I kinda but not really get the super technical explanation of what it is
In: Technology
It’s easy to say “this is a subnet” (a section of a network) when the computers in the subnet are all connected to a single router, and that router handles all the traffic to the “outside”. A lot of businesses are set up like that, the entire building has one internet access point and one subnet/network.
But sometimes it’s necessary to have two separate subnets, with still only one router controlling everything. Like if you have different departments and you want to keep them from talking to each other, for security.
So a mask allows that. You can say “all even-numbered addresses belong to subnet A, and all odd-numbered addresses belong to subnet B.” And you can do “divisible by 3, 5, etc.” however many subnets you want.
So because the addresses are binary, the mask hides all the digits except the few (to the right) that are relevant to check for “odds”, “evens”, etc. Does the binary number 11010101 end in 1 (odd) or does it end in 0 (even)? The mask defines that as “cover/mask all the digits, and only consider the last couple digits for odds/evens”.
Latest Answers