Feb 22
2007
What is a Subnet Mask?
address and the host address. A subnet mask separates the IP address into the network and host addresses (<network><host>). Subnetting further divides the host part of an IP address into a subnet and host address (<network><subnet><host>) if additional subnetwork is needed. Use the Subnet Calculator to retrieve subnetwork information from the IP address and Subnet Mask. It is called a subnet mask because it is used to identify the network address of an IP address by performing a bitwise AND operation on the netmask.