Reasoning Theorems of Success

Perhaps you already know that it is possible to get a free domain name. However, have you ever wondered how a country can afford to give away its domain names for free? Why would a country just give away its domain names instead of charging for them?

1. Free Domain Names from Dot TK

It is possible to get a free top-level domain name from Dot TK (www.dot.tk).

According to their website, “Dot TK is a joint venture of the Government of Tokelau, it’s communication company Teletok and Taloha, Inc., a privately held company. The Government of Tokelau has appointed Taloha, Inc. as the exclusive registration entity.”

Of course, for free .tk domains, ownership remains with Dot TK. This means that you can’t sell it. As well, there are other restrictions and disadvantages of free .tk domains, including:

-You can register only a maximum of three free domain names;
-You need 25 visitors within a ninety day period;
-You need to have existing web content somewhere so that your dot tk name can be forwarded to it; and
-Dot TK uses frames to show your website. This being the case, you may have issues with navigation (bookmarking or finding specific pages) and search engine friendliness.

For serious business use, you might want to pay the nominal cost for a domain name.

2. Why Do They Offer Free Domain Names?

Still, it is free. Why would they do this when they could make money from the sale of domain names?

According to their website: “Why does Dot TK give away free domain names? We believe that the Internet was supposed to be ‘Free’. Meaning no charges, payments or expected return favors.”

3. How Can They Afford to Give Away Free Domain Names?

This logically leads us to our next question: How can they afford to give away free domain names?

Dot TK makes money from paid domain names, including some special and trademarked names.

To help support Dot TK, you can optionally have an ad displayed on your website. Thus, they do receive some advertising revenue from this. However, the big money would be in the sponsorship by large corporations.

4. Other Free Top-Level Domain Names

By the way, this is not the only ccTLD (country code Top-Level Domain) that gives away some domain names for free.

As just one example, cg is the ccTLD for the Republic of Congo. Each of its citizens and lawful residents are allowed one free .cg domain name.

5. Free Subdomain Names

Additionally, subdomain names are also available for free. For example, eu.org states on their website that their goal “is to provide free subdomain registration to users or non-profit organizations who cannot afford the outrageous fees demanded by some NICs, especially in Europe.”

As well, nr is the ccTLD name for the Republic of Nauru. You can receive a free subdomain name from co.nr. Thus, your domain name could be something like yourcompany.co.nr.

Why do countries give away free domain names? They want their citizens and others to be able to enjoy the benefits of domain name use without cost being an issue. It can also be a promotional method designed to get the word out about their ccTLD.

How can these countries afford to give away free domain names? Advertising revenue and the sale of paid domains are two ways of funding free domain names.

J. Stephen Pope, President of Pope Consulting Inc., has been helping clients to earn maximum business profits for over twenty-five years. To learn more about domain names and other profitable Work at Home Small Business Ideas, visit www.yenommarketinginc.com/domain-names.html

A domain name that is too general will not do justice to your site to get all the traffic you can.

And you know, traffic means big dollars. Just ask webmasters who are raking in thousands of dollars every monthand they will tell you that they spend a huge amount of time to ensure that they get a huge flow of traffic to their sites.

You see, your domain can be broken down into several sub-names that are very specific to your products and services. When you have incomes coming from all of them, your bank account swells very fast.

You may not know this, but any product you choose to sell on the internet can have numerous offshoots of sub products that can bring in hundreds, even thousands of dollars every month. These sub-products can be very lucrative. With multiple products and a wide array of goods you offer to buyers, you can earn more money with your sub-websites than with only your main domain name. You must corner the market -have full control–if you are to maximize your profits with the same amount of effort.

Every extra dollar you earn from these sub-products every month can add up to a fortune in a hurry. Sometimes, webmasters/publishers think of only their index or main pages as the source of revenue to them. This is false thinking. You may be surprised to know that pages behind the index/main page and sub-domains sites related to the same product are the real breadwinners for their owners.

You will never know until you buy and hold or publish all the possible domain sub-names applicable to your site, of the huge revenues that are possible from them. If you only have one domain name now, think of all the applicable names that are tied to your site and its products. For example: Suppose your site’s name is: Flowers.com. It might be to your advantage to control your revenue stream by purchasing other sub-domains names like: weddingflowers.com, anniversaryflowers.com, specialoccasionsflowers.com etc. I think you get the picture. Underneath each one of these you can develop specific products to fit your clientele. People who surf the internet know what they want and are very specific about it, so, it is your job to have these specific items on a platter waiting for them. All you have to do is to collect their money.

