Which would be considered "more correct" for exam?

PhoenixDown

Regarding subnetting, lets say you have a class A addy of 10.0.0.0. You borrow 8 bits for a mask of 255.255.0.0. Technically, the first octet would be the network bits, while the borrowed bits (2nd octet) would be subnet bits, with the remaining being host bits. So If one was asked: "Regarding the network address and mask, how many bits are network bits?", what would the best answer be considered?

16 bits are used to identify the network in regards to the mask, but only 8 of them are truly "network bits". I've seen different sources answer similiar questions both ways with an 8 or a 16. It's is probably just a matter of the context of the question but I just wanted to see what everyone thought.

Webmaster

An IP address consists of two portions, network and host, regardless of the class or whether it's subnetted.