Whew, let's see if I can explain this - I kinda take this for granted
these days :-).
> How does one read addresses like 172.168.10/24 or 172.16.51.50/32 ?
Many TCP/IP devices have adopted a shorthand method for indicating the
subnet mask associated with a network address.
The /24 indicates that 24 bits are reserved for the subnet mask.
171.168.10.0/24 is shorthand for 171.168.10.0 255.255.255.0.
As you can see, this is much easier method for representing IP network
addresses and their associated masks.
Basically, in this context, the /24 means that what you are looking
at is an entire Class C address space.
The /32 means that you are looking at the address of a specific host
( since there are only 32 bits available in an IP address and they are
all being specified, there is none left for a subnet mask hence this
must be a host address. )
It is worthwhile to mention that IP addresses are composed of 4 octets (
32 bits ) which is where the notation /24 ( 3*8 ) and 32 ( 4*8 ) comes
from.
Given that a class B address would be 128.10/16.
> In particular, what does the slash signify what does it do in the above
> case(s).
the slash is a separator to indicate that the number following is the
number of bits which are significant for the situation that is under
consideration.
The number following the slash does not necessarily have to be a
multiple of 8, and if it isn't then it is indicative of a subnetted IP
address space.
"Prefix" is a shorthand way of referring to the number of bits in the
address that are covered by the associated subnet mask. A non-subnetted
Class C address has a 24-bit prefix by default. A subnetted Class C
address with a mask of 255.255.255.240 has a /28 bit subnet mask
and a 28-bit prefix.
> If this is anywhere off topic for the list, personal e-mail will do too.
Hope that helps somewhat.
you might want to check out:
http://www.cisco.com/cpress/cc/td/cpress/fund/primer/cb0708.htm
which gives a pretty good answer to your question. Its also where I
plagarized some of my explanation from :-)
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Sprint Canada 2550 Victoria Park Avenue
Phone: 416.496.1644 ext. 4693 Suite 200, North York, Ontario
Fax: 416.498.3507 M2J 5E6
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