Buy purchasing these sub-domains names, you will eliminate your competition as they will not have the licensethe sub domain namesto compete with you with your product line. Of course you may not choose to have a separate web site with these names, but by purchasing these names and keeping them parked with your domain name registry, you have eliminated the competition from getting on your turf and stealing your revenues. This way, you control your revenues and keep the competitors away. You can develop your site as you see fit. Or, you can hold the sub-domain name and auction them to the highest bidder if you so choose. If it is in demand, perhaps you can get as high as $2,000,000 more or less? It is definitely a benefit to control it whether you publish it as a site or hold it as a reserve.

Do you own the sub-domain names to your main site?

If you do not, then someone else may have bought your sub-domains and may be selling products similar to yours and making a bundle—at your expense -after the hard work you have done to drive traffic at your site—and theirs toowith little effort on their part. Or, these sub-domain names may be still available, if you do a domain name check right now.

In addition, when you have many sub site pointing and indexed/linked to your site, spiders from the major search engines love it. They’ll feed on your site all day so your ranking moves to the top faster and stay there for longer periods of time, because you will have a lot of content. This translates to higher traffic and you get humongous traffic and tons of dollars in revenue.

Again, like search engines indexing, cross linking possibilities are tremendous with other sites and search engines. This is a big bonus for additional traffic.

Lets us face it. You are not marketing on line for fun only. You are on line to increase your revenues! Build a fortune! You want to go on a vacation while you make money 24/7 and do not have to worry about your competition. You want a site that is an automatic money maker—working at its full potential night and day.

So, do not get robbed of additional revenues or be contented with your current revenues from your main page.

Start today and review your main domain and sub domains names. If you do not have control of the sub-domains for your site, then get control of them by purchasing them now and either parking them with your registry or put them to work to market your entire line of products.

Enjoy your added income streams! You deserve it!

The author has a broad range of expertise in Science, Engineering and Technology. He is an avid researcher, copywriter and on-line internet marketer and controls several high traffic web-sites. He researches and simplifies complex topics and translates them to layman’s terms for their benefit and to reach broader audiences for products and services.

You can visit this site: http://bestdomainprofits.com to get on the Fast Track to multiply your income a thousand fold in the near future. Send your comments to me via an e-mail to: tansane@bellsouth.net

Distribution
This article is approved for distribution by the author, providing that it is hyperlinked back to: http://bestdomainprofits.com publisher’s page.

With domain name articles and tips floating around all over the Web, most people probably feel that they know a good deal about picking and protecting a domain name. However, some common domain name myths persist. Let’s debunk a few.

Myth: Once I register a domain, I can use it forever.

Fact: While it’s possible that you’ll keep your registered domain name forever, it’s not guaranteed. Several things can happen that would cause you to lose your domain name. First, you have to register your domain name each year (or register it for multiple years up front) in order to keep your access to it. If you forget to renew your registration, you could lose your domain name, or someone else can register it and charge you a huge fee to have it transferred back to your name. Second, you could lose your domain name in a trademark dispute.

Myth: My domain name is automatically trademarked, so no one else can ever use it or anything too similar to it (such as with other extensions).

Fact: A domain name cannot be trademarked in the US! It also isn’t protected by a copyright. However, if your business’ name is trademarked before anyone else is using it, then you could sue if someone registered a domain name using your business name (or a common misspelling) to sell products or services that are extremely similar to your own. For instance, if someone else ever tried to register something like Microsoft.net, or even microsort.net, for the purpose of selling computers and software, Microsoft could sue them to stop them from using the domain name. This is to stop scammers and competitors from trying to profit off of a trademarked name. In some countries, you can’t even register a domain with their country-specific extension unless you own the trademark there for that business name.

Myth: If I own the trademark for my company’s name, I automatically have the right to register my company’s name as a domain name.

