To expand a bit:
A netmask tells your router whether an address is on a particular network or
not. The router does the following bitwise operation:
result = (NOT netmask) OR (address XOR network)
If the result is all 1's, the answer is Yes. (You can rearrange the logic
to suit if you prefer 1s to 0s.)
Normally there is a rule that the highest address in a network is the
broadcast address for that network, which excludes it from the pool you can
allocate to hosts. The lowest address is reserved to identify the network
itself - remember all routers except the nearest one to you never see your
netmask, just the network number (from which they can infer the mask).
For the one-address network neither of these cases make any difference, so
it's OK to use it. Your list should read:
>last byte number of
>of netmask *HOSTS* in local network
>255 1
>254 1
>252 2
>248 6
>240 14
>224 30
>192 62
>128 126
>0 254
... and so on leftwards into Class B...
-- Nigel
-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-diald" in
the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
