From your notebook, with an address of 192.168.1.100, you’re able to ping and browse to 169.254.1.1? That’s bizarre, given the setup you’ve described.
When you ping an address not on your local network – per the description posted by Attitude0330, combining address with mask – the ping request is sent to the router to look for the foreign address. If the ping is successful, then your router knows about the 169.254.0.0 network, but that makes no sense either.
Please share a few more details with us. Here’s a bit of info on IP addresses for you; I hope it makes sense. Enjoy!
IP Addressing Tutorial
Dots & Digits, Bits & Bytes
An IPv4 (Internet Protocol Version 4) address is typically written as four numbers separated by periods, or “dots.” Each IP address has an associated mask, also written as four numbers separated by dots. The four numbers – in both address and mask – each range from 0 to 255.
Each 1 to 3-digit number is the decimal (base 10) representation of an 8-digit binary (base 2) number. These 8-bit numbers (“bit” is short for “binary digit”) are composed of only the digits “0” and “1”. Decimal numbers are composed of the digits “0” through “9”.
Each 8-bit number – also called an octet or byte – ranges in value from 00000000 to 11111111. The binary value 11111111 equals the decimal value 255. That’s why an IP address’s four decimal numbers each range from 0 to 255, and why masks start with at least one “255”. The mask 255.255.255.0 is the same as 11111111.11111111.11111111.00000000.
IP addresses and masks are sometimes written in hexadecimal notation – hex for short. Hex digits include 0-9 and A-F: sixteen possible values. 8-bit numbers convert to 2-digit hex numbers: 00000000 binary = 0 decimal = 00 hex; 11111111 = 255 = FF hex; 00001010 = 10 = 0A hex.
Public, Private, & NAT
“Public” IP addresses are assigned by a central governing body for use by Internet Service Providers (ISPs). ISPs then assign these addresses to their customers. Only a single customer, anywhere in the world, can use a specific block of Public addresses.
“Private” IP addresses – specified by the same governing body – can be used by anyone. Any ISP or customer in the world can use, and reuse, the same identical blocks of Private addresses. Private addresses, however, can only be used within an ISP’s or customer’s private network. Private addresses cannot be used to communicate over the public Internet.
If a PC is assigned a Private address, its address must be converted to a Public address before talking over the Internet. The process of conversion is called Network Address Translation (NAT). Meskwaki’s Internet router is configured to use NAT.
The following table lists the prefixes for the 273 (1+16+256) available Private IP address blocks. An “x” indicates the entire valid octet range, from 0 to 255, is contained in the block. All public and private addresses are classified as A, B, or C, based on the position of the first (leftmost) “0” bit in the address.
Qty. 1 Class A Network: 10.x.x.x 255.0.0.0 (Class A Mask)
Qty. 16 Class B Networks: 172.16.x.x – 172.31.x.x 255.255.0.0 (Class B Mask)
Qty. 256 Class C Networks: 192.168.0.x – 192.168.255.x 255.255.255.0 (Class C Mask)
Network, Host, & Mask
An IP address has two parts: network and host. An IP “host” is anything with an IP address: router, switch, printer, or computer. The network portion defines a group of computers; the host portion designates a single computer. The mask tells you where the portions are split.
In Class A, B, and C networks, the split is made at the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd dot, respectively. The split, however, can be made at nearly any point in the last three octets of the address – at a dot or in the middle of a number – allowing a single “Class” network to be split into multiple subnets.
These splits cannot easily be described or visualized when they’re in the middle of a 3-digit decimal number within the address. To make any sense, the split must be understood in the context of the binary representation of the address. Here are the rules and result:
All the leading bits (minimum of eight) in a mask must be ones, all trailing bits (minimum of two) must be zeros – ones and zeros cannot intermingle. The split between ones and zeros in the mask defines the split between the network and host portions of the address.
