Looks like the exponentiation operator got eaten up somewhere. 2 to the 32nd power (2^32) is 4,294,967,296. 2^3 == 8.
HTH, Jose. Kendall Shaw wrote: > In the networking section of the OpenBSD FAQ it suggests reading > "Understanding IP addressing": > > http://www.3com.com/other/pdfs/infra/corpinfo/en_US/501302.pdf > > I'm having a hard time understanding it. In many places they use 2 > numbers, e.g. 2(21) or 232 (4,294,967,296). Can you understand what they > are saying? > > For example, on page 3: > > "IPv4 defines a 32-bit address which means that there are > only 232 (4,294,967,296) IPv4 addresses available." > > 232 what? > > On page 11: > > "The first step in the planning process is to take the maximum number of > subnets required and round up to the nearest power of two. For example, > if an organization needs nine subnets, 23 (or 8) will not provide > enough subnet addressing space, so the network administrator will > need to round up to 24 (or 16)." > > 23 or 8 what? Bits? What are 23 and 8 alternatives of? 24 or 16 looks > like alternative prefix lengths for class A or B networks, but I don't > get 23 or 8. > > Kendall
