Question

As defined by the original Internet Protocol standard, what are the three classes of IP addresses used for networks, and what differentiates them?

Answer 1

The three classes of IP addresses are Class A, Class B, and Class C, differentiated by the default subnet mask and the division of the 32-bit IP address, categorizing networks by size from the largest to smallest in terms of host capacity.

Step-by-step explanation:

The three classes of IP addresses used for networks under the original Internet Protocol standard are Class A, Class B, and Class C.

• Class A addresses are designed for networks with a very large number of hosts. They have a default subnet mask of 255.0.0.0 and support 16 million hosts on each of 128 networks.
• Class B addresses are intended for medium-sized networks. They have a default subnet mask of 255.255.0.0, supporting 65,000 hosts on each of 16,000 networks.
• Class C addresses are used for small networks. They have a default subnet mask of 255.255.255.0, which allows for 254 hosts on each of 2 million networks.

The differentiation between these classes stems from the way the 32-bit IP address is divided between network and host identifiers. Class A has a large number of hosts, Class B has fewer hosts, and Class C has even fewer, effectively categorizing networks by size based on the first octet of the IP address.