As a result, there are only 23 valid masks out of the 33 combinations of contiguous ones and/or zeros. The following table shows the binary representation of the mask, the number of bits used (the number of leading ones) in the mask, and the decimal value of each valid mask:
00000000.00000000.00000000.00000000 0 bits Invalid Mask
10000000.00000000.00000000.00000000 1 Invalid
11000000.00000000.00000000.00000000 2 Invalid
11100000.00000000.00000000.00000000 3 Invalid
11110000.00000000.00000000.00000000 4 Invalid
11111000.00000000.00000000.00000000 5 Invalid
11111100.00000000.00000000.00000000 6 Invalid
11111110.00000000.00000000.00000000 7 Invalid
11111111.00000000.00000000.00000000 8 255.0.0.0
11111111.10000000.00000000.00000000 9 255.128.0.0
11111111.11000000.00000000.00000000 10 255.192.0.0
11111111.11100000.00000000.00000000 11 255.224.0.0
11111111.11110000.00000000.00000000 12 255.240.0.0
11111111.11111000.00000000.00000000 13 255.248.0.0
11111111.11111100.00000000.00000000 14 255.252.0.0
11111111.11111110.00000000.00000000 15 255.254.0.0
11111111.11111111.00000000.00000000 16 255.255.0.0
11111111.11111111.10000000.00000000 17 255.255.128.0
11111111.11111111.11000000.00000000 18 255.255.192.0
11111111.11111111.11100000.00000000 19 255.255.224.0
11111111.11111111.11110000.00000000 20 255.255.240.0
11111111.11111111.11111000.00000000 21 255.255.248.0
11111111.11111111.11111100.00000000 22 255.255.252.0
11111111.11111111.11111110.00000000 23 255.255.254.0
11111111.11111111.11111111.00000000 24 255.255.255.0
11111111.11111111.11111111.10000000 25 255.255.255.128
11111111.11111111.11111111.11000000 26 255.255.255.192
11111111.11111111.11111111.11100000 27 255.255.255.224
11111111.11111111.11111111.11110000 28 255.255.255.240
11111111.11111111.11111111.11111000 29 255.255.255.248
11111111.11111111.11111111.11111100 30 255.255.255.252
11111111.11111111.11111111.11111110 31 Invalid
11111111.11111111.11111111.11111111 32 Invalid
Decimal & Binary Conversion:
When converting binary to decimal, and back, use the following equivalents:
00000001 = 1
00000010 = 2
00000100 = 4
00001000 = 8
00010000 = 16
00100000 = 32
01000000 = 64
10000000 = 128
Where do these values come from? Consider the 4-digit decimal number 9999: the digits from left to right are referred to as “thousands”, “hundreds”, “tens”, and “ones”. Every digit to the left is ten times the value of the digit to its right.
The formal math notations for these decimal digits are 103, 102, 101, and 100, respectively. Ten-to-the-power-three = 1000, ten-to-the-two = 100, ten-to-the-one = 10, and ten-to-the-zero = 1. Any number raised to the power one equals itself. Any number raised to the power zero equals 1.
Now consider the 4-digit binary number 1111 – 23, 22, 21, and 20, respectively. Two-to-the-three (2x2x2) = 8, two-to-the-two (2x2) = 4, two-to-the-one = 2, and two-to-the-zero = 1. Every digit to the left is double the value of the digit to its right.
Convert binary to decimal by adding together the decimal value for each binary digit:
00000011 = 2 + 1 = 3
00011000 = 16 + 8 = 24
01000100 = 64 + 4 = 68
11000000 = 128 + 64 = 192
11111000 = 128 + 64 + 32 + 16 + 8 = 248
To convert decimal 240 to binary, regressively subtract the largest number possible until you get to zero. Note each binary equivalent subtracted, and then add the binary values together:
240 – 128 = 112 10000000 (128)
112 – 64 = 48 01000000 (64)
48 – 32 = 16 00100000 (32)
16 – 16 = 0 00010000 (16)
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240 = 11110000
Convert decimal 167 the same way:
167 – 128 = 39 10000000 (128)
39 – 32 = 7 00100000 (32)
7 – 4 = 3 00000100 (4)
3 – 2 = 1 00000010 (2)
1 – 1 = 0 00000001 (1)
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167 = 10100111