INSTRUCTOR GUIDE
IP Addressing
How Devices Find Each Other on the Internet
A lecture companion & question bank for teaching the "IP Addressing"
slide deck — plain-language explanations, classroom analogies,
worked examples, and answers to the questions students actually ask.
5 ~45 min 18
Topics covered Suggested class time Source slides mapped
HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE
This guide follows the same five topics as your slides, in the same order. Each section opens with a
plain-English explanation you can say almost word-for-word, followed by the analogy already built into the
slide, a worked example or extra technical depth for stronger students, and a short bank of questions
learners commonly ask — with ready answers.
Read a section fully before teaching it once; after that, the shaded boxes are enough to jog your memory
mid-lecture. The amber boxes are your "if someone asks..." safety net.
Contents
01 Why Do We Need IP Addresses?
The postal-mail analogy and what an IP address really does
02 The Structure of an IP Address
Network part + host part, octets, binary, and IPv6
03 Subnets and Network Organization
Subnet masks, the boundary line, and why we divide networks
04 Modern Addressing: CIDR
Why the old class system failed and how CIDR fixed it
05 How Devices Get Their Addresses
DHCP's 4-step handshake vs. static configuration
— Wrap-Up: Key Takeaways & Full Q&A Bank
A recap script plus a cross-topic question bank
— Quick-Reference Cheat Sheet
One page you can keep open while teaching
IP Addressing — Lecture & Q&A Guide Page 2 of 17
Before You Start: The Big Picture
Open the lecture by telling students that everything in this deck answers one question: "When I send data
across the internet, how does it know where to go?" Every topic that follows — the structure of an
address, subnets, CIDR, DHCP — is really just one more piece of the answer to that single question.
Coming back to this framing at the start of each section helps students see the five topics as one connected
story instead of five separate facts to memorize.
★ KEY POINT
IP addressing lives at the Network Layer (Layer 3 of the OSI model). It is a logical, software-assigned
address — different from the physical MAC address burned into a network card at Layer 2. Mentioning
this early prevents a common mix-up later (see the Q&A after Topic 01).
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Why Do We Need IP Addresses?
01 The postal-mail analogy and what IP addresses really are
Plain-English Explanation
Every device that connects to a network — a laptop, a phone, a printer, a server — needs a way to be told
apart from every other device. Without a unique identifier, the network would have no way to know which
device should receive a given piece of data. An IP (Internet Protocol) address is that identifier: a numerical
label given to a device so that data can be delivered to the right place.
It helps to say that an IP address does two jobs at once. First, it identifies the device (this data belongs to
you, not your neighbor). Second, it locates the device on the network, roughly the way a street address tells
a delivery driver not just whose house it is, but which direction to drive. Most students accept "unique label"
easily; the identify-and-locate distinction is what separates a surface-level understanding from a real one,
and it directly explains why the address has a network part and a host part (Topic 02).
ANALOGY TO USE IN CLASS
The slide's postal-mail analogy maps directly onto networking: a street address is like an IP address;
a mail sorting center is like a router; an envelope is like a data packet; and a delivery truck is like
a network link. Data on a network is chopped into small chunks called packets, and every packet
carries a source and destination IP address the same way an envelope carries a return address and a
delivery address.
A Little Extra Depth (for stronger students or follow-up questions)
If you want to go beyond the slide: computers already have a unique, permanent hardware identifier called a
MAC address (Media Access Control address), assigned by the manufacturer and burned into the network
card. A natural student question is "why isn't that enough?" The answer is that a MAC address is flat — it
carries no information about where the device is on the internet, so a router anywhere in the world would
have to know every single MAC address that exists just to deliver one packet. IP addresses are hierarchical
— a device's network portion (Topic 02) tells routers roughly where to send the packet without needing to
know the individual device at all, the same way a postal worker sorts by city and street before ever looking at
a name. This hierarchy is what allows the internet to scale to billions of devices.
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LIKELY QUESTIONS FROM STUDENTS
Q: Can two devices ever have the exact same IP address?
