Internet address format is an addressing scheme for identifying computers over the internet. Just like postal address uniquely identifies a house, the internet addressing identifies a computer.
The internet address format consists of Network address and host address. There are five internet address classes, each accommodating a different number of network and host addresses.
The five classes are:
| 1. | Class A | 001.x.x.x to 126.x.x.x255.0.0.0 | used for very large networks. |
| 2. | Class B | 128.1.x.x to 191.254.x.x255.255.0.0 | for medium size networks. |
| 3. | Class C | 192.0.1.x to 223.255.254.x255.255.255.0 | for small networks. |
| 4. | Class D | 224.x.x.x to 239.255.255.255 | used to support multicasting. |
| 5. | Class E | 240.x.x.x to 247.255.255.25 | reserved for future use.  |
Here the character 'x' is used to denote the numbers ranging from 0 to 255.
Network addressing basically organizes hosts into groups. This will improve the security by isolating critical nodes and can reduce network traffic by preventing transmissions between the nodes that does not need to communicate. When launching subnetting or supernetting network addressing can become even more useful.