Fact: You do not, in fact, have the right to register any domain name, even if you have a trademark on the corresponding company name. The reason for this is that a trademark on a business name doesn’t give you exclusive access to use that name. It only gives you exclusive access to use that name for the particular products and / or services that you offer. Going back to our above example, let’s say Microsoft forgot to renew their registration on Microsoft.net. While they could sue another computer manufacturer or software company for registering the domain name without question, let’s assume it’s registered by a small company making microfiber-covered sofas and other furniture. The name makes sense - ‘micro’ as an abbreviation for microfiber, and ’soft’ because it’s a very soft fabric. That company has every right to use the company name Microsoft, and they would own the trademark for that company name as it applies to the products they sell. Because of that, Microsoft couldn’t do anything to get their .net domain name back except offering to buy it outright.

Myth: A domain is only worth registering if you can get the .com version.

Fact: Many web sites have been successful using .net, .org, and country-specific domain extensions. Don’t reject an otherwise good domain name just because the .com extension isn’t available. If you’re setting up a domain name based on keywords, a .net or .org shouldn’t make too much of a difference. If you’re selling products or services to only residents of your country, a country-specific domain extension could prove to be quite profitable for you, as it tells your target market that you’re specifically selling to them.

Myth: You should never use dashes in a domain name.

Fact: While including dashes in a domain name isn’t ideal, it also shouldn’t be forbidden. Dashes make it harder to market your domain name via word of mouth, but they can be very effective if you’re determined to use a keyword-rich domain name for a general content site, if the version without the dashes isn’t available.

Copyright 2006 Stephen Ashton

Learn more domain name tips at http://www.domainnamescenter.com and find cheap web hosting at http://www.abetterwebhost.com

When you are choosing a domain name you will probably be looking for a .com or maybe a .net. This on the whole is sensible advice, but if you are offering something a little bit different on your website and you want to stand out then there is another path you can take.

First let me give a quick and simple explanation of the different parts that domain names are made up of. Let us start with the top level, this is the end part of any web address such as .com or the myriad of other top level names that are now available. The part next to the top level domain is called the second level domain. The second level domain is the part that you register with a domain name registrar. For my site the second level domain is NameSearchDomain.

The part at the from of the web address is the third level domain, this is excluding the www part. The third level domain is often referred to by your web host as the sub-domain, it is just a sub-domain of the second level domain name. You can set this part up with your web host if it allows you to use sub-domains.

This is a very high level overview of how a web address is made up, there is more to this but for our purposes this is all we nee to know. To clarify here is an example using Google.

• Second Level - Google.com or www.Google.com
• Sub-domain - News.Google.com or www.News.Google.com

You do not need to enter the www part of the address in your browser, just typing in Google.com will take you to the website.

Now you know how a web address is made up you can use your imagination to come up with a clever and distinctive web address. If you take a look at del.icio.us you can see an interesting use of the available domain names to spell the word delicious. Here they have registered the domain name icio.us, the us part is the top level domain that represents North America. A sub-domain of del has been created on their web server which completes the creation of a catchy web address.

Why not use the same principal to create your own web address, there are many top level domains to choose from, far too many to list here. As many of the less well known top level domains are not used there will be a lot more domain names to choose from. You can use this method to create a distinctive web address and become more memorable to your visitors.

Allan is the webmaster at NameSearchDomain.com where you can find out all about Domain names.

Does a website come with a domain name? If not, what comes with a website and how do I get a domain name?

New website owners often seem confused about how and when domain names come into play. The questions usually boil down to: “Does a website come with a domain name?” and “If not, how do I get a domain name?”

Web hosting and domain name registration are usually separate services. Although your hosting company may give or sell you a domain name with your website, most hosting companies are not domain registrars, and chances are they’re procuring it from a third party. (Domain registrars often give you a website, but they’re usually not “full featured” websites, and another issue.)

What’s more, despite the fact that hosting companies will generally take care of your initial domain name registration, becoming familiar with the basics of domain name management can save you anywhere from a few bucks to a little bundle. (For the definition of “bundle,” forget Webster’s Dictionary. Look at your monthly statement from your hosting company; if it gives you that sinking feeling, that’s a bundle.)

Registrars like directnic.com and enom.com, for example, charge $15 and $30, respectively, per year, per domain name. In bulk, you can get names at enom.com for as low as $9. And with a little shopping around, you can do even better than this.

