all day before demanding another from the modem, but the router has authority over all of this.
• A tiny change on this also utilizes DHCP, but the modem will always allocate the very same IP address to a certain device over and over again. The DHCP request is a generic phrase for this.
• The least commonly used strategy is to set up a machine to only ever use the exact IP address. That is, it just never demands an IP address from the modem. A static Internet Protocol address is the exact reverse of a unique Ip address.

Broadcast traffic causes massive network deficiency. This traffic includes information packets moving across the network toward each node. Subnetting decreases the number of nodes in which broadcast traffic meshes perfectly and tends to make data packet routing more specific and convenient by splitting subnets.

If you run a successful local area network with several network devices and a large density of network activity, running different subnets instead of one larger network has a lot of security benefits. Most particularly, if an attack jeopardizes a subnet, only that network segment is directly impacted. Utilizing subnets, intruders would only be allowed to catch devices within the same subnet, instead of all devices on a network.

Conclusion

The IP service is a part of daily life. Hence, the fundamental knowledge of IP address, subnet mask, and address is necessary to secure TCP/IP configuration. While it’s essential to learn how TCP/IP networks are marked and broken into subnetworks, getting some knowledge of IP address and subnet mask could be useful.

   

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