A: Not on the same network at the same time — that causes an "IP conflict" and one or both devices
will lose connectivity. However, two devices on two different private networks (say, two different
homes) can absolutely have the same private address, such as [Link], because a technology
called NAT (Network Address Translation) keeps each home's traffic separate once it reaches the
wider internet.
Q: Is an IP address the same as a website address like [Link]?
A: No. A domain name is a human-friendly nickname. A separate system called DNS (Domain Name
System) looks up the domain name and translates it into the actual numeric IP address the network
uses to route the request — DNS is essentially the internet's phone book.
Q: What's the difference between an IP address and a MAC address?
A: A MAC address is a permanent hardware ID for the local link (Layer 2) and never changes. An IP
address is a logical, reassignable address for routing across networks (Layer 3) and can change
depending on which network the device joins. A laptop keeps the same MAC address at home and at a
coffee shop, but gets a different IP address at each location.
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The Structure of an IP Address
02 Network part and host part — like a street name and house number
Plain-English Explanation
An IPv4 address is written as four numbers separated by dots, such as [Link] — this is called
dotted-decimal notation. Each of the four numbers is called an octet, because each one is made of 8
binary bits. Eight bits can represent 256 different values (0 through 255), which is why every octet you will
ever see is between 0 and 255 — it is physically impossible to have a number like 300 in an IP address.
With 4 octets of 8 bits each, a full IPv4 address is 32 bits long, giving roughly 4.3 billion possible
combinations. That sounds like a lot, but with billions of phones, laptops, and "smart" devices in the world,
IPv4 addresses are now a genuinely limited resource — which sets up why CIDR (Topic 04) and private
addressing exist, and why IPv6 was created at all.
Binary, in one breath (worth 60 seconds of board time)
Students often nod along at "32 bits" without really seeing it. Write one octet on the board: the number 192
in binary is 11000000. Each of the 8 positions is worth a power of two (128, 64, 32, 16, 8, 4, 2, 1); 192 =
128 + 64. You don't need to drill conversions unless your course requires subnetting math, but seeing one
example makes "8 bits per octet, 32 bits total" click instead of just being a memorized fact.
Two Parts: Network + Host
Every IP address splits into two pieces: the network part, which identifies which network a device belongs
to, and the host part, which identifies that specific device within the network. All devices on the same local
network share an identical network part — that shared prefix is exactly what lets them find and talk to each
other directly, without needing a router in between. Devices only need a router when the destination's
network part is different from their own.
ANALOGY TO USE IN CLASS
Your home address has a street name (identifies the neighborhood — the network part) and a house
number (identifies your specific home — the host part). Two houses on the same street can visit each
other on foot with no map needed; a house on a different street needs directions — that's the router's
job.
Reading Addresses Across Multiple Networks
The slide's three-subnet example (Subnet 1: [Link], Subnet 2: [Link], Subnet 3: [Link], all joined
by a router) is worth walking through slowly: point out that devices [Link], [Link], and [Link] all
share the prefix 223.1.1 and can talk directly, while [Link] reaching [Link] must go through the
router because the third number differs. This is the moment most students genuinely "get" the network/host
split, so don't rush it.
Reserved Addresses (a step beyond the slide)
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Not every combination of numbers in the host part is usable by a device. The address where all host bits are
0 is reserved as the network address (it names the network itself, e.g. [Link]), and the address where
all host bits are 1 is reserved as the broadcast address (it means "send to every device on this network,"
e.g. [Link]). That's why the usable host count for a network is always 2 to the power of the
host bits, minus 2 — a detail that explains oddities like "a /24 network has 256 addresses but only 254
usable ones," which students will notice in Topic 03's table.
IPv6, briefly
IPv6 exists because the world is running out of IPv4 addresses. It uses 128-bit addresses instead of 32-bit,
written as eight groups of hexadecimal digits, e.g. 2001:0db8:85a3::8a2e:0370:7334 — an
astronomically larger address space. You don't need to teach IPv6 math here; the goal is just for students to
recognize the format and know why it exists. Both versions run side by side today, which is usually called
"dual stack."
LIKELY QUESTIONS FROM STUDENTS
Q: Why can't an octet be a number like 260?
A: Because each octet is only 8 bits, and 8 bits can only count from 0 to 255 (2 to the power of 8,
minus 1). There is no way to fit 260 into 8 bits, so it can never legally appear.
