> I'm going to sound very very ignorant, but, ummmmm, why? What is the
> point in restricting a network to 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16 hosts? What is wrong
> with just the simple 255.255.255.0 netmask?
>
> Sendem my way, or to the list. I'll learn.
>
> Jason
>
The whole point of subnetting is to separate groups of hosts on a network.
Let's assume that your organization has been allotted a Class-C block of IP
addresses. Now take into account the differing levels of access you may
want different machines to have. You may only want to have "certain" hosts
accessible to the Internet: so you subnet them off into a group of 8 hosts
(with a mask of 255.255.255.248.
It becomes very important when you start setting up firewalls. You can
instruct your firewall to only allow machines in this (small) group to
provide web/mail/ftp services to the rest of the world, while all other
boxes in your IP block are off limits. Without the subnet grouping, you'd
have to update those rules for each host you add to either zone. The subnet
grouping allows you to apply blanket rules to sets of hosts at once.
Things as simple as location can cause you to subnet. If your office
suddenly leases out a very tiny piece of space in a remote corner of the
building, you wouldn't want to split your big Class-C in half jsut to
accomodate the 20 network drops in the new space. You could subnet a
smaller portion and reserve those extra IP addresses for the main office.
Just some thoughts...
Eric Cifreo
Austin, TX
Who's been forced to write far too much VB lately. :(
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