IP Logical Network Design

IP logical network design!

This is one of the task which you need to do is do after you have decided to set up a network (wired or wireless) at home. This is the process to decide the IP addresses, netmask for your computers, router and other network devices.

Since each IP address assigned to your computer must be unique, you can’t simply assign an IP address to your computer.

Here are 3 recommended IP ranges you can used in your network. These 3 blocks of private IP address space are reserved by Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for private network, such as home network.

3 Private IP address space:

10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255
172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255
192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255

You can use these 3 Private IP address space in your network without worrying it will conflict with the IP addresses in Internet.

After deciding the IP addresses to be used, let’s decide what netmask to be used. Netmask will decide how many IP addresses available to be used in your network. I usually use 255.255.255.0 for having 254 addresses to be assigned. There is a network address and broadcast address which can’t be used for IP assigning. Network address is used to represent that particular created network, whereas broadcast address is used to talk to all computers in that particular network.

Below are some examples for assigning IP addresses in your network.

Example 1:

I have 5 computers and a router in my network. I will assign 10.0.0.1 to the router, 10.0.0.2 – 10.0.0.6 to other 5 computers. I use netmask 255.255.255.0 for this network, so that I can assign IP addresses 10.0.0.1 - 10.0.0.254 in the network. Network address is 10.0.0.0, broadcast address is 10.0.0.255.

Example 2:

I have 8 computers, 2 notebooks and a router in my network. I will assign 172.16.10.1 to the router, 172.16.10.2 – 172.16.10.9 to other 8 computers and 172.16.10.10 – 172.16.10.11 to other 2 notebooks. I use netmask 255.255.255.0 for this network, so that I can assign IP addresses 172.16.10.1 – 172.16.10.254 in the network. Network address is 172.16.10.0, broadcast address is 172.16.10.255.

Example 3:

I have 8 computers, a router and a network printer in my network. I will assign 192.168.1.1 to the router, 192.168.1.2 to the network printer and 192.168.1.3 – 192.168.1.10 to other 8 computers. I use netmask 255.255.255.0 for this network, so that I can assign IP addresses 192.168. 1.1 – 192.168.1.254 in the network. Network address is 192.168.1.0, broadcast address is 192.168.1.255.

Try this online simple IP calculator. Try to enter network address 192.168.1.0 and number of subnet 1, then click calculate. You will get detailed information about this network. Try it..

If you wish to learn more about IP or network subnet, here is useful IP and subnetting site with video presentation.

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