Subnet Number

What Does Subnet Number Mean?

A subnet number is a specific part of a subnet address in an IP address that identifies one among several subnets as the recipient or originator of a data packet. The subnet number helps browsers to accurately use the Internet to deliver messages to specific parts of a party’s full network.

Techopedia Explains Subnet Number

Subnets are areas of a network based on groups of computers, either at a physical location or some other method of organization. The subnet number goes into the IP address as a specific indicator for where to send packets. Networking systems use something called a subnet mask to determine the part of an IP address that is a subnet number. The subnet number is typically located after the network number in the sequence.

Using subnets helps to minimize the use of full-network IP addresses that are a finite resource on the Web.

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Margaret Rouse

Technology Specialist

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.

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