Managing your own domain names will usually have its biggest payoff if you should decide to get more than one domain name, a common practice that can sometimes enhance your web presence. How? Let’s say, your business name is “Grumpy’s Hardware and Paint.” Some people know you as Grumpy’s Hardware, some as Grumpy’s Paint, and some as just plain Grumpy. You might want to get three domain names — grumpyshardware.com, grumpyspaint.com, and grumpy.com — so your site can be reached no matter what a surfer enters in his browser.

The way this would work is, you’d open your hosting account using, let’s say, grumpy.com. Then you’d add on, what’s called, “parked” or “mirror” domain names, grumpyshardware.com and grumpyspaint.com. Parked or mirror domains are not separate websites; they simply point to an existing website, grumpy.com, in this case.

The problem is that some hosting companies will charge you setup and/or monthly fees for parked domains. These fees are above and beyond the yearly fees you already pay for registering domain names. And these fees can add up.

By managing domain names yourself, however, you can avoid all “parking” fees, not to mention shop around for a better deal on the names themselves.

The fundamentals of domain management begin with two basic methods of directing domain names to your website. That is, the process that gets a surfer from the browser to your website involves a mechanism that takes the surfer (unbeknownst to him) to your domain name registrar and then to your website. The journey from your registrar to your website can be accomplished by one of two methods — “pointing” or “forwarding.” It’s your choice as to which method to use.

What’s the difference? There’s a huge difference.

Although the menus for setting up these features vary from registrar to registrar, the concepts are the same. “Pointing” involves assigning a DNS (Domain Name Server) address, obtained from your hosting company, to your domain name grumpy.com. This is done at your registrar account.

Then, you must inform your hosting company to “set up” grumpy.com on their end, if they have not yet done so. And this is where domain name setup and monthly fees at your hosting company come in.

“Forwarding” (also referred to as “redirecting”), on the other hand, works a little differently. Let’s say you wanted to set up grumpyspaint.com for your website. Instead of using the DNS method described above, you would simply “forward” it to grumpy.com, which would already be pointing to your website. In addition to being a little simpler, it’s likely you’ve just saved yourself some money.

How?

When a surfer enters grumpyspaint.com, they simply get forwarded to your other name, grumpy.com, which is already pointing to your website. It’s almost as if the surfer entered grumpy.com directly. And you don’t need any additional setups at your hosting company when you use this method, no matter how many additional parked domain names you have. So, no setups, no fees.

To put it all together, if you had let’s say 20 domain names, you’d need to set up only one domain name at your registrar using the DNS method, and you’d need your hosting company to “setup” that same name on their end. The other nineteen names would need no setup whatsoever at your hosting company. All you’d have to do is redirect (at your registrar account) all nineteen names to that one name you already have set up. And, thus, you’ve saved yourself setup and/or monthly fees for nineteen parked domains.

How much can you save? Some hosting companies can charge as much as $20 setup and $5 per month for each parked domain. Figure it out.

Be aware that some registrars charge extra for features such as “forwarding.” But there’s no need to pay extra even for this. Many registrars, like directnic.com and enom.com, include forwarding and other features at no extra charge.

So, even if you do not necessarily take care of these domain matters yourself, but relegate it to a friend or coworker, being aware of the ins and outs can help you avoid getting ripped off by a hosting company whose job is not necessarily to keep you informed of the most budget-conscious way of running your operation. After all, the information super highway should be for surfing, not for being taken for a ride.

by Josh Greenberger
from shopndrop.com

Josh Greenberger: A computer consultant for over two decades, the author has developed software for such organizations as NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies, AT&T, Charles Schwab, Bell Laboratories and Chase Manhattan Bank. Since 1984, the author’s literary works have appeared in such periodicals as The New York Post, The Daily News, The Village Voice, The Jewish Press, and others. His articles have ranged from humor to scientific to topical events. Visit him at http://shopndrop.com

Domain names can be turned into money if you are wise and have a finger on the pulse of the cyber world. If you find quality domain names and manage to register them, then it is quite possible that a domain name can fetch you considerable sums of money when sold.

Domain name investing is a business in which according to the cyber gurus you have complete control over your investment. To become successful you must master the art of buying and know when to sell. Success means two things, guts and vision. There are domain name players who capture a slice of pie by purchasing thousands of domain names pertaining to a specific sector. They are then in full control of the demand as well as selling price. The money spinning trick is to release the names slowly in the market. The domains that stay in their custody are not “dead” investments. They are parked such that they generate revenue from “pay-per-click” advertisements.

