What does the slash mean in an IP address?
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I want a 5 year old to read these. Interpret them, and then get back to us.
Really the only 5 year old answer is that if there is a slash it’s not an IP address. It’s a range of addresses.
It uses a complicated thing called bitwise comparison on a Subnet mask but until you’re older than 5 you can ignore that.
The number after the slash indicates how big the range of numbers is – lower numbers having a bigger range (not what you might initially think)
The IP at the front indicates where the range will be.
1.2.3.4/32 is a range of one number so the same as 1.2.3.4.
1.2.3.4/8 would have over 16 million ips.
The last number refers to something called a Subnet mask and is used in calculating the number of available addresses in the range.
This notation is useful when carving up an IP range into subnets. Hence the use of a Subnet mask, or the trailing /8 /16 etc.
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