Before heading deeper into IP addresses, you should be aware of the following terms
Bit – A bit is a single digit with a value of 0 or 1.
Byte – A byte is composed of 8 bits.
Octet – An octet is also made up of 8 bits. Throughout this chapter the terms byte and octet are interchangeable.
Network Address – This refers to a remote network in terms of routing. All hosts in the remote network fall within this address. For example, 10.0.0.0, 172.16.0.0 and 192.168.1.0
Broadcast Address – This is the address used to send data to all hosts in a network. The broadcast address 255.255.255.255 refers to all hosts in all networks while an address such as 192.168.1.255 refers to all hosts in a particular network.