Understand TCP/IP addressing and subnetting basics

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This article is intended as a general introduction to the concepts of Internet
Protocol (IP) networks and subnetting. A glossary is included at the end of
article.
Applies to: Windows 10 - all editions
Original KB number: 164015

Summary

When you configure the TCP/IP protocol on a Windows computer, the TCP/IP
configuration settings require:
• An IP address
• A subnet mask
• A default gateway
To configure TCP/IP correctly, it's necessary to understand how TCP/IP networks
are addressed and divided into networks and subnetworks.
The success of TCP/IP as the network protocol of the Internet is largely because
of its ability to connect together networks of different sizes and systems of
different types. These networks are arbitrarily defined into three main classes
(along with a few others) that have predefined sizes. Each of them can be
divided into smaller subnetworks by system administrators. A subnet mask is
used to divide an IP address into two parts. One part identifies the host
(computer), the other part identifies the network to which it belongs. To better
understand how IP addresses and subnet masks work, look at an IP address
and see how it's organized.

IP addresses: Networks and hosts

An IP address is a 32-bit number. It uniquely identifies a host (computer or

other device, such as a printer or router) on a TCP/IP network.
IP addresses are normally expressed in dotted-decimal format, with four
numbers separated by periods, such as 192.168.123.132. To understand how
subnet masks are used to distinguish between hosts, networks, and
subnetworks, examine an IP address in binary notation.
For example, the dotted-decimal IP address 192.168.123.132 is (in binary
notation) the 32-bit number 110000000101000111101110000100. This
number may be hard to make sense of, so divide it into four parts of eight
binary digits.
These 8-bit sections are known as octets. The example IP address, then,
becomes 11000000.10101000.01111011.10000100. This number only makes a
little more sense, so for most uses, convert the binary address into dotted-
decimal format (192.168.123.132). The decimal numbers separated by periods
are the octets converted from binary to decimal notation.
For a TCP/IP wide area network (WAN) to work efficiently as a collection of
networks, the routers that pass packets of data between networks don't know
the exact location of a host for which a packet of information is destined.
Routers only know what network the host is a member of and use information
stored in their route table to determine how to get the packet to the destination
host's network. After the packet is delivered to the destination's network, the
packet is delivered to the appropriate host.
For this process to work, an IP address has two parts. The first part of an IP
address is used as a network address, the last part as a host address. If you
take the example 192.168.123.132 and divide it into these two parts, you get
192.168.123. Network .132 Host or 192.168.123.0 - network address. 0.0.0.132
- host address.

Subnet mask

The second item, which is required for TCP/IP to work, is the subnet mask. The
subnet mask is used by the TCP/IP protocol to determine whether a host is on
the local subnet or on a remote network.
In TCP/IP, the parts of the IP address that are used as the network and host
addresses aren't fixed. Unless you have more information, the network and
host addresses above can't be determined. This information is supplied in
another 32-bit number called a subnet mask. The subnet mask is
255.255.255.0 in this example. It isn't obvious what this number means unless
you know 255 in binary notation equals 11111111. So, the subnet mask is
11111111.11111111.11111111.00000000.
Lining up the IP address and the subnet mask together, the network, and host
portions of the address can be separated:
11000000.10101000.01111011.10000100 - IP address (192.168.123.132)
11111111.11111111.11111111.00000000 - Subnet mask (255.255.255.0)
The first 24 bits (the number of ones in the subnet mask) are identified as the
network address. The last 8 bits (the number of remaining zeros in the subnet
mask) are identified as the host address. It gives you the following addresses:
11000000.10101000.01111011.00000000 - Network address (192.168.123.0)
00000000.00000000.00000000.10000100 - Host address (000.000.000.132)
So now you know, for this example using a 255.255.255.0 subnet mask, that
the network ID is 192.168.123.0, and the host address is 0.0.0.132. When a
packet arrives on the 192.168.123.0 subnet (from the local subnet or a remote
network), and it has a destination address of 192.168.123.132, your computer
will receive it from the network and process it.
Almost all decimal subnet masks convert to binary numbers that are all ones
on the left and all zeros on the right. Some other common subnet masks are:
Decimal Binary
255.255.255.192 1111111.11111111.1111111.11000000
255.255.255.224 1111111.11111111.1111111.11100000
Internet RFC 1878 (available from InterNIC-Public Information Regarding
Internet Domain Name Registration Services) describes the valid subnets and
subnet masks that can be used on TCP/IP networks.

