By now you may have figured out that the default subnet mask of class A is 255.0.0.0 or /8, the default mask of class B is 255.255.0.0 or /16 and the default mask of class C is 255.255.255.0 or /24. Table 2-6 shows the default masks of each class. These default masks cannot be changed. For example, you cannot use a mask of 255.255.0.0 for a class C address. If you try to use an invalid mask such as this, every device will produce an error. For each class, the minimum mask is the default mask and it cannot be reduced. Class A has to have a minimum mask of 255.0.0.0, class B has to have a minimum mask of 255.255.0.0 and class C has to have a minimum mask of 255.255.255.0.