Domain portfolios can be crowded with many names even over 40,000 names or just contain a few jewels, top-notch domains. If bought wisely domain names can generate enough revenues to pay for themselves many times over.

* Buy only good domains by using DomainsBot and HotLists on sites like Namewinner or Pool to determine which ones are worthy and which ones are not.

* Buy short and specific domain names.

* Be sure to get the ones purchased by you appraised. There are several sites like www.appraisalblast.com that will do the needful.

* While you are waiting for the big sale let the domain names generate revenue for you. Set up parking pages that provide links to other web pages earning “pay per click” revenues. Ensure that traffic is not just generated but sustained. The name must be such that it has natural positioning. If it is not so, you must either sell off the domain name that is a junk or dud or make effort to develop it. What ensures and sustains traffic at a steady rate is content. To this end, start up a website like a membership portal, music site, games site, or news feed. The next step is to build traffic by setting up the domain names strategically. The aim is to run simultaneously many revenue generating streams like selling a specific service, displaying related advertisements, putting up content to tease visitors, or offering unique one of a kind experiences to visitors so that they come repeatedly to the site.

* For selling a domain name there are three main avenues.

o Land a sale on ebay by starting at a low price which invites bidders. Make sure the domain name is a part of the description. Include an appraisal of the domain name projecting its true value. Be sure to highlight all the important factors. Optimize your chances by getting a bold listing and aiming to end the auction on Sunday night.

o Opt for selling on established domain sites like Afternic or Sedo. They take a commission on sale but it would be worth it if your domain name commands a handsome price.

o If it is not a very important domain name try selling on domain forums.

* If you have had the foresight to purchase “a treasure” then contact large business houses to whom the domain name may be relevant. Be sure to let them know why your domain name will be of benefit to them. If you are successful you will get a very good price for the domain.

The keys are:

* A quality domain name with a short recognizable nomenclature.

* A name with no numbers.

* Marketability. For example if there is a stock market boom then domains that pertain to this field will fetch very good value.

* A fool proof marketing strategy.

A major domain name player must watch the market, know how to monetize his portfolio, balance his investments between high-profile key word based domains and mediocre ones, plan on recovering his investments by thinking of innovations like Rick Schwartz’s “click capitalist,” plan. In this he aims to invest traffic generated by domains into web-developer sites asking for stock as exchange.

If you have never heard of IDN domain names, you likely soon will. This is because the most used and popular internet browser in the world, Internet Explorer (IE7), will soon beging to resolve them by default. This means people from all over the world will finally be able to communicate websites, domain names and urls in their native languages. Many people feel this will mark a turning point in internet history. But just what is IDN and why are they so important?

IDNs are domain names that are written in foreign languages like Chinese, Japanese or Russian. IDN stands for Internationalized Domain Name. Most domain names that people are familiar with are written using the latin/english 26 character alphabet (or numbers), in an encoding called ASCII. This is because the internet was designed from the beginning to work using ASCII. IDN allows for the use of non ASCII characters in domain names.

IDN presently acheives this by using what is known as unicode, a foreign language encoding, to display the foreign language domain. The IDN can be converted by the browser via a number of algorithms to what is known as punycode, which is an ASCII version of the IDN, which can easily resolve with the current internet system. Punycode domains can be identified by their “xn--” beginning. The web browser performs the conversions and resolves the domain name into the correct unicode language.

Up until now, only a few browsers could/would convert IDNs. There have also been issues with IDNs regarding security and what is known as IDN spoofing and homograph attacks, where similar looking characters could be used to create look alike domain names. But with IE7 on board, and developing security refinements, the world moves closer to global IDN resolution. With IDN, people all over the world will be able to type domain names in their languages and visit sites that may be there. Businesses will be able to advertise their sites in the correct language. The internet will realize its promise as a truly global, international and diverse medium. Read more about IDN domain names.

There is basically nothing out there in the real world that is equal. Everything has its own distinctions, thus nothing is equal. This is also true with domain names. Not all domain names are designed equal as it is commonly noted. One of the main reasons that show this fact about the domain names is the truth that some of the choices for words in the English language have already been broken up as domains, thus some of the particular domain names worth higher to buyers than the others.