Q: Why does the network part matter if devices already have unique addresses?
A: The host part alone tells you which device; it doesn't tell you where to send the data. The network
part is what a router reads to decide which direction to forward a packet, without needing to know
every device individually — the same way a postal worker sorts by city before worrying about the exact
house.
Q: Is [Link] a real, usable device address?
A: No — by convention that all-zero-host address identifies the network itself, not a device. Likewise
[Link] is reserved for broadcasting to everyone on the network. Neither can be assigned to a
single device.
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Subnets and Network Organization
03 How networks are divided into manageable groups
Plain-English Explanation
A subnet (short for sub-network) is a group of devices that can reach each other directly, without a router in
between — this is exactly the "same network part" idea from Topic 02, just given a name. The slide's island
analogy is genuinely one of the best ways to teach this: imagine physically unplugging every device from its
router. Whatever devices remain connected to each other form one isolated "island." Each island is a
subnet, and the router is the bridge that lets separate islands reach one another.
Why bother dividing a network at all?
Three reasons come up again and again, and it's worth giving a real-world example for each: (1)
Organization — a company might put every device on the 3rd floor, or every device in Accounting, on its
own subnet, so the network layout mirrors the org chart or building layout. (2) Efficiency — certain network
messages (broadcasts) get sent to every device on a subnet; smaller subnets mean fewer devices
interrupted by traffic that isn't meant for them. (3) Security — a subnet boundary is a natural place to put a
firewall rule, so sensitive systems (like finance servers) can be isolated from a general guest Wi-Fi subnet.
Subnet Masks: Drawing the Boundary Line
If the network part and host part are two pieces of the same 32-bit address, something has to say exactly
where the split happens — that's the job of the subnet mask. Teaching tip straight from the slide: describe
the mask as a highlighter. Wherever the mask has a 255, that portion of the IP address is "highlighted" as
the network part; wherever the mask has a 0, that portion is the host part. So a mask of [Link] says
"the first three octets are the network, the last octet is the host."
Slash (CIDR) Notation
Writing out a full mask like [Link] every time is clunky, so networking uses a shortcut: slash
notation, where the number after the slash is simply a count of how many bits (left to right) belong to the
network. /24 means "the first 24 bits are network bits," which — since 24 bits is exactly 3 full octets —
works out to the same thing as [Link]. This is the notation you'll see everywhere in the field, so it's
worth practicing converting a few slash values to dotted-decimal on the board.
Mask Slash Notation Network Bits Host Bits Usable Hosts
[Link] /24 24 8 254 (256 − 2)
[Link] /16 16 16 65,534 (65,536 − 2)
[Link] /8 8 24 16,777,214
Worked Example You Can Run Live
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Give students an address and mask together, e.g. [Link] /26, and walk through it step by step:
a /26 means 26 network bits, leaving 6 host bits (32 − 26 = 6). Six host bits gives 26 = 64 total addresses in
the block, of which 62 are usable (64 − 2 for the network and broadcast addresses). Because 64 divides the
last octet into chunks of 64, this particular address falls in the block running from [Link] to
[Link] — network address .128, broadcast address .191, and 62 usable addresses in between.
Doing one of these together in class turns an abstract rule into a repeatable skill.
★ KEY POINT
Common shortcut worth teaching explicitly: usable hosts = 2 to the power of the host bits, minus 2.
The "minus 2" is always for the reserved network and broadcast addresses covered in Topic 02 —
students who forget this consistently get answers that are off by exactly 2 on exams.
LIKELY QUESTIONS FROM STUDENTS
Q: How does a device actually know whether another device is on the same subnet?
A: It compares the network portion of its own address to the network portion of the destination address,
using the mask to know where that portion starts and ends. If the network portions match, it sends the
packet directly. If they don't match, it sends the packet to its default gateway (router) instead, trusting
the router to know how to get it there.
Q: Why would a company use a small subnet instead of one giant one for everybody?
A: A single flat network means every broadcast message reaches every single device, which doesn't
scale well and offers no security separation. Splitting into subnets by department or floor keeps
unrelated traffic contained and lets administrators apply different security rules to different groups.
