Ive read wikipedia and a few other sites but i must be stupid or something because i cant get my head around it. I understand how it works, I just dont understand how it helps with the problem of running out of usable addresses due to the limited number of IPv4 addresses.
I can understand the benifits of subnetting for routing, in that it simplifies the routing table because a routing table will only list the ips for its own subnet, and 1 entry for each other subnet, instead of having every single host listed for the entier network.
I can also understand that there are benifits for limiting the broadcasting, so that you can broadcast to one subnet, without sending the same broadcast to everyone else on the network. But this reduces the usable number of addresses as 1 subnet would only have 1 ip reserved for broadcasting, so the more subnets, the more ips reserved for broadcasting.
The only way i can possibly think that subneting would help solve the problem with limited addresses, is if 2 devices could share the same IP on the internet, but using a different subnet mask. But i dont see how this is possible because if you ping an ip, your pining just a single device, so each IP must be limited to a single device (ignoring the private/lan ips).
I dont know, maybe im just thinking about the whole thing all wrong. But its just driving me nuts that i cant seem to get my head around something which isnt even that complex, its as if im just too stupid to realize the obvious or something.
I can understand the benifits of subnetting for routing, in that it simplifies the routing table because a routing table will only list the ips for its own subnet, and 1 entry for each other subnet, instead of having every single host listed for the entier network.
I can also understand that there are benifits for limiting the broadcasting, so that you can broadcast to one subnet, without sending the same broadcast to everyone else on the network. But this reduces the usable number of addresses as 1 subnet would only have 1 ip reserved for broadcasting, so the more subnets, the more ips reserved for broadcasting.
The only way i can possibly think that subneting would help solve the problem with limited addresses, is if 2 devices could share the same IP on the internet, but using a different subnet mask. But i dont see how this is possible because if you ping an ip, your pining just a single device, so each IP must be limited to a single device (ignoring the private/lan ips).
I dont know, maybe im just thinking about the whole thing all wrong. But its just driving me nuts that i cant seem to get my head around something which isnt even that complex, its as if im just too stupid to realize the obvious or something.