With such fact about the value of the domain names, one of the major processes that exist in the world comes to tackle this matter and that is the domain name appraisal. The domain name appraisal emerged out of the situation of buying and selling domain names. So what exactly is the domain name appraisal?

The domain name appraisal is the manner of weighing up a domain name and recognizing the worth of a certain domain name. This is somewhat like a real estate appraisal and other forms of appraisals. However, unlike the currencies in which a set worth can be recognized; in the domain name worth has no way to be standardized. So with such fact, it is important to know that the domain name appraisal just remains as an opinion. Many domain name experts have noted that due to such condition of the domain name appraisal, there is no way that the domain name’s worth can be conclusively proved.

Even though the domain name appraisal remains as a mere opinion, the domain name appraisal can still be very helpful. They not only give the domain name owners with an opinion but the domain name appraisal also gives certain signals to the owners of what they must charge when they decide to sell a domain name. As such, the domain name appraisal is then believed to add at least a tidbit justification to the domain name price.

In a domain name appraisal, a number of factors are mostly considered. These factors include the domain name’s length, keyword recognition, vividness and range of potential uses. It is also considered that most of the domain name appraisals today charge a certain domain name between 10 to 30 dollars, but with official discounts for bulk domain name appraisals. And to better serve the domain name consumers and holders, certain companies that conduct such service provide some software that will greatly appraise the domain names for the customers.

But still outside from such functions, the domain name appraisals are only means of determining the worth of a domain name. And if the domain name is appraised at a high value, it doesn’t mean that such domain name will sell quickly, it just holds that you picked a better name.

The 12 Month Millionaire Will Show You Everything you did and didn’t want to know about making One Million Dollars by this time next year… revealed LIVE! Active hyperlink must remain w/article.

There are a number of domain name registrars out there online. For something as simple and yet necessary as domain name registration, price is the main factor. So where can you find the best deal to get your domain name registered? Here are the top 5 cheapest domain name registrars.

There are a number of domain name registrars out there that can get you your name for under $4.00. What separates one from another is the support and extras you get with your price. With that in mind, the first of the top 5 cheapest domain name registrars out there is active-domain.com. For the $3.95 you pay for one year of domain registration, this company also offers you a number of features. In addition to any suffix you need, you get a web-based services account to keep track of your domains, free email forwarding, catch-all email accounts, free sub-domains, parking page, and many other features that make this a definite top five cheap domain name registration company.

A second member of the top 5 cheapest domain name registrars is domainsarefree.com. Despite the name, you will have to pay for your domain name registration, but at $3.99 per year, it is still a good price that comes in under $4.00. Additionally, they offer you a number of other features with your registration at no extra charge. Email forwarding, anti-spam, domain administration, and even some great web hosting deals are available. They also offer you most any domain suffix you could want and are qualified to receive.

Another of the top 5 cheapest domain name registrars you may want to consider is cheap-domainnames.com. Their strength lies in the rates they give for bulk domain registration. You can receive a discount of more than 10% if you register a large number of domains at the same time. Additionally, if you use their other services, they will offer you domain registration for as little as $2.00. In some cases, you can actually get free registration from them. The key is to explore all of the deals available through the company and find the one that matches your company best. In fact, under the right circumstances, this may actually be the cheapest of the top 5 cheapest domain name registrars.

Though their initial cost may be a bit more, fxdomains.com has a place in the top 5 cheapest domain name registrars for a simple reason: you get so much with your registration. Not only to you get the domain name you want for less than $8.00, but also you get a number of free extras that can really make the price a great value. With registration you will get a quick blog, website holder page, email, starter web page, forwarding, total control of DNS, a for sale page if you want it, and a number of other features that make this company worth a look for domain registration.

Finally, Yahoo definitely deserves a spot in the top 5 cheapest domain name registrars. Still coming in at under $10.00, the company offers a number of extras in addition to very good support. Their size and capital make them a solid choice when it comes to service. In addition to your domain, Yahoo will get you a starter web page, 24 hour customer services, complete domain control, and email forwarding in addition to a number of other standard features and available upgrades.

Subnet mask shows which bits of an IP address (read the article IP Addresses, by the same author) represent the network and which represent the host.