Q: What's the difference between a subnet mask and a router?
A: A subnet mask is just a rule written into a device's configuration that defines where the network/host
boundary is — it's information, not hardware. A router is the physical (or virtual) device that actually
forwards traffic between different subnets once that boundary tells it a packet needs to leave the local
network.
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Modern Addressing: CIDR
04 Flexible address allocation that replaced the old class system
Plain-English Explanation
Before CIDR existed, IP address blocks were only available in three fixed sizes, called classes. This is a
great place to use the slide's t-shirt-size framing: it's as if the only sizes ever sold were Small, Medium, and
Large, no matter what actually fit the customer.
Class First Octet Range Addresses per Block Typical Use
A 1–126 16,777,216 Very large networks
B 128–191 65,536 Medium networks
C 192–223 256 Small networks
The Waste Problem, With Real Numbers
Use the slide's exact example — it lands well because the numbers are so lopsided: a university that needs
1,000 addresses can't get a Class C block (only 256 addresses, too small), so it's forced up to a Class B
block of 65,536 addresses. That means over 64,000 addresses sit locked away, allocated to that university
but never used by anyone. Multiply that pattern across every mid-sized organization on the early internet,
and huge portions of the entire 32-bit address space were wasted purely because of rigid, fixed-size blocks.
How CIDR Fixes It
CIDR stands for Classless Inter-Domain Routing (pronounced "cider"). Instead of three fixed sizes, CIDR
lets the network/host boundary sit at any bit position — this is the same slash notation from Topic 03, now
used for allocation rather than just for describing a local subnet. An organization needing 512 addresses can
9
be handed exactly a /23 block (23 network bits, 9 host bits, 2 = 512 addresses) — no more, no less. The
slide's own example, [Link] /23, is precisely this: a custom-fit container instead of a
one-size-fits-all class.
ANALOGY TO USE IN CLASS
Old system: buying a t-shirt in only Small, Medium, or Large, so a lot of people end up with either a
shirt that's too big (waste) or forced to buy two smalls stitched together. CIDR: custom tailoring — the
block is cut to the exact size the organization needs.
Two Benefits Worth Naming Explicitly
• No wasted addresses — organizations receive close to the exact number of addresses they need.
• Smaller, simpler routing tables — this is the benefit slides often gloss over, so it's worth spelling out:
CIDR allows many small, contiguous address blocks to be combined and advertised to the rest of the
internet as a single summarized route (called route aggregation or supernetting), instead of every individual
IP Addressing — Lecture & Q&A Guide Page 10 of 17
small network needing its own separate entry in every router's table worldwide.
Private Address Ranges (useful context, not on the slide)
Almost every example address in this deck (192.168.x.x) comes from a block of addresses set aside for
private, internal use and never routed on the public internet: [Link]/8, [Link]/12, and
[Link]/16. A device called a NAT router translates between a household's or office's private
addresses and one shared public address, which — combined with CIDR — is a major reason IPv4 has
lasted as long as it has despite having "only" 4.3 billion addresses for a much larger number of devices.
LIKELY QUESTIONS FROM STUDENTS
Q: Why not just make every block a /23 or whatever the most common size turns out to be?
A: Because needs vary hugely — a home network might need 5 addresses while a large company
needs 50,000. CIDR's whole value is that the boundary can sit anywhere, so allocators can match the
block size to the actual request rather than picking one "average" fixed size, which would just recreate
the original waste problem at a different scale.
Q: Is the old class system (A/B/C) still used anywhere today?
A: Practically no — CIDR is the universal standard on the modern internet. You may still hear terms
like "Class C" used loosely as slang for "a /24-sized block" out of habit, but no modern router actually
allocates strictly by class.
Q: How is CIDR different from a subnet mask, then? They sound like the same math.
A: They genuinely are the same underlying math (a bit count marking the network/host boundary).
"Subnet mask" traditionally describes how one organization divides its own already-owned block
internally; "CIDR" traditionally describes how blocks are allocated to organizations by internet registries
in the first place, and how routes are aggregated across the internet. The notation is identical.
