What is IP network? 

Let’s define this in today’s 101 blog post.

Network defines an IP address range. It is kind of like an area code for phone numbers. Area codes are used to define a group of phone numbers based on their location, and then that code can be used to help route phone calls between phone the same way and area code defines a group of phone number.

Figure 1: PSTN concept with numbering and area codes

Now that you know this simple PSTN concept example, we can define a group of IP addresses based on specific locations.

Then those networks can be used by routers to route traffic between IP addresses.

Figure 2: IP network

Now we know what a network is, the next question is how do we know what network and IP address belongs to? We all know what part of the phone number defines the area code, but what part of the IP address defines what network it’s a part of?

That’s what we’re going to learn next when we talk about sub net masks in our next blog post.