How to Planning IP Addressing Step 1

Step 1: Figure Out Network and Host Requirements

In this step, you need to do two things:

- Determine the number of hosts that do, or will, exist on the largest segment in your network.
- Determine the maximum number of segments that you have in your network–this will tell you how many networks, or subnets, you’ll need.

If you already are dealing with an existing network, then you have a lot of analysis ahead of you. You’ll need to perform the above two tasks, counting hosts on each segment, and the number of segments that you have.

Remember that when you are counting hosts, each device with a connection to the segment needs to be counted this includes PCs, servers, routers, servers, printers, and other devices. Remember that a segment could be used in a logical sense, like all the ports off of a switch, or a VLAN.

To assist with the remaining 5 steps, You’ll create an imaginary network. This network has 14 segments and the largest segment has 14 devices on it. You’ve been assigned a single class C network number (192.168.1.0).

Now you’re ready to proceed to step 2 of ip address planning.