These bits become a tradeoff based on the network class (A, B or C). Subnet masks for a Class C network (small network) use the first 24 bits for subnet ID and the last 8 for host ID. These last 8 ...

Variable-length subnet masks (VLSM) allow network administrators to "right size" each subnet. With fixed-length subnet masks, however, each subnet in the network is the same size because each device ...