Network classes

Internet addresses are allocated by the InterNIC, the organization that

administers the Internet. These IP addresses are divided into classes. The most
common of them are classes A, B, and C. Classes D and E exist, but aren't used
by end users. Each of the address classes has a different default subnet mask.
You can identify the class of an IP address by looking at its first octet. Following
are the ranges of Class A, B, and C Internet addresses, each with an example
address:
• Class A networks use a default subnet mask of 255.0.0.0 and have 0-127
as their first octet. The address 10.52.36.11 is a class A address. Its first
octet is 10, which is between 1 and 126, inclusive.
• Class B networks use a default subnet mask of 255.255.0.0 and have 128-
191 as their first octet. The address 172.16.52.63 is a class B address. Its
first octet is 172, which is between 128 and 191, inclusive.
• Class C networks use a default subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 and have
192-223 as their first octet. The address 192.168.123.132 is a class C
address. Its first octet is 192, which is between 192 and 223, inclusive.
In some scenarios, the default subnet mask values don't fit the organization
needs for one of the following reasons:
• The physical topology of the network
• The numbers of networks (or hosts) don't fit within the default subnet
mask restrictions.
The next section explains how networks can be divided using subnet masks.

Subnetting

A Class A, B, or C TCP/IP network can be further divided, or subnetted, by a

system administrator. It becomes necessary as you reconcile the logical
address scheme of the Internet (the abstract world of IP addresses and
subnets) with the physical networks in use by the real world.
A system administrator who is allocated a block of IP addresses may be
administering networks that aren't organized in a way that easily fits these
addresses. For example, you have a wide area network with 150 hosts on three
networks (in different cities) that are connected by a TCP/IP router. Each of
these three networks has 50 hosts. You are allocated the class C network
192.168.123.0. (For illustration, this address is actually from a range that isn't
allocated on the Internet.) It means that you can use the addresses
192.168.123.1 to 192.168.123.254 for your 150 hosts.
Two addresses that can't be used in your example are 192.168.123.0 and
192.168.123.255 because binary addresses with a host portion of all ones and
all zeros are invalid. The zero address is invalid because it's used to specify a
network without specifying a host. The 255 address (in binary notation, a host
address of all ones) is used to broadcast a message to every host on a network.
Just remember that the first and last address in any network or subnet can't be
assigned to any individual host.
You should now be able to give IP addresses to 254 hosts. It works fine if all 150
computers are on a single network. However, your 150 computers are on three
separate physical networks. Instead of requesting more address blocks for each
network, you divide your network into subnets that enable you to use one block
of addresses on multiple physical networks.
In this case, you divide your network into four subnets by using a subnet mask
that makes the network address larger and the possible range of host
addresses smaller. In other words, you are 'borrowing' some of the bits used for
the host address, and using them for the network portion of the address. The
subnet mask 255.255.255.192 gives you four networks of 62 hosts each. It
works because in binary notation, 255.255.255.192 is the same as
1111111.11111111.1111111.11000000. The first two digits of the last octet
become network addresses, so you get the additional networks 00000000 (0),
01000000 (64), 10000000 (128) and 11000000 (192). (Some administrators
will only use two of the subnetworks using 255.255.255.192 as a subnet mask.
For more information on this topic, see RFC 1878.) In these four networks, the
last six binary digits can be used for host addresses.
Using a subnet mask of 255.255.255.192, your 192.168.123.0 network then
becomes the four networks 192.168.123.0, 192.168.123.64, 192.168.123.128
and 192.168.123.192. These four networks would have as valid host addresses:
192.168.123.1-62 192.168.123.65-126 192.168.123.129-190 192.168.123.193-
254
Remember, again, that binary host addresses with all ones or all zeros are
invalid, so you can't use addresses with the last octet of 0, 63, 64, 127, 128,
191, 192, or 255.
You can see how it works by looking at two host addresses, 192.168.123.71 and
192.168.123.133. If you used the default Class C subnet mask of
255.255.255.0, both addresses are on the 192.168.123.0 network. However, if
you use the subnet mask of 255.255.255.192, they are on different networks;
192.168.123.71 is on the 192.168.123.64 network, 192.168.123.133 is on the
192.168.123.128 network.
Default gateways

