Hi Gregory, The IP address classifications are growing more and more obsolete as we're pretty much exclusively on classless IP routing now. Still, the classes indicate the subnet mask, which indicates how much of an IP address is used for the network and how much is used for the hosts. If you need a *huge* number of addresses, then use the 10.0.0.0/8 class A network. If you need a fairly large amount of space, use the 172.16.0.0 - 172.16.31.255 class B networks. If you need a reasonable amount of addresses, use the class C networks at 192.168.0.0/24. You really may use any of the three ranges; you may use the subnet mask to shrink the address space to your needs. For example, a very common network is one with a gateway at 10.0.0.1 and a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0. This is the class A private address range subnetted as though it were a class C. Private IP address ranges are defined in RFC 1918. Darrell Shandrow - Shandrow Communications! Technology consultant/instructor, network/systems administrator! A+, CCNA, Network+! Check out high quality telecommunications services at http://ld.net/?nu7i All the best to coalition forces carrying out Operation Iraqi Freedom! ----- Original Message ----- From: "Gregory Nowak" <greg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <speakup at braille.uwo.ca> Sent: Sunday, November 09, 2003 11:12 AM Subject: reserved ip ranges > Hi all. > > I know that 10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255, 172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255, > and 192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255 are reserved for class a, b, and c > networks respectively. However, I was wondering why there are 3 > different classes of networks (and reserved ip ranges), and how one > decides which class to use? > > Thanks. > > Greg > > > -- > Free domains: http://www.eu.org/ or mail dns-manager at EU.org > > > _______________________________________________ > Speakup mailing list > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
