| |
| | Classful vs Classless Addressing |
 | | Originally, all IP addresses were classful – they belonged to Class A, B, C or D. Class D is for Multicast and is rarely used. Class E is reserved and is not currently used. |
 | | Today routers route both classful and classless protocols. For example, RIP is classful, and both BGP4 and IS-IS is classless. In reality, Class addresses are converted to Classless for routing through the Internet, since BGP4 is used across the Internet backbone. |
 | | There are 5 different address classes, where A, B, and C are the “primary” address classes, and they are the only ones you are likely to encounter. |
| www.infocellar.com /networks/ip/classful-vs-classless.htm (520 words) |
|