If a TCP/IP computer needs to communicate with a host on another network, it

will usually communicate through a device called a router. In TCP/IP terms, a
router that is specified on a host, which links the host's subnet to other
networks, is called a default gateway. This section explains how TCP/IP
determines whether or not to send packets to its default gateway to reach
another computer or device on the network.
When a host attempts to communicate with another device using TCP/IP, it
performs a comparison process using the defined subnet mask and the
destination IP address versus the subnet mask and its own IP address. The
result of this comparison tells the computer whether the destination is a local
host or a remote host.
If the result of this process determines the destination to be a local host, then
the computer will send the packet on the local subnet. If the result of the
comparison determines the destination to be a remote host, then the computer
will forward the packet to the default gateway defined in its TCP/IP properties.
It's then the responsibility of the router to forward the packet to the correct
subnet.

Troubleshooting

TCP/IP network problems are often caused by incorrect configuration of the

three main entries in a computer's TCP/IP properties. By understanding how
errors in TCP/IP configuration affect network operations, you can solve many
common TCP/IP problems.
Incorrect Subnet Mask: If a network uses a subnet mask other than the default
mask for its address class, and a client is still configured with the default
subnet mask for the address class, communication will fail to some nearby
networks but not to distant ones. As an example, if you create four subnets
(such as in the subnetting example) but use the incorrect subnet mask of
255.255.255.0 in your TCP/IP configuration, hosts won't be able to determine
that some computers are on different subnets than their own. In this situation,
packets destined for hosts on different physical networks that are part of the
same Class C address won't be sent to a default gateway for delivery. A
common symptom of this issue is when a computer can communicate with
hosts that are on its local network and can talk to all remote networks except
those networks that are nearby and have the same class A, B, or C address. To
fix this problem, just enter the correct subnet mask in the TCP/IP configuration
for that host.
Incorrect IP Address: If you put computers with IP addresses that should be on
separate subnets on a local network with each other, they won't be able to
communicate. They'll try to send packets to each other through a router that
can't forward them correctly. A symptom of this problem is a computer that can
talk to hosts on remote networks, but can't communicate with some or all
computers on their local network. To correct this problem, make sure all
computers on the same physical network have IP addresses on the same IP
subnet. If you run out of IP addresses on a single network segment, there are
solutions that go beyond the scope of this article.
Incorrect Default Gateway: A computer configured with an incorrect default
gateway can communicate with hosts on its own network segment. But it will
fail to communicate with hosts on some or all remote networks. A host can
communicate with some remote networks but not others if the following
conditions are true:
• A single physical network has more than one router.
• The wrong router is configured as a default gateway.
This problem is common if an organization has a router to an internal TCP/IP
network and another router connected to the Internet.

References

Two popular references on TCP/IP are:

• "TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1: The Protocols," Richard Stevens, Addison
Wesley, 1994
• "Internetworking with TCP/IP, Volume 1: Principles, Protocols, and
Architecture," Douglas E. Comer, Prentice Hall, 1995
It is recommended that a system administrator responsible for TCP/IP networks
have at least one of these references available.

Glossary

• Broadcast address--An IP address with a host portion that is all ones.

• Host--A computer or other device on a TCP/IP network.
• Internet--The global collection of networks that are connected together
and share a common range of IP addresses.
• InterNIC--The organization responsible for administration of IP addresses
on the Internet.
• IP--The network protocol used for sending network packets over a TCP/IP
network or the Internet.
• IP Address--A unique 32-bit address for a host on a TCP/IP network or
internetwork.
• Network--There are two uses of the term network in this article. One is a
group of computers on a single physical network segment. The other is an
IP network address range that is allocated by a system administrator.
• Network address--An IP address with a host portion that is all zeros.
• Octet--An 8-bit number, 4 of which comprise a 32-bit IP address. They
have a range of 00000000-11111111 that correspond to the decimal
values 0-255.
• Packet--A unit of data passed over a TCP/IP network or wide area network.
 • RFC (Request for Comment)--A document used to define standards on the
Internet.
• Router--A device that passes network traffic between different IP networks.
• Subnet Mask--A 32-bit number used to distinguish the network and host
portions of an IP address.
• Subnet or Subnetwork--A smaller network created by dividing a larger
network into equal parts.
• TCP/IP--Used broadly, the set of protocols, standards, and utilities
commonly used on the Internet and large networks.
• Wide area network (WAN)--A large network that is a collection of smaller
networks separated by routers. The Internet is an example of a large WAN.

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