Broadcast address

In computer networking, a broadcast address is an IP address that allows information to be sent to all machines on a given subnet rather than a specific machine. The exact notation can vary by operating system, but the standard is laid out in RFC 919.

Related Topics:
Computer networking - IP address - Subnet - Operating system - RFC

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Generally, the broadcast address is found by taking the logical bit complement of the subnet mask and then logically ORing this with the IP address.

Related Topics:
Bit complement - Subnet mask - OR

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Example: to broadcast a packet to an entire class B subnet using a private IP address space, the broadcast address would be 172.16.255.255.

Related Topics:
Class B - Private IP address

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This can be found from the subnet mask (255.255.0.0) and the IP address (eg. 172.16.48.196 - the complement of the subnet mask is 0.0.255.255, and 172.16.48.196 || 0.0.255.255 = 172.16.255.255.

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