Intellinet 525688 - Page 95

92

separatedby“.”:bbbbbbbb.bbbbbbbb.bbbbbbbb.bbbbbbbb,whereeach“b”
caneitherbe0or1.

Anetworkmaskisalsoa32‐bitbinarypattern,andconsistsofconsecutive
leading1’sfollowedbyconsecutivetrailing0’s,suchas
11111111.11111111.11111111.00000000.Thereforesometimesanetwork
maskcanalsobedescribedsimplyas“x”number
oflead ing1’s.
Whenbotharerepresentedsidebysideintheirbinaryforms,allbitsintheIP
addressthatcorrespondto1’sinthenetworkmaskbecomepartoftheIP
networkaddress,andtheremainingbitscorrespondtothehostID.

Forexample,iftheIPaddress
foradeviceis,initsbinaryform,
11011001.10110000.10010000.00000111,andifitsnetworkmaskis
11111111.11111111.11110000.00000000,itmeansthedevice’snetwork
addressis11011001.10110000.10010000.00000000anditshostIDis
00000000.00000000.00000000.00000111.Thisisaconvenientandefficient
methodforaccesspointstorouteIPpacketstotheirdestination.

ISPGatewayAddress:(seeISPfordefinition).TheISPGatewayAddressisan
IPaddressfortheInternetaccesspointlocatedattheISP'soffice.

ISP:InternetServiceProvider.AnISPisabusinessthatprovidesconnectivity
totheInternet
forindividualsandbusinessesororganizations.

LAN:LocalAreaNetwork.ALANisagroupofcomputersanddevices
connectedtogetherinarelativelysmallarea(suchasahouseoranoffice).
YourhomenetworkisconsideredaLAN.

MACAddress:MACstandsforMediaAccessControl.A
MACaddressisthe
hardwareaddressofadeviceconnectedtoanetwork.TheMACaddressisa
uniqueidentifierforadevicewithanEthernetinterface.Itiscomposedoftwo
parts:3bytesofdatacorrespondingtotheManufacturerID(uniqueforeach
manufacturer)plus3bytesoftenused
astheproduct’sserialnumber.

NAT:NetworkAddressTranslation.Thisprocessallowsallofthecomputers
onyourhomenetworktouseoneIPaddress.Usingthebroadbandaccess
point’sNATcapability,youcanaccesstheInternetfromanycomputeron
yourhomenetworkwithouthavingtopurchasemoreIP
addressesfromyour
ISP.
