HP 2500 HP Jetdirect Print Servers - Administrator Guide - Page 246

IP Address Structure and Class An IP address is comprised of 32 bits of information and divided into 4 sections containing 1 byte each section or 4 bytes total: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx For efficiency in routing, networks were broken down into three classes, so routing can begin simply by identifying the leading byte of information in the IP address. The three IP addresses that InterNIC assigns are class A, B, and C. The network class determines what each of the four IP address sections identify as shown in Table A.1: Table A.1 IP Address Class Format Class A B C First Address Byte xxx. Network. Network. Network. Second Address Byte xxx. Host. Network. Network. Third Address Fourth Byte xxx. Address Byte xxx Host. Host Host. Host Network. Host As illustrated in Table A.2, each network class differs by the leading bit identifier, the address range, the number of each type available, and the maximum number of hosts each class allows. Table A.2 Network Class Characteristics Class Leading Bit Identifier Address Range A 0 B 10 C 110 0.0.0.0 to 127.255.255.255 128.0.0.0 to 191.255.255.255 192.0.0.0 to 223.255.255.255 Maximum Number of Networks in the Class 126 Maximum Hosts in the Network Over 16 Million 16,382 65,534 Over 2 Million 254 NWW TCP/IP Overview 246