Question about ip subnet zero

in CCNA & CCENT
I am a little confused about ip subnet zero. I know the basics, that if RIPv2 is in play it is permitted, and that the default on Cisco routers today is default on. But I am having difficulty wrapping my head around the concept. I have read up on the Internet as well as Odems book and was wondering is someone can maybe explain it in a simpler form.
I am obviously not quite there yet and would appreciate a quick run down from anothers perspective.
Thank you
Steve
I am obviously not quite there yet and would appreciate a quick run down from anothers perspective.
Thank you
Steve
Comments
Subnet Zero and the All-Ones Subnet* [IP Addressing Services] - Cisco Systems
Start Date: 01 October 2012
QFT1,PFIT in progress.
TRANSFERRED/COMPLETED: AGC1,BBC1,LAE1,QBT1,LUT1,QLC1,QMC1,QLT1,IWC1,INC1,INT1,BVC1,CLC1,MGC1, CWV1 BNC1, LIT1,LWC1,QAT1,WFV1,EST1,EGC1,EGT1,IWT1,MKC1,MKT1,RWT1,FNT1,FNC1, BDC1,TPV1 REQUIRED:
Hopefully it will sink in for tomorrows ICND1
If you are familiar with the host and broadcast address for a subnet being unusable for hosts (which you should be) then you should get it because the concept is the same. Let me give you and example.
Let's say we have 192.168.1.0/24 and we are subnetting it into /27 networks. We would have the following networks:
192.168.1.0
192.168.1.32
192.168.1.64
192.168.1.96
192.168.1.128
192.168.1.160
192.168.1.192
192.168.1.224
or a total of 8 usable subnets when using the default of allowing subnet zero.
Using no ip subnet zero on the router means that we cannot use the all 0's are all 1's subnets. All 1s subnet may be referred as the broadcast subnet. Under that restriction, our available subnets would be:
192.168.1.0 (cannot use)
192.168.1.32
192.168.1.64
192.168.1.96
192.168.1.128
192.168.1.160
192.168.1.192
192.168.1.224 (cannot use)
or a total of 6 usable subnets when we apply the no ip subnet zero command to the router.
The original reasoning behind this is that 192.168.1.0 would be the network address for both 192.168.1.0/24 and 192.168.1.0/27. Also the broadcast address of 192.168.1.255 would be the the same for 192.168.1.0/24 and 192.168.1.224/27. In theory there would be no way to distinguish between the 2 network addresses or the two broadcast addresses. Modern routers can handle this fine though.
The crappy thing about all of this is that the concept of not using the all 0s or all 1s subnet was obsoleted in RFC 1878 which was published in......drumroll please...... 1995. So no one in the real world has been avoiding the use of the all 0s and all 1s subnets for many years. I'm not sure why they still teach this except for theory/foundation. Imagine the amount of wasted public IP address space if we followed this on the Internet? We would have run out of public addresses a very long time ago.
Hope this helps.
Thanks
Carl S.
Check out my personal certification journey blog
Carl's Certification Journey | The road to getting certified can often be bumpy
Check out my personal certification journey blog
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Check out my personal certification journey blog
http://carlscertjourney.wordpress.com/
Humans = Lazy, haha
Unless it is 15+ years old
Steve
Check out my personal certification journey blog
http://carlscertjourney.wordpress.com/
Made it! Very pleased.
Thnx