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How Devices Get Their Addresses
05 DHCP and automatic vs. manual address assignment
Plain-English Explanation
Everything up to this point assumed a device already has an IP address — this topic is about how it gets one
in the first place. Most devices get their address automatically through DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration
Protocol). The slide's "concierge" framing is a nice one: DHCP is the network's front desk, handing a device
everything it needs — an IP address, and typically also the subnet mask, default gateway, and DNS server
— the moment it checks in, with zero manual setup. This is what people mean by "plug and play"
networking.
The 4-Step Handshake (DORA)
This process is commonly remembered by the acronym DORA — worth giving students, since it's the term
they'll see in textbooks and certification material even though this slide deck doesn't name it directly:
Step Name In Plain Words
1 DISCOVER Device broadcasts: "I need an IP address — is anyone a DHCP server?"
2 OFFER A DHCP server replies: "Here's an available address you can use."
3 REQUEST Device replies: "I'll take that one, please."
4 ACK Server confirms: "Confirmed — that address is yours (for now)."
It's a Lease, Not a Gift
A DHCP-assigned address is leased, not permanent — typically for a period ranging from hours to days
depending on the network's configuration. Before the lease expires the device quietly asks to renew it
(usually getting the same address back); if a device disconnects and the lease runs out, that address returns
to the available pool and can be handed to a different device. This is exactly why your phone can get a
different IP address each time you revisit the same coffee shop.
When DHCP Isn't the Right Tool
Some devices need an address that never changes, because other devices need to reliably find them at a
known location — think of a network printer, a file server, or the router itself. For these, an administrator
assigns a static (manual) IP address instead.
IP Addressing — Lecture & Q&A Guide Page 12 of 17
Static IP (Manual) Dynamic IP (DHCP)
Assigned automatically by a DHCP
How it's set Configured manually by an administrator
server
Does it change? No — always the same address Can change over time
Best for Servers, printers, routers, network gear Laptops, phones, tablets, guest devices
Other devices must find it at a known Convenient, efficient reuse of limited
Why
address addresses
★ KEY POINT
Simple rule of thumb to give students: "If other devices need to reliably find it, use a static IP. If it's
a personal device that just needs to get online, use DHCP."
What Happens If DHCP Fails? (a strong follow-up question, answered in advance)
If a device can't reach any DHCP server, many operating systems fall back to APIPA (Automatic Private IP
Addressing), self-assigning an address in the [Link]/16 range. This lets devices on the same broken
segment still talk to each other, but an address in that range with no internet access is one of the most
recognizable symptoms of a DHCP problem — worth a mention if your course touches troubleshooting at all.
LIKELY QUESTIONS FROM STUDENTS
Q: Why does the device "discover" first instead of just asking one specific server?
A: When a device first connects it has no IP address yet and doesn't necessarily know which device on
the network is the DHCP server, so it broadcasts the DISCOVER message to everyone on the local
subnet. Only a device actually running DHCP server software will reply with an OFFER.
Q: Can a device request the same IP address it had before?
A: Yes — DHCP servers commonly try to give a returning device the same address it had previously,
which is part of why home devices often appear to keep a "stable" address even though it's technically
still a lease that could change.
Q: If DHCP is so convenient, why does anything use a static address?
A: Convenience trades off against predictability. DHCP addresses can change, which is fine for a
phone but breaks anything that other devices rely on finding at a fixed location — like a printer that
every computer in the office is configured to print to by address.
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Wrap-Up: Key Takeaways
Close the lecture by tying all five topics back to the single question from the introduction — "how does data
know where to go?" A suggested closing script, matching the deck's final slide:
• IP addresses are unique identifiers for network devices, just like postal addresses are for houses.
• Every IP address has a network part (identifies the group) and a host part (identifies the device).
• Subnets organize devices into local groups; subnet masks define exactly where the network/host
boundary sits.
• CIDR replaced the rigid old class system, allowing address blocks of any size and simpler internet routing.
• DHCP automatically assigns addresses, making everyday networks "plug and play"; static addresses fill in
where devices need to be found at a fixed location.
