Flashcard 11 - 220-1202 Operating Systems Flashcard Set for the CompTIA A+ Core Series Exam

Subnet Mask

IP addresses are made up of 32 binary bits, which determine both the network address as well as the host address. To indicate which bits are network bits and which bits are host bits, IP addressing parameters include a subnet mask.

The subnet mask is also made up of 32 bits, each subnet mask bit corresponding to a single bit in the IP address. If the IP address bit is a network bit, the subnet mask bit is set to “1”. If the corresponding IP address bit is a host bit, the corresponding netmask bit is set to “0”.