How to Find Network Address From IP Address?

So, there are many ways to scan a network and get all the devices’ IP addresses. But tracking all that information by hand can quickly become an outsized task for any one organizational member. So, read the article to get more information on this How to Find Network Address from IP Address?

Computer networks use IP addresses to identify computers and networking devices on the network. An IP address consists of two components: the network address and the host address.

Subnet Mask:

So, the success of TCP/IP as a network protocol relies on the fact that networks can be broken up into smaller subnetworks by system administrators. This is done by using a subnet mask that divides an IP address into two parts: the network portion and the host portion. The routers that carry information throughout the network don’t need to know the exact host address, only the network portion so they can deliver it to the right device.

When an IP address is displayed on a screen in dotted-decimal notation, it can be difficult to tell where the network portion ends and the host portion begins. This is where the subnet mask comes in. A subnet mask is a bit field that specifies which bits belong to the network and which belong to the host. A subnet mask is often shown in slash (/) notation or Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) notation, where the number after the slash represents the number of network bits (a fixed value for classful networks).

S, to calculate an IP address from its corresponding subnet mask. You must view it at the binary level, just as a computer sees it. To do this, you must first write the IP address in binary form and then perform a logical AND operation between each octet of the IP address and the inverse of its subnet mask. The result is the resulting network IP address.

CIDR:

Network devices use unique identifiers to communicate with each other. These identifiers allow particular information packets to be sent to the right device. To make sure all network devices are assigned the same identifier, they are divided into smaller networks known as subnets. This is done to prevent IP address collisions, which can bring a whole network down.

A CIDR (Classless Inter-Domain Routing) netmask is a way of describing an IP address range in a standardized format. It is a common tool used by network engineers, administrators, and Site Reliability Engineers to manage IP addresses. CIDR allows blocks of IP addresses to be further divided within a private network, called sub-nets, which makes it easy to manage the allocation of these addresses.

The CIDR netmask is made up of two groups of bits: the most significant bit indicates the network prefix, while the least significant bit is the host identifier. This system is used as the basis for routing between IP networks and address allocation policies.

The easiest way to find the CIDR of an IP address is to convert it to binary form. And perform a logical OR between the octets of the IP address and its inverse subnet mask. The result will be the number of hosts that can be assigned to a specific network segment.

Classful:

When determining your network address. First, look at the numbers in the first byte of the IP address. The number in the first byte indicates which class the IP address belongs to. There are five different classes. Each with a distinct bit pattern that determines its function. The next three bytes determine the host part of the address, while the final byte is used for broadcasting.

The first one, class A, contains all addresses whose most significant bit is set to 1. While the next two bits are set to zero. So, this allows for 128 networks, whereas class B networks have the two most-significant bits set to 0, allowing for 64 networks. The remaining bytes are used to determine the host part of the address, which can have a value between 0 and 255.

The classful addressing system was implemented in the early days of the Internet in 1981 and is now obsolete. It was replaced by a classless addressing scheme. Also known as CIDR, which aids in the more efficient allocation of IP addresses.

Classless:

Just like your street address helps mail carriers find your home. The IP address of a device on the Internet guides routers in directing data packets to their destination online. The device’s IP address also includes a specific sub-address. So, that distinguishes it within its network so that messages can be sent accurately.

The way that this is done is by using a subnet mask. Subnet masks identify which bits in an IP address are used for the network portion and which ones are used for the host portion. For example, a class B network uses 16 bits for its subnet mask, leaving 16 bits available for host information. This translates to a maximum of 216 – 2 = 65,536 hosts on a class B network.

CIDR was introduced to improve the scalability of routing on the Internet. And provide more flexibility in assigning IP addresses to networks. So, with CIDR, the number of hosts that can be in a network is calculated based on the number of host bits left over after taking into account all the network bits and the broadcast bit. This calculation allows for a more accurate allocation of IP addresses. While eliminating waste and making it possible to allocate smaller blocks of addresses to midsize organizations or individuals. The best way to calculate how many host bits are left over from a given IP address is to convert the mask length from decimal to binary notation. Count the number of zeros and divide by 2. This will give you the number of host bits that can be used in a subnet.