Class B addresses

A Class B address consists of a 16-bit network address and a 16-bit local or host address.

The first two bits in the network address are dedicated to indicating the network class, leaving 14 bits for the actual network address. There are 16,384 possible network addresses and 65,536 local host addresses. In a Class B address, the highest order bits are set to 1 and 0.

This illustration shows a typical class B address structure. The first 16 bits contain the network address. The two highest order bits will always be a one and a zero. The remaining 16 bits contain the local host address.

The first octet of a Class B address is in the range 128 to 191.