Converting a Subnet Mask to Dotted Decimal Notation
The network administrator typically assigns a subnet mask to each host as part of the TCP/IP configuration. If the host receives an IP address through DHCP (see Hour 12, “Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)”), the DHCP server can assign a subnet mask along with the IP address.
Subnet masks must be carefully calculated and must reflect the internal organization of the network. All the hosts within a subnet should have the same subnet ID and subnet mask. For the benefit of people, the subnet mask is usually expressed in dotted decimal notation similar to the notation used for an IP address.
As you'll recall from the preceding section, the subnet mask is a 32-bit binary number. You can convert ...
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