By default we have:

IP addresses - Subnet mask
Class A - 255.0.0.0
Class B - 255.255.0.0
Class C - 255.255.255.0

Example:
IP address 192.168.8.4 ( class C ). The first 24 bytes represent the network
- 192.168.8.0 - and the last 8 bits the host - 4 -.

When a host A wants to be connected to a host B, the host A uses its subnet mask to check if the host B is on the same LAN - local area network -
or on a remote network.
For this purpose it is used the boolean ANDing process.

Example:
Host A IP address ( class B ) 172.16.2.4 - Subnet mask ( class B ) 255.255.0.0
Host B IP address ( class B ) 172.16.2.5

Host A IP in binary:
10101100 00010000 00000010 00000100

Host B IP in binary:
10101100 00010000 00000010 00000101

Subnet mask in binary:
11111111 11111111 00000000 00000000

– ANDing process for Host A
10101100 00010000 00000010 00000100
11111111 11111111 00000000 00000000
—————————————–
10101100 00010000 00000000 00000000 Result for HOST A

– ANDing process for Host B
10101100 00010000 00000010 00000101
11111111 11111111 00000000 00000000
—————————————–
10101100 00010000 00000000 00000000 Result for HOST B

The calculation works in this way:
- 1 when the first and second bits are both 1.
- 0 when they are 0 and 1, 0 when they are 0 and 0.

Since result A = result B the two hosts are on the same network, so the communication is possible without using a gateway ( normally a router ) to
establish a connection to another network.

There are two ways to write an IP address using subnet mask:
Example:
1) 49.22.2.3 255.0.0.0 - class A IP and subnet mask
2) 192.168.1.3/24 - class C IP and subnet mask ( showing its bits )
255 in binary is 11111111 - 8 bits -.

Since in a class C subnet mask there are three 255 groups we have 24 bits.

Subnets

Sometime it is useful to divide a network in smaller networks.
Let’s suppose we want divide a network, with a class B - IP address, in 8 subnets. The class B subnet mask is 255.255.0.0

We must use some of the 16 bits of the host portion ( borrowing process )
to create the 8 subnets. Since the subnets are 8, we need 8 different combinations plus 1 ( the broadcast ): 9 in total.

In binary 9 = 1001, that is 4 bits.

Subnet mask:
11111111 11111111 00000000 00000000
Inserting 4 bits in the third group ( the first of the host portion ):
11111111 11111111 11110000 00000000
the third group becomes 11110000 = 240 ( base 10 )
It means that we have a new subnet mask: 255.255.240.0

Generally speaking:
The calculation for the number of subnets is
2^x -2
where x is the bits number for the subnet mask.
( In the example above x = 4 )

The calculation for subnets addresses is
256 - s
where s is the value of the subnet mask: in the same example s = 240

The calculation for the hosts number is
2^y -2
where y is the number of the remaining bits: in the same example y = 12 because

———————-bits left (12)
11111111 11111111 11110000 00000000
—————– bits
—————-inserted
——————(4)

The IP addresses numbers are between the IP of the first subnet and the IP of the last subnet with the exclusion of the broadcast and network IP.
Broadcast IP have all the bits of the host portion = 1
Network IP have all the bits of the host portion = 0

Final Example:
Let’s divide a network with IP address 192.168.5.0 ( class C ) in two subnets.
The necessary combinations are 3. In binary it is 11, so we have 2 bits.
The class C subnetmask is 255.255.255.0
After the borrowing process, it’s last group becomes 11000000 which is 192 (base 10).
The new subnet mask is 255.255.255.192

Hosts number is 2^6 -2 = 62 ( y = 6 )

Subnets addresses: 256 - 192 = 64 ( s = 192 )
Then 192.168.5.64 and 192.168.5.128
It starts with 64 and goes on adding 64

IP addresses: from 192.168.5.65 to 192.168.5.126 for the first subnet.
from 192.168.5.129 to 192.168.5.190 for the second subnet
Note: the broadcast address for the first subnet is
11000000.10101000.00000101.01111111, the fourth group is 127 (base 10 ) and the broadcast address of the second subnet is
11000000.10101000.00000101.10111111, the fourth group is 191
( base 10 )

Renato Piccini - Florence - Italy
Computers Networks technician
http://www.softgrafic.com