CompTIA Network+ Practice Test

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Study for the CompTIA Network+ Exam. Enhance your skills with flashcards and multiple choice questions, each with explanations. Prepare effectively for your certification exam!

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Which Class of IP address has 24 bits for the network and 8 bits for the host?

Class A
Class B
Class C
Class D

The correct answer is: Class C

Class C IP addresses are characterized by having 24 bits allocated for the network portion and 8 bits for the host portion. This structure allows for a significant number of individual networks—specifically, 2^21 or 2,097,152 distinct networks, while each of these can support up to 254 hosts (since 2^8 - 2 accounts for the network address and broadcast address that cannot be assigned to hosts). Class C addresses are typically used in smaller networks due to their ability to accommodate numerous separate networks with a limited number of hosts per network. In contrast, Class A addresses are designated for very large networks, with only 8 bits for host addresses, and Class B addresses provide a medium-sized number of hosts while maintaining a medium network size. Class D addresses are reserved for multicast groups, not for standard host addressing. Understanding this structure is vital for designing effective network architectures and for choosing the right class of IP for a given scenario.