The thread connecting all five: an address needs to be unique (Topic 01), structured so it can be routed
efficiently (Topic 02), organized into manageable groups (Topic 03), allocated without waste (Topic 04), and
assigned to a device somehow (Topic 05). Understanding IP addressing really is understanding one of the
core mechanisms that makes the internet work at all.
Cross-Topic Question Bank
These questions don't belong to any single slide — they tend to come up once students start connecting the
topics together, often near the end of class or in office hours.
IP Addressing — Lecture & Q&A Guide Page 14 of 17
LIKELY QUESTIONS FROM STUDENTS
Q: What's a "default gateway"?
A: It's the IP address of the router a device sends traffic to whenever the destination isn't on its own
local subnet — the local "exit door" onto the rest of the network. It's typically handed out automatically
as part of the DHCP process alongside the IP address and subnet mask.
Q: What is NAT and why do all the devices in my house share one public IP address?
A: NAT (Network Address Translation) lets many devices with private addresses (Topic 04) share a
single public IP address when talking to the internet. Your router keeps a table of which internal device
made which request, so replies get routed back to the correct device inside the house even though the
outside world only ever sees one shared address.
Q: What is [Link], and why does it keep showing up in examples?
A: It's the standard loopback address — it always refers to "this same device," used for testing a
device's own network software without sending anything onto the actual network.
Q: Will IPv4 addresses actually run out, and does that make this whole topic obsolete?
A: The pool of available new IPv4 blocks has already been essentially exhausted at the global
allocation level; CIDR and NAT are exactly what has stretched IPv4's usable life this long. IPv6 is the
long-term fix, but IPv4 concepts (subnetting, CIDR, DHCP) remain directly relevant because most
networks still run IPv4 today, often alongside IPv6.
Q: If I know an address is [Link]/22, how do I quickly figure out what network it's on?
10
A: Convert to host bits first (32 − 22 = 10 host bits, so 2 = 1024 addresses per block). Since the split
falls inside the third octet here, the fastest classroom method is to have students practice with /24, /25,
/26, /27 examples first (splits that stay inside the last octet, as in the Topic 03 worked example) before
tackling a split that crosses into an earlier octet.
IP Addressing — Lecture & Q&A Guide Page 15 of 17
Quick-Reference Cheat Sheet
Keep this page open on a second screen while teaching or fielding questions.
CIDR / Subnet Mask Reference
Slash Subnet Mask Host Bits Total Addresses Usable Hosts
/8 [Link] 24 16,777,216 16,777,214
/16 [Link] 16 65,536 65,534
/22 [Link] 10 1,024 1,022
/23 [Link] 9 512 510
/24 [Link] 8 256 254
/25 [Link] 7 128 126
/26 [Link] 6 64 62
/27 [Link] 5 32 30
/28 [Link] 4 16 14
/30 [Link] 2 4 2 (point-to-point links)
Private (Non-Routable) Address Ranges
Range CIDR Block Common Use
[Link] – [Link] [Link]/8 Large enterprise networks
[Link] – [Link] [Link]/12 Medium businesses
[Link] – [Link] [Link]/16 Home and small-office networks
[Link] – [Link] [Link]/16 APIPA self-assigned (DHCP failure)
[Link] – [Link] [Link]/8 Loopback ("this device")
Core Formulas
Total addresses in a block = 2 ^ (host bits)
Usable host addresses = 2 ^ (host bits) − 2
Host bits = 32 − (CIDR prefix length)
30-Second Definitions
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• IP Address — a numeric label that identifies and locates a device on a network.
• Octet — one of the four 8-bit sections of an IPv4 address (range 0–255).
• Subnet — a group of devices that can communicate directly without a router.
• Subnet Mask — defines which bits of an address are the network part vs. the host part.
• CIDR — Classless Inter-Domain Routing; flexible-size address blocks using slash notation.
• DHCP — Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol; automatically assigns IP addresses to devices.
• Static IP — a manually configured address that never changes.
• NAT — Network Address Translation; lets many private addresses share one public address.
• Default Gateway — the router a device sends traffic to when leaving its local subnet.
Companion guide generated from the source slide deck "IP Addressing — How Devices Find Each Other on the Internet." Content
is organized to mirror the deck 1:1 so you can flip between the two while presenting.
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