How do you convert a network address such as 192.168.8.5 to a subnet address or get the default subnet mask for it? im very confused!
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In the past classful subnets were used. See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classful_network for more information. If you convert the address 192.168.8.5 to binary, it starts with 110, so it is a class C network. Class C networks use a 24 bit subnet mask, i.e. 255.255.255.0.
Nowadays, classful networks are no longer used as the masks are inflexible and lead to a lot of wasted IPv4 addresses. We need to preserve IPv4 addresses by sizing networks appropriately. CIDR replaced classful networks and allows the designer to allocate any size subnet mask to a network. The only way to determine the subnet mask nowadays is to look at the design documents or check what mask has been entered on the interface configuration.