So we are using CIDR for subnetting
In that we just define the subnets by using /
SO my question is if I am using /24 it means that I have the last octet for host.
But if we use anything from /17 to /23 we say that we have borrowed bits from host space.
For eg: if use /17
11111111.11111111.**1**0000000.00000000
The 1st bit in the third octet is automatically considered as bit for subnet id
So does that mean the subnet bit is octet specific
because if we take \23
11111111.11111111.**1111111**0.00000000
the subnet id then has 7 bits
But the networking devices only treat the IP address as a 32 bit number then how is it able to understand where the subnet id bits start using cidr. Because in CIDR the network id and subnet id are combined???
Or is it so that IP addresses considered as 32 bit numbers have only network id portion and host id portion and the subnets are only visible in the dotted decimal notation...
I am newbie please explain in a way I can easily understand Please Help Thanks in andvance