Final answer:
To support 7 hosts per subnet on a Class C network, with 5 bits for subnetting and 3 bits for the hosts, the address ranges for the first 4 subnets would be 192.168.1.0/29 to 192.168.1.7/29, 192.168.1.8/29 to 192.168.1.15/29, 192.168.1.16/29 to 192.168.1.23/29, and 192.168.1.24/29 to 192.168.1.31/29 respectively.
Step-by-step explanation:
To calculate the subnet ranges for a Class C network where each subnet should support 7 hosts, you need to take into account that each subnet will require one IP address for the network and one for the broadcast, leaving 7 for hosts. With 7 hosts you need at least 3 bits for host addresses (since 23 - 2 = 6, which is not enough, while 24 - 2 = 14 is more than sufficient). This leaves 5 bits for subnetting (because Class C has 8 bits available for hosts originally, and we use 3 for the hosts in each subnet).
In binary notation, it would look like this for the first 4 subnets:
- Subnet 1: 00000 (Network Address: .0, Broadcast Address: .7)
- Subnet 2: 00001 (Network Address: .8, Broadcast Address: .15)
- Subnet 3: 00010 (Network Address: .16, Broadcast Address: .23)
- Subnet 4: 00011 (Network Address: .24, Broadcast Address: .31)
Therefore, the subnet address ranges for the first 4 subnets will be:
- Subnet 1: 192.168.1.0/29 to 192.168.1.7/29
- Subnet 2: 192.168.1.8/29 to 192.168.1.15/29
- Subnet 3: 192.168.1.16/29 to 192.168.1.23/29
- Subnet 4: 192.168.1.24/29 to 192.168.1.31/29