During network setup, a lot of questions arise: how to find out the subnet mask, main gateway, IP address. Today we’ll deal with the first parameter. When setting up the network for the first time, users often do not know where to enter these parameters.
All in order
If we talk about what a subnet mask is, how to find out
parameter, it should be noted that you can do this by looking at your network connection settings. Go to the Start menu, which is located in the toolbar. Find the “Settings” tab, select “Network Connections”. Thus, a window with the same name will open in front of us. If you have network connections, all of them will be displayed in the specified window. However, if you do not see the corresponding notation, you need to create a new connection. Next, we'll figure out how to find out the subnet mask when everything is already created. First of all, right-click on the network connection. Next, in the menu that appears, click "Properties".
Work with properties
After the done actions, a window called “Properties” appears in front of you. Here we need to find the function of the components that are used when connecting. Move the scroll bar down to find the item called: “Internet Protocol”. Left-click on this item. A little lower will be the button "Properties". Click on it, and a window will appear that is responsible for the properties of the Internet Protocol, where you can see the IP address of the computer, as well as the subnet mask. By the way, if necessary, you can find out the subnet mask by IP. However, this is usually not necessary, since the value of the mask is the same all the time: 255.255.255.0. Let's look at how to find out the subnet mask if the network connection is being set up for the first time, and what actions still need to be performed. In this case, in the properties window of the Internet protocol, after specifying the IP address, left-click in the "Subnet Mask" column, so the value that we need to set (255.255.255.0) will be filled automatically.
Change subnet mask
During the rebuilding of a local network or combining several networks into a single network, it is necessary to change the values of individual parameters. It is best to do this yourself, not hoping to change the settings in automatic mode. To combine several local networks, you need to connect the routers or network hubs that are part of each of the networks. It is strictly forbidden to connect network devices in a ring way. Most often, you can get access to any of the computers that are part of the created network without additional settings.
Problems can arise only if you want to install a shared printer or create shared network resources. To prevent the occurrence of intranet errors, it is necessary to configure the installed network adapters. So we looked at how to find out the subnet mask, and also learned why this parameter is needed.