IP Addressing

An IP (Internet Protocol) address is a unique identifier for a node or host connection on an IP network. An IP address is a 32 bit binary number usually represented as 4 decimal values, each representing 8 bits, in the range 0 to 255 (known as octets) separated by decimal points. This is known as "dotted decimal" notation.

Address Classes
There are 5 different address classes. You can determine which class any IP address is in by examining the first 4 bits of the IP address.

Class A 0.0.0.0 to 126.255.255
Class B 128.0.0.0 to 191.255.255
Class C 192.0.0.0 to 223.255.255
Class D 224.0.0.0 to 239.255.255
Class E 240.0.0.0 to 254.255.255

[Note: 127.0.0.0 - 127.255.255.255 is reserved for loop back id
0.0.0.0 is know as Global IP
255.255.255.255 is known as Broadcast IP]

[Note: Class D and E is used for Research